STOP the LGBT violations in Russia NOW...

STOP the LGBT violations in Russia NOW.

In 2012 The Russian government banned all gay pride events throughout the country for the next 100 years.

In 2013, The Russian government adopted a trifecta of anti LGBT bills basically criminalizing homosexuality. One bans the distribution of "propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations" to minors. This law imposes heavy fines for using the media or internet to promote "non-traditional relations."

Secondly, the government made it illegal for the adoption of Russian children by gay couples or any single person who comes from a country that recognizes marriage equality.

Thirdly, a bill has just been passed giving authorities the rights to arrest foreign nationals whom they suspect being LGBT or pro gay and detain them for up to 14 days.

There is talk in the media of the next step being the removal of children from Russian homes, natural or adoptive, from parents who are, or are suspected of being LGBT.

We are witnessing imagery in the media showing unspeakable violence towards LGBT people. We see evidence that the new laws are being broadly interpreted by the Russian public and by the legal system to unfairly and violently persecute, intimidate and vilify LGBT people. This violence must stop, and the laws must be repealed.

We are organizing a peaceful static protest for our Russian LGBT family, with whom we show solidarity. We want our Russian brothers and sisters to be free from persecution and to have the freedom to love without fear.

We call on David Cameron, the UK Parliament and the G20 to urge the Russian government to repeal these laws and to provide the same level of human rights protection to all of its citizens regardless of their sexuality and gender.

Protest Details:
Static protest and signing of register of protest:  Date: August 10, 2013
Location: Richmond Terrace, Westminster SW1A 2JL
Time: 1.00pm to 4.00pm

Protest The Pope March and Rally...

On Saturday afternoon me and 10,000 (30,000?) other people marched down Piccadilly, through Trafalgar Square and into Whitehall to protest against the Pope's state visit to Britain. Lot's of inventive signs were on display.
More pix here.
Why “Protest the Pope”? The diverse groups who support this campaign have many different reasons for not approving of the State Visit to the UK by the Pope in September 2010. They all however share the following view:
* That the Pope, as a citizen of Europe and the leader of a religion with many adherents in the UK, is of course free to enter and tour our country.
* However, as well as a religious leader, the Pope is a head of state and the state and organisation of which he is head has been responsible for:
1. opposing the distribution of condoms and so increasing large families in poor countries and the spread of AIDS
2. promoting segregated education
3. denying abortion to even the most vulnerable women
4. opposing equal rights for lesbians, gay, bisexual and transgender people
5. failing to address the many cases of abuse of children within its own organisation.
6. rehabilitating the holocaust denier bishop Richard Williamson and the appeaser of Hitler, the war-time Pope, Pius XII.
* The state of which the Pope is the head has also resisted signing many major human rights treaties and has formed its own treaties (‘concordats’) with many states which negatively affect the human rights of citizens of those states.
* As a head of state, the Pope is an unsuitable guest of the UK government and should not be accorded the honour and recognition of a state visit to our country.