When I got to the club in Moscow last weekend , I asked the promotor if we were celebrating Gay Pride tonite, he turned away & whispered to his friend mysteriously, then came back to say curtly ” no”. I asked how the parades had been going since the police & crowd violently attacked & broke up the parades in 2009 while I was there for a LIVE performance & had brought with me 2 dancers who happened to also be men in dresses , one with a beard.  We were feeling every bit of fear when we heard about the antiquated , ignorant  brute mob , including  police that shut down that parade & were relieved to escape that nightmare. I was surprised & hurt to hear from this promotor that there had been NO Gay Pride parade since those 2009 riots !! I had been to Russia atleast 8 times and have seen it change drasticly thru out the years for better & worse but I am still in shock at how backwards it remains. Little did I know , as I was packing to leave this time , there was another Pride Parade beginning and ending in  St. Petersburg,Russia , home of beautiful  french inspired architecture and the infamous Hermitage art museum, however, there is nothing beautiful about the ignorance displayed at this Gay Pride demonstration as the cops  arrested most attendees & threw them in jail along with some religious nut cases who opposed the event. I am disgusted with Russian authorities again as a new law forbids “gay propaganda or speaking about it to children”& determined to let this secret shame out of the whispered huddle and onto a big neon flashing international sign. For shame Russian homophobe authorities & lawmakers ….Our gay brothers & sisters will one day walk tall & proud thru out  Russia & it is those who judge in ignorance who will one day lower their heads in shame upon realizing this great injustice they have participated in.  The world is watching the shame of it all. As we celebrate the rights for same sex marriage in the U.S. ,remember , our extended family abroad in these backward antiquated nations . We have much work to do . Stay strong and Proud sisters and brothers….Dasvreedanya. - Lady Miss Kier