2007 Gay Pride Sacramento
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Moscow court affirms gay pride parade ban
[JURIST] A Russian court has affirmed the right of the city of Moscow to reject an application by organizers of a gay pride parade, ruling that there was a legitimate safety concern in banning the parade, though lawyers for the parade organizers said the ban infringes on gay rights. A separate court upheld the ban [JURIST report] in May but organizers held the parade anyway. Two hundred people were arrested during the May 27 parade [Washington Post report], where participants were assaulted by onlookers. The organizers intend to appeal Tuesday's court decision. The parade marked the 13th anniversary of the decriminalization of homosexuality in Russia. In 1997, following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia implemented a new Criminal Code [text] that excluded Article 121, which criminalized consensual homosexuality [gay.ru backgrounder].
Who is the victim in a gay marriage?
My daughter, in a wheelchair, and I went to the Gay Pride Fair in downtown Hayward, where she was completely accepted. I saw something very disturbing, though: a young couple, their marriage license on the T-shirt one of them wore, with "VOID" stamped across it. Both were male. They had been in the group that had experienced one heady moment of hope and fulfillment only to have it dashed by those seeking to "protect" what? The Sanctity of Marriage? Tell that to Laci Peterson's parents, or the battered wives in the women's shelters! Sanctity is conferred upon marriage by the love and commitment of the partners, not by whether the partners are the right sex or race. What is being affirmed now is the right of one group to dictate to others what they can or can't do. Laws make sense when there is a victim.
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