RUSSIAN SUPREME COURT RULES GAY PRIDE IS NOT "PROPAGANDA"

KOMMERSANT, BBC RUSSIA

MOSCOW - The Russian Supreme Court has ruled that Gay Pride parades are not “homosexual propaganda,” Kommersant reports.

Gay and Lesbian activists in Russia had turned to the courts after the Duma passed a law banning all “propaganda,” promoting same-sex relationships, with wording so broad that it could have outlawed nearly all public events in support of gay rights.

The courts decision, however, said that “not all public events put on by gay and lesbian activists could be called homosexual propaganda.”

The court case was specifically in response to the governor of Arkhangelsk forbidding the local gay pride parade from taking place, citing the new law.

While not overturning the original law, the Supreme Court narrowed it’s application substantially, ruling that “Forbidding homosexual propaganda does not prevent people from exercising their rights to receive and distribute general information that is neutral towards homosexuals, nor does it prevent public events that conform to laws regarding such events, including open, public debates about the social status of homosexuals, which do not impose a homosexual lifestyle on minors,” BBC Russia reported.

Source: World Crunch (14/09/2012): http://www.worldcrunch.com/world-affairs/russian-supreme-court-rules-gay-pride-is-not-quot-propaganda-quot-/russia-gays-lesbians-gay-pride-civil-rights-propaganda/c1s9591/#.UFQtDbIaM74