Florida Agenda

MOSCOW, Russia — Moscow police are looking for two dozen masked men who attacked one of the Russian capital’s most popular gay friendly bars last Thursday night, beating patrons with improvised weapons and fists. Over a dozen people— mostly women—were hurt.

According to authorities, more than 50 people were inside 7freedays, one of a handful of Moscow’s gay and gay-friendly bars. Witnesses said that the attackers entered the club wearing hooded sweatshirts and surgical masks. They told police that some of the men shouted, “You asked for a fight?

Now you’ll get it,” and then attacked. The invasion lasted less than five minutes, with the attackers fleeing before police arrived.

LGBT advocates in Russia say the attack is part of a cultural effort to promote intolerance against gay men and women throughout the country, where three cities, including St. Petersburg, have passed laws that criminalize “homosexual propaganda.”

An official with the Russian Orthodox Church, which is the country’s predominant faith, recently supported introducing such laws nationwide, and Moscow’s highest court has upheld a municipal ordinance that bans gay pride parades until May 2112.

Shanghai, CHINA – Police raided a popular gay bar in the Bund riverfront of Shanghai early Sunday and detained more than 60 people. Police gave no details about the allegations but, according to the Sun, “the report cited migrant workers who live in a makeshift shelter on the roof of the building where the bar is situated that they ‘often saw naked men on the roof, drinking beer, chatting loudly, and even having sex.’”

The Herald Sun reports that some DJs, customers and staff members were held up to 12 hours after being detained at Q Bar, where police charged that “pornographic” shows were taking place.

One DJ said he believed the raid resulted from a competitor bar that complained to police.

Shanghai was the location of the first gay pride festival in China in 2009, although some events were cancelled by authorities at the last minute. Being gay was considered a crime in China until 1997, and homosexuality was officially listed as a mental illness until 2001.