Wednesday 13 August 2008

Rudolph Nureev Street to be in the capital of Bashkortostan - Ufa


Deputies of the Ufa City Council have finally adopted a decision to call one of the streets of the capital of Bashkortostan in the name of the prominent ballet performer Rudolph Nureev.
The City authorities for the first time tabled such an initiative in spring 2006. Since then all the necessary procedures have been taken, including the discussion of the issue among Ufa's residents. This decision made especially happy Edward Murzin, a politician, fighter for the rights of LGBT people, former deputy of the National Assembly of Bashkortostan. In an interview for Gay.ru E.Murzin said that "it was remarkable that people had not forgotten a genius dancer Rudolph Nureev" and reminded about his last year's initiative to set up the Nureev statue. "This issue is being discussed for a long time and for certain reasons related to Nureev's homosexuality has been moved aside by City mayors. I can only welcome the fact that Pavel Kachkaev, the present mayor of Ufa is a man of broad views",- added E.Murzin.
It would be recalled that Rudolph Nureev who in 1962 made his famous "jump towards the freedom" was outlawed and deprived of the Soviet citizenship. He was fully exonerated only in the mid 90's.
Among the reasons for his "escape" probably was the homosexuality of the dancer. During his long term visit to Berlin festival Nureev had his first gay love-affair, that lasted for a short time, with "a very sweet and nice boy". "So, the aforementioned jump, made less than in a year, was aimed not only to get creative independence but also to have free love and sex", - tells Vladimir Kirsanov in his book "69. Russian LGBT people", printed in 2005.
Translated by Yerdna Bananes

Monday 11 August 2008

Belarus Getting Better For Gays?

It is not a surprise that before elections of deputies of the House of Representatives of National assembly in Belarus politicians started to talk about rights of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transsexuals.
The Belarus party for enviroment(BPE) relies on serious cooperation with LGTB activists. Leaders of BPE plan to discuss with gay activists the idea of creating LGTB committee in the party, Gayby.org says. Discussions of the topic has just passed in Minsk.
Belarus remains the country where LGTB groups have serious problems (and sometimes even direct resistance of authorities) in their work. However in 2008 the situation started to change for better. New LGTB groups as well as gay media were created. Belorussians got access to Russian gay web sites.
One of Belorussian gay organisations proclaimed its plans to organise a gay festival in Minsk in Autumn of 2008. It should be reminded that such events were rigidly stopped by the authorities during last years.

Gay.ru,

Sunday 27 July 2008

The 6th Gay&lesbian Festival To Be Held In Omsk Under 'The Year Of The Family' Sign


The 6th Siberian Gay&lesbian Festival will start tomorrow near the city of Omsk.
Meetings with old and new friends, games, competitions, art and sport events, kebab-cooking, disco under the sky are to be organised for participants during two days of the festival.
The festival is traditionally held in tent camping with a picturesque view. The organisers of the festival are especially glad for same-sex-copuples participants because of The year of the family in Russia.
The organisers of the festival are LGTB association "Favorit", project "Pulsar" and gay night party "At Sergey's".