According to GayRussia.Ru, municipality of Arkhangelsk did not agree upon holding the Arkhangelsk Winter gay parade in support of tolerance and respect for the rights and freedom of the LGBT community in Russia. According to the plans of the organizers, the procession was to take place on December 10 with the number of participants to 100 people.
The activists were also refused holding a rally on December 9 near the City Hall building of Arkhangelsk. It was planned to call on the authorities to amend the Labour Code to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in the field of labor relations.
However, on December 1 the founder of Moscow Pride and one of the organizers of events in Arkhangelsk Nikolai Alekseyev has received official non-approval of both events. The reason was the federal law banning propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations among minors.
On Wednesday morning, Nikolai Alekseyev appealed the decision of the Arkhangelsk authorities to ban the march and rally in the Oktyabrsky district court in the city of Arkhangelsk. He declared his readiness to bring the case to the European Court of Human Rights.
In recent years, authorities of Arkhangelsk have banned dozens of public LGBT events. So, in July of this year, the former mayor of Arkhangelsk Viktor Pavlenko, now representing the Arkhangelsk region in the Federation Council, promised to allow a gay parade in the Airborne Forces Day, August 2, but did not keep his word, and the action has been traditionally prohibited.
Currently a few complaints of Moscow Pride activists on bans of public LGBT events in Arkhangelsk from 2011 to 2015 expect pending in the European Court.
Gleb Yarovoy, «7x7»
