World Wide Wave

26 Mar 2013

Russia: Melbourne’s sister city has anti-gay propaganda laws

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This week, W3JOY visited Melbourne’s sister city of St. Petersberg. The Lord Mayor of Melbourne, Robert Doyle, is concerned about the homophobic legislation of the St Petersberg local government against the Gay Pride parade. He proposes a solution of acceptance and education, and invites an LGBT ambassador from Russia to visit Melbourne.

“St. Petersberg passed (at the end of the year last year) laws that are quit blatantly anti-gay, anti-same-sex couple that take us back 100 years…I think one of the best ways that we can work against anti-discrimination laws is to reach out to the young people that regularly come to Melbourne for cultural exchange.”

Instead of “blundering in” and telling St Petersberg what to do, Mayor Doyle is keen to change their hearts and minds. “We actually get a large number of people from St. Petersberg here in Melbourne…I think by opening the eyes of young people to what a diverse, tolerant and open community looks like, that’s how you’re going to affect change in St Petersberg in Russia, not by breaking off relations.”

Mayor Doyle told JOY about the huge online petition being generated about the laws in St Petersberg…It comes from change.org, and if people want to continue to sign up, the petition is still up there at change.org.

Meanwhile, W3JOY also spoke with Yuri Gavrikov, the St. Petersberg-based chair of St Petersberg Pride about the spate of anti-gay propaganda laws being adopted across Russia:

“The government is trying to get more support from conservative people…The people who promoted this [anti-homosexual] law…they will ban homosexual propaganda between teenagers, between children.”

Mr Gavrikov also discussed the Pussy Riot band and the role of the Russian Orthodox Church. And he remains hopeful, “Sometimes we see that social change is going very slow, but in my experience, in ten –twenty– years, Russian society will be completely different. I think we can make changes faster because of communications.”

Visit W3JOY’s Russia webpage to learn more and hear the full podcast.