From the Mayor Of London on the Moscow Protest

The Russian people suffered greater casualties than any other country from Nazism - whose targets were not only Jews and Soviet citizens but also homosexuals. To see open fascists and Nazis parading in Moscow, and assaulting gay and lesbian people, is to trample on the memory of all those who fought against Nazism and particularly the 27 million Soviet citizens who died in the fight against fascism.

The support given by the Russian Orthodox Church, the Grand Mufti, and the Chief Rabbi to a ban on a peaceful gay pride march is reactionary and the Mayor of Moscow should uphold the right of gays and lesbians to demonstrate peacefully.

I strongly oppose the positions of both the Mayor of Moscow and the former Mayor of Warsaw, now the president of Poland, in banning gay rights marches and the support to this given by a number of religious authorities. I strongly endorse the European Parliament resolution of 18 January 2006 calling on all to ‘firmly to condemn and oppose homophobic hate speech or incitement to hatred and violence’ and to treat lesbian and gay people with ‘respect, dignity and protection.’ - Ken Livingstone, The Mayor of London, on the violence in Moscow at the first gay parade demonstration (source)

Yuri Luzhkov, the Mayor of Moscow, banned the parade saying that he was concerned about the safety of gays if the parade were to take place. And when Russian gays did defy that order and did the parade anyway, the police where there in force - not to stop the parade. They stood there and did nothing as gay members of the parade were beaten by an enraged crowd of protesters made up of religious fanatics and skinheads.

After the police felt the gays had had enough, they arrested the gays participating in the parade. The skinheads and the religious fanatics were allowed to leave.

So much for the good mayor’s intentions of protecting those at the parade. But words speak louder than actions. Here are Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov’s own words on the fact that the gay protesters wanted to lay flowers at the grave of the unknown warrior, a monument to those who died defeating Nazi Germany.

Our way of life, our morals and our tradition -- our morals are cleaner in all ways. The West has something to learn from us and should not race along in this mad licentiousness.

We may have a democratic country, but we live in an organized country and an organized city.

These gays wanted to lay flowers at the grave of the unknown warrior. This is a provocation. It is desecration of a sacred place.

These gays go there, and openly go up to the monument. It is a contamination. People burst through and of course they beat them up. - Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov (source)

Congratulations Mayor Luzhkov. You sound like a young Adolf Hitler. I’m going to repeat your words, and just substitute one word in the statement.

These Jews wanted to lay flowers at the grave of the unknown warrior. This is a provocation. It is desecration of a sacred place.

These Jews go there, and openly go up to the monument. It is a contamination. People burst through and of course they beat them up.

Some memorable quotes from a young Adolf Hitler...

The Jews are a Cancer on the breast of Germany - Adolf Hitler

Why does the world shed crocodile’s tears over the richly merited fate of a small Jewish minority? ... I ask Roosevelt, I ask the American people: Are you prepared to receive in your midst these well-poisoners of the German people and the universal spirit of Christianity? We would willingly give everyone of them a free steamer-ticket and a thousand-mark note for travelling expenses, if we could get rid of them. - Adolf Hitler

For us, this is not a problem you can turn a blind eye to-one to be solved by small concessions. For us, it is a problem of whether our nation can ever recover its health, whether the Jewish spirit can ever really be eradicated. Don’t be misled into thinking you can fight a disease without killing the carrier, without destroying the bacillus. Don’t think you can fight racial tuberculosis without taking care to rid the nation of the carrier of that racial tuberculosis. This Jewish contamination will not subside, this poisoning of the nation will not end, until the carrier himself, the Jew, has been banished from our midst. - Adolf Hitler

Get the point? The real burning question is this: Mayor Luzhkov, what would you really want to do to homosexuals if you had unquestionable power?

I think we all know the answer to that question. Suddenly, my desire to visit Russia has totally lost it’s appeal. I was naive. I thought they were further along than this, and I didn’t realize that the Mayor of Moscow was in spirit, a Nazi.