Two
dozen men wearing surgical masks and hoods when they raided one of Moscow’s
most popular gay bars called the “7freedays” during a “Coming Out Day” party.
The men beat the customers with their fists and with bottles. Most of the
customers were women. Over 50 people were in the club and 10 individuals were
injured and some were hospitalized. Some of the clubbers thought that the
attackers were performers until they started to overturn tables and assaulting
people. They even pulled a gun on a bar tender.
Gay
men and lesbians in Russia have experienced an unsettling year of violence in
Russia. A spokesman for the Russian Orthodox Church has endorsed an initiative
to introduce laws nationwide that criminalize “homosexual propaganda.” St.
Petersburg and three other cities have passed these laws. A recent one hundred
year ban was passed, banning gay pride parades in Moscow. Other countries that
have adopted or are trying to pass the banning of “homosexual propaganda” are
Lithuania, Ukraine, and Moldova.
Gay
hate crimes are a becoming a global social problem. In the U.S., the latest
statistics from the FBI in 2010 revealed 1,470 hate crime offenses based on
sexual-orientation. In October of 2009, Obama signed a long awaited bill after
it taking 11 years to be passed called the Matthew Shepard Bill. This bill
extends federal hate crimes to include crimes motivated by a victim’s gender,
sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability. Hopefully this bill will
lead to the deterrence of violent attacks on people based off of their sexual
orientation. According to Amnesty International, dozens of (Lesbian, Gay,
Bisexual, and Transgendered (LGBT)) people in Bulgaria have been beaten, raped,
and in one case murdered because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.
Bulgaria has made small steps towards equality for LGBT people by:
decriminalizing same-sex conduct and banning discrimination on the basis of
sexual orientation through the Protection against Discrimination Act in 2004.
When
violent crimes are committed against a person based off of their sexual
orientation this creates fear for the victim and other LGBT people in society. Not
only are the victims affected by these hate crimes but so are the victims’
families and friends. Crimes against a person are immoral. LGBT people are the
same as everyone else; they are someone’s mother, father, daughter, or son.
A version of this article appeared
in print on October 13, 2012, on page A6 of the New York edition with the headline:
Masked Men Attack Crowd At a Gay Bar In Moscow.
References
1 comment:
it gets better...really?
http://cilpta.blogspot.com/2012/10/it-gets-betterreally.html
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