Aside from the sentencing of the punk rock band Pussy Riot, there was another interesting ruling out of Moscow today: A court upheld the city's 100-year ban on gay pride events.
According to the BBC, Nikolay Alexeye, Russia's most prominent gay rights activist, challenged the city council's decision to ban any events that could be considered "gay parades" from March 2012 until May 2112.
The BBC adds:
"On Friday he said he would go back to the European Court in Strasbourg to push for a recognition that Moscow's ban on gay pride marches — past, present and future — was unjust.
"The Moscow city government argues that the gay parade would risk causing public disorder and that most Muscovites do not support such an event."
Russia Today, the state's official English-language news agency, reports that Alexeye promised to challenge the ban in front of the European Court of Human Rights.
RT reports that the Russian government has been running a campaign against "homosexual propaganda." It adds:
"A law against promotion of homosexuality and pedophilia was approved and enacted in St. Petersburg, prompting a group of parliamentarians to suggest approving a similar national law.
"Two individuals in St. Petersburg were recently sentenced under the law for displaying a poster reading 'Being gay is normal' on a street near a kindergarten."
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