Moscow Pride 2011: my first pride outside of the UK. I had been looking forward to this trip since august 2010 when I first contacted Peter Tatchell to find out how to get involved, and now it’s over I want to share my experience.
In the days running up to pride, there was a lot of debate and discussion about the safety of the event, whether it should go ahead, and if so, how it should be executed. Neo-nazi groups in Moscow had sworn to take vengeance upon LGBT Muscovites and anyone else taking part in the Pride event, and they seemed set to turn out in great numbers to stop the event going ahead. We couldn’t rely on the police to protect us because in previous years they have been allowed to execute physical violence against the protesters before intervening. The other international participants and I agreed amongst ourselves that whatever the decision, it must be made locally without prompting from us. We would support them in whatever choice they made.
It was decided that a direct protest would be staged both outside Red Square at 1pm, and in front of the City Hall at 1:30pm. There was no way to get from one to the other because anyone taking part in the first protest would certainly be arrested, so we each had to choose which site we would go to.
The night before Pride at 10pm Peter called a last minute safety and strategy meeting over outstanding safety issues. These regarded how to get to the sites without being picked off by police or groups of roving neo-nazis, and also how to get in front of the media and still make sure that the police had to arrest us before the neo-nazis reached us. There were no Russians present at this meeting and we couldn’t contact Nicolai Alekseev because he was resting from an extremely busy few days, and was also in hiding in a safehouse. This left us to speculate as to what exactly the Russians had wanted based on pieces of information we had all heard at various points during the preceding days. This went on past midnight.
On the morning of the 28th, we all gathered in one of the two apartments we were using. We had received new intelligence that morning on the locations of police officers and neo-nazi groups that made the safe routes we had planned out the night before impossible. There was some intense debate over whether we should stay and plan out a different route, or whether we should go straight there by whatever route we could. I feel the disagreement was fueled by the fact that some participants had existing injuries (such as Peter and Louis-Georges Tin) which made being attacked by the neo-nazis a bigger risk for them than for others, who felt able to take bigger risks.
Whilst this was happening, we received a call from a member of the press who said that some Russians had already been arrested in Red Square. We had not been informed when other Russians would be leaving for the protest and when Anna Komarova heard this, he of course launched straight into action. Some followed him while others, including myself, stayed behind to try to come up with a safer plan. I can only commend those who left straight away on their decision to do so.
There were four of us left who were planning to take to the street: Maik Diekmannshemke, Norbert Blech, Peter and myself. We rapidly decided that we would head straight to City Hall as the time to reach Red Square in good time had passed. We took a covert route and approached from the north, leaving Peter alone in a garden on the corner of Tverskaya for safety whilst the other three of us checked out the situation at City Hall.
The wide crossing directly opposite City Hall had been fenced off and was filled with about a 60/40 mix of press and neo-nazis. Either side was lined by police officers and Omoh (riot police). The situation did not look safe for anybody to participate, especially not Peter Tatchell with his past injuries. As we stood there and watched, however, two Russian activists appeared out of the crowds and were arrested, one after the other. They were roughly handled and suffered some hits from the neo-nazis. Maik and Norbert had been to check for Peter and were unable to find him, so if I was going to pull out the banner from the waist of my trousers and go down with the rest of them, it was now or never.
I told my team that I still wanted to participate despite the dangers all around, and they did not think it was a good idea. They made the point that we had been lucky all day that nobody had been seriously injured, and that enough people had already been arrested to make our case to the European courts. To put another person at risk in light of all this, they said, would be foolish and would not add anything extra to the Russians’ cause. After hearing this, I felt that it would be selfish for me to participate: that the only reason for me to pull out my banner was to get a cool photo and an interesting story to tell my friends. We decided to head back to base camp and do what we could to assist everyone there. The media and the crowds were being moved on by the police by now anyway and we were able to blend in with them as we moved away. We all returned to the house safely without being tailed.
Reflecting back on what had happened immediately after the event, I felt angry that I had let myself be talked out of participating in the Pride. Moscow pride received very little British media attention and looking at it with hindsight, my arrest would have provided much needed publicity to increase the pressure on the Moscow authorities. But that is where the benefits would have ended. I would have been an extra potential person to sustain a serious injury and if that had happened, the day could have been turned into a tragedy. As it turned out though, the event was extremely successful. Even though protesters were arrested immediately and didn’t have any time to display their message to Russia and the world, nobody received more than minor injuries and everybody who was arrested was released within a matter of hours. Shockingly, this even included the Russians who had been taken into custody, who are normally treated much more harshly than international arrestees. This day was a step forward in the history of LGBT Russia and an important staging block for further action.
As for myself, I have learned and gained so much from attending Moscow Pride 2011. Following a thoroughly inspiring pep talk from Dan Choi after he was released from prison, I found that I must always listen to what I am saying to myself deep down in my gut, even when those around me are telling me no. I am an activist, and I am equal to all other activists no matter how experienced or inexperienced. I gained a brilliant set of new friends with a shared interest in the global LGBT movement and have proven to myself that I really can do anything I set my sights on. I can make a real difference. Anybody can do something like we did in Moscow on May 28th. Most people just feel so disillusioned and dis-empowered that they think they can’t, and in some cases have forgotten that it’s important to take an interest and speak out to make a change.
I will return to Moscow next year and I will continue to fight alongside the Russians for basic rights that most LGBT citizens in the UK take for granted, but in the meantime there are other battles that I have been empowered to fight in my own country. Watch this space.
petergray1989 