Moscow Pride '09  : May 14-16, 2009

In 2009, Moscow Pride celebrated the first ever Slavic Pride.

In November 2008, the organizers of Moscow Pride and Belarusian activists of the LGBT Human Rights Project GayBelarus launched the Slavic Pride initiative. It was decided to have the first Slavic Pride organized in Moscow during the Finale of the Eurovision Song Contest. The initiative group decided to revert to the initial format of Moscow Pride which made its previous success and planed a festival.

A large cottage which could accmodate 60 persons was rent 50 km from Moscow. On thursday 14, a bus was waiting to take all the participants to the cottage. After everyone arrived and settled in the place, the first plenary took place with all the delegates when everyone introduced each other. Plans of the Savic Gay movement and plans for the actions were discussed.

In the evening, the Awards of the Slavic Pride movement was officially given to Peter Tatchell and Vladimir Ivanov. By opposition to other gay marches like in Riga when foreigners are more numerous than locals, the intiative group only invited two foreigners to take part to the Pride and Conference : Peter Tatchell (OutRage!) and Andy Thayer (GLN). For the organizers, both Tatchell and Thayer were the best examples of gay activism that they wanted to celebrate during the festival.

Several social events took place during the three days. In the morning of May 16, a bus came to take everyone to drive to Moscow. Before arriving to Moscow, the bus left everyone at the train station and the group continued the journey by train. They were met by the bus again in Moscow. This trick was necessary to prevent the police to arrest the bus and its passengers while it was returning to Moscow.

REPORT FROM TV

Crew of the French TV channel, France 4, was given an exclusive access to the Slavic Pride Conference and backstage action by the organizers. The report which shows the participants of the conference during the three days festival can be watched HERE.

REPORTS FROM DELEGATES

Andy Thayer from Gay Liberation Network made several reports before and after the Slavic Pride, adding interviews with Russian and Belarusian participants. His reports can be read HERE.

Statement of Peter Tatchell after the Slavic Pride published by the Guardian and a later report about the massive coverage of LGBT issues that the ban on the gay parade created.