Re: Lua Workshop 2014 in Moscow?

[Paul Merrell <marbux@...>]

Hi, all,

Add the U.S. to the list of nations where LGBT community members still
suffer hate-motivated violence, including murder.

I spent about an hour with Google looking for reports of violence
against the LGBT community in Moscow. I came up with none, although
some Russian cases reported did not identify the location of the
assault. In all case reports I found where the assault had been
reported to authorities and the case was not still pending, stiff
sentences requiring incarceration at hard labor were dished out. That
suggests that homophobic violence is not widely tolerated by the
Russian law enforcement system.

I did find several web pages indicating that homophobia is less
widespread in Moscow and St. Petersburg, which are more cosmopolitan.
That makes sense to me also because Moscow and St. Petersburg are both
large tourist destinations. Police in tourist destinations generally
understand that foreign visitors need to be treated with respect
notwithstanding cultural differences; were it otherwise, the tourism
golden egg would deflate. At the same time, this is probably not a
good time for someone attending a Lua conference in Moscow to
participate in a Gay pride parade there.

The Moscow City Council recently passed a 100-year ban on LGBT-pride
parades. But I do not think that ban or the controversial national
LGBT Propaganda Law are likely to survive very long.  The European
Court of Human Rights in 2010 ordered the Russian government to pay
one Russian LGBT activist nearly €40,000 in damages for refusing to
permit and breaking up LGBT "pride" marches. Alekseyev v. Russia,
<http://hudoc.echr.coe.int/sites/fra/pages/search.aspx?i=001-101257>.
(Russia is a member of the European Convention on Human Rights and
Fundamental Freedoms).

That court decision flatly recognized the human right of LGBT rights
public advocacy in Russia. Should a second case involving Russian
repression of LGBT public advocacy rights arrive before that Court, I
would expect the Court to send a much stronger message with a much
larger damages award and/or an injunction. Judges tend to up the ante
considerably when they are asked to rule on the same issues
repeatedly.

 I won't be attending the Workshop unless it's convened within driving
range of Eugene, Oregon. As a civil libertarian, I refuse to submit to
the treatment our Transportation Security folk dispense in airports
these days.

But I also care about LGBT rights, both because I'm a civil
libertarian and because one of my brothers is gay and I've watched
what he has had to endure over the years.

Best regards,

Paul