Love is gay

Love is gay? But what's the news in this? In this case, I took some liberties with translation. I don't know what was originally said respectively written, according to a German translation the Russian participant for the Eurovision Contest Anastasia Prikhodko
gave this as an answer in an email when asked about supporting Slavic Pride. The literal translation would have been "love is colorful" but "love is gay" fits so much better.

According to some fan blogs some of the participants are gay (I don't know who and if they are out) and no signs of support for Slavic Pride from them - except for Gordon, singer of the Dutch group, who said that he was going to boycott the show, if there would be aggressions against homosexual activists.

I have to take up the cudgels on behalf of Patricia Kaas whose answer to the question about her support for Slavic Pride was that she hadn't heard of that before, yet everyone should have the possibility to live their life.

It's not been that long that I came across the term Slavic Pride, until recently it had always been referred to Moscow Pride. Nikolai Alexeyev, founder of gayrussia.ru, has been trying to get official permission for a pride parade in Moscow for years now. Mayor Yury Luzhkov, an extreme homophobe, refused permission repeatedly, for various reasons. With international support Nikolai Alexeyev still organized unofficial pride parades, some of which you probably heard of in the media, e.g. police stood watching skinheads and other militants aggressing and attacking participants of the parade and ended up arresting participants of the parade.

This year though, they had hoped to be granted permission, as they scheduled the pride parade on the day of the
Eurovision Song Contest and the fear of international TV showing Russian police breaking up the parade would result in a positive decision.
Unfortunately Moscow's mayor doesn't care about this and after weeks of stalling and claiming that he never received a request for the parade he finally came around this weekend and officially prohibited the march. Reason: out of fear of the safety of the participants.
That's not only the most hypocritical reason I've ever heard, this is outrageous. This comes from the same man shouting "satanic" and worse whenever he has the occasion and also called in representatives of the church to help him fight against homosexuals including organizing an anti-demonstration on the same day.

Nikolai Alexeyev will still organize the march this Saturday, May 16^th, and as upset as I am about the mayor, I wonder as much if this is really a good idea. After all we're talking about disobeying in Russia, I'd be more than happy when proven wrong, but I fear that this year actions of the police will be even harder.

What do you think? Am I too pessimistic? Would you participate in this parade in Moscow?

This article was originally written for and published at eurOut.

54th Eurovision Song Contest (2009)

Should we take the results of this year's Eurovision as a prognosis for the EU-Elections? Just kidding ;)

I fear that the German result will not be much better than last year, though I could be proved wrong and that's not because of their scoop of adding Dita von Teese (for serious?) to their performance but because of a change in rules. The juries are back and points will become the decisions of the juries and of the votes called in by viewers. This in hope of avoiding another votes-cluttering of the eastern connection.

I'd say if this still does not help and Germany will still come up last, someone should seriously consider of pulling out of this event. After all, many events have been cancelled due to the economic situation and I hate the thought of four countries paying for the larger bulk of this event while somebody else is having a blast.

Anyways, I don't care as much about the German result as about the French result.

Patricia Kaas, did I mention that she's not only extremely attractive but also a great singer?

Many think that she doesn't stand a chance, just because she's coming from one of the big-sponsor countries. They're forgetting that Patricia Kaas has huge fanbase in Russia. That would be the greatest thing happening – Patricia Kaas winning with the help of her Russian fans. Totally giddy, I know, but still, just imagine…..

Just in case you didn't know, this will be next Saturday (May 16^th) and the semi-finals on May 12^th and May 14^th. Check the official website for details or the channel on YouTube to listen to your favorite songs.

You should also checkout eurOut, especially during the show on Saturday evening.