Russian gay marriage group denied registration

by Rex Wockner

International News Briefs

Russia's Justice Ministry on Feb. 22 refused to register the activist group Marriage Equality Russia.

The ministry said the group's aims contradict a law that defines "marriage as a union between a man and a woman."

The organization will appeal as far as the European Court of Human Rights, if necessary, said spokesman Nikolai Alekseev.

"Russia is a country where you cannot hold a march in the streets if you openly advertise it as gay, and this is the same with registering an openly gay organization," Alekseev said.

Attempts to stage gay pride marches in Moscow over the past four years have been met with official bans from Mayor Yuri Luzhkov. Small groups of activists who tried to march anyway were violently attacked each year by riot police and anti-gay mobs.