Thayer’s trip is sponsored by the all-volunteer Gay Liberation Network (GLN), of which he is a co-founder. In 2007, GLN sponsored Nikolai Alekseev’s first-ever visit to the United States. God speed brave advocate.Gay Russians Arrested | Boycott Eurovision
Source Gay Liberation Network activist en route to Russia Mayor Yury Luzhkov has labeled gays "satanic," and last year had Thayer and others arrested by the OMOH, Moscow's riot police. This year's demonstration, slated for Saturday, May 29, will go forward despite Luzhkov's ban.
This is the fifth year that Moscow authorities have banned gay pride events in the city, despite a decriminalization of homosexuality that occurred 17 years ago when Russian authorities were courting the European Union. In announcing this year's ban, Moscow authorities did not offer an alternative venue to the proposed site of the protest, as they are required to by law.
"For several years, Moscow has experienced unprecedented pressure to conduct a gay pride parade, which cannot be called anything but a Satanic act," said Luzhkov in December. "We have prevented such a parade and we will not allow it in the future. Everyone needs to accept that as an axiom. It's high time that we stop propagating nonsense discussions about human rights, and bring to bear on them the full force and justice of the law."
I reported on the 2008 Moscow pride Russian Gay Pride: everything you want to know about getting your head bashed in but were afraid to ask
2009 Русский язык Гей Изолировано и преследовал Мировые Стенды Близко Russian Gay's Isolated and persecuted the World Stands By
