DAY OF SILENCE

On April 25^th the “Silence flashmob” will take place. This is an action timed to the International Day of Silence and dedicated to the attracting the public’s attention to the issue of silencing the discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity and hate (homophobia) crimes.

On April 22^nd the activists of LGBT (lesbians, geys, bisexuals, transgenders) organization “Coming Out” received an answer from the Administration of the Central District of St. Petersburg containing refusal in the endorsement of rally planned on April 25^th, since “the announced place of public event’s conduction is on the territory directly adjacent to the metro station “Vladimirskaya”, so the carrying out of the rally with the participation of close on 35 people will make it impossible to guarantee safe and free pass of pedestrians and passengers of metro”, and because of city-wide community work day planned on April 25^th as well. We would remind you that initially the rally was planned to take place on address Bol’shaya Moskovskaya street, behind the F.M. Dostoevsky monument, in the area of house number 2.

In the received answer the activists of LGBT organization “Coming Out” were offered to transfer the carrying out of the rally on April 26^th on address Bol’shaya Moskovskaya street, 8/2, sidewalk, at stated time. The organizers of the action agreed to this proposal of the Administration of the Central District. However, in the answer received on the second notification it was said: “there will be a rally, which has already been endorsed by the district administration, at the announced place on the stated day till 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Based on all said it is impossible to endorse the carrying out of the public event.” The refusal to endorse the action will be appealed in a judicial procedure.

Thereby, we can speak about the firm unwillingness of the city authorities to pay attention to the issue of silencing the discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity and hate (homophobia) crimes. As the result the city official powers themselves become responsible for the existence of this problem, since their actions by no means are intended for its solution.

This is the 2nd time the Day of Silence will be carried out in Russia. Such cities as St. Petersburg, Yaroslavl and Novokuznetsk participated in it in 2008. This year, besides St. Petersburg, the Day of Silence will take place in Moscow, Volgodonsk, Perm, Rostov-on-Don, Kemerovo, Ivanovo, Kaliningrad and Volgograd. Besides that, the Day of Silence will take place for the first time in Minsk, which is the capital of republic Belarus.

The International Day of Silence started in the US in 1996 and in Europe in 2007.

The Day of Silence in Russia takes place with the support of Interregional Public Movement “The Russian LGBT Network”.

Contact Info:

ANO “LGBT organization Coming Out”: http://piter.lgbtnet.ru

The Official Site for the Day of Silence in Russia: http://dayofsilence.lgbtnet.ru

IPM “The Russian LGBT Network”: http://lgbtnet.ru

Valery Sozaev +7-906-229-25-60

e-mail: nuntiare@gmail.com