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I'm a Right Said Fred fan. There I said it. I get an update every so often from the band. Here was the latest update a while back. It's a story of tolerance, Russian Nazis, police, fightin' and police beatin' up people.
As we know alot of you have seen us on the news and in the press being beaten and attacked by Neo-Nazis in Moscow[EDIT: I never even knew this happened and I'm addicted to news wires and CNN]. We thought we should write a few lines to add our perspective to these bizarre events.We flew into Moscow on Saturday May 26th for a show that evening.After we had checked into our hotel Richard and i had dinner and people watched in Red Square while the sun slowly set.We were amazed by how many gay couples we saw holding hands and openly expressing their sexuality[EDIT: Prostitution is legal in Russia].Wow we thought "Moscow's changed"..........................
The following morning we had arranged to have lunch with the local promoter, his wife and their 7 year old daughter.We were going to have lunch in Red Square but it was closed due to a demonstration.There were a large amount of Police and soldiers on the street but this is Russia so we thought nothing of it.At this point the promoter received a phone call from friends of his who were at a "Civil Liberties/Freedom of speech" rally and they invited us down.Richard and i weren't aware this was a Gay Pride demo and that it had been denied a licence by the Moscow authorities. We aren't big on public rallies particularly illegal ones and prefer to show our support for "sexual tolerance" etc etc in other ways. However we were assured that it seemed safe and the main purpose of this demo was to hand in a petition to the Mayor and that Tatu (a popular Russian girl group) were also performing so we felt ok about going along.
When we arrived it was a very small affair with a massive police presence and alot of international press,the Neo-Nazis were singing and doing interviews.The moment Richard and i left our vehicle the international press recognised us and immediately all the attention went from the Neo-Nazis to us.......oh joy!
Posted by TheLintTrap at June 14, 2007 07:22 PM