DELGA calls on Blair & Livingstone to repudiate Moscow's Mayor's ban on Gay Pride parade

5.15.00pm GMT Sun 19th Feb 2006

DELGA is supporting Project GayRussia in its attempts to hold Moscow's first ever Gay and Lesbian Festival in May this year. We are calling on the Government and the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, to appeal to their counterparts to lift the ban that the Mayor of Moscow has placed in the last few days on the gay pride parade due to take place on May 27.

Kelvin Meyrick, Chair of DELGA said "We must show our full support for the LGBT community in Russia and do all we can to help them in holding this historic festival. We must not turn a blind eye to this intolerant behaviour like and called on President Putin and the Mayor of Moscow to allow the Festival and Parade to go ahead unhindered. We saw last November a peaceful equalities march in the city of Poznan, Poland violently broken up by police and marchers arrested. We now hear of the ban on the Moscow Pride."

He added the tone of the language used by the Mayor of Moscow and some of Religious Leaders like Russia's Chief Rabbi Berl Lazar who said "homosexuals do not have the right to exist" should be of great concern to the LGBT community not only in this country but the world."

DELGA is calling on the LGBT community to support their friends in Russia by writing to the Russian Ambassador condemning the Mayor of Moscow's decision and the language used by religious leaders in Russia.