Source: Moscow Times, Telegraph (London), Associated Press, AFP

Moscow -- Gay rights activists protested in defiance of a City Hall ban on Sunday, marching with placards and rainbow flags in front of the Moscow State Conservatory and unfurling a banner demanding greater rights for gays and lesbians from an apartment window opposite the mayor's offices, just blocks from the Kremlin, Moscow Times reports.

Dozens of activists from Gay Russia, led by organization head Nikolai Alexeyev, held a series of furtive protests throughout the city to try to avoid exposing protesters to some of the violence that accompanied the larger gay pride parades in 2006 and 2007.

"We wanted to make this pride [day] different from the last two years," Alexeyev told Moscow Times. "We didn't want to have any more beatings in the street. We just want to show everyone that we are normal people."

As four activists unfurled the banner calling for tolerance in an apartment window, Orthodox priests on the street below denounced the "moral corruption" of homosexuality, The Telegraph reports.

The banner included the Gay Russia logo and the phrase, "Rights For Gays and Lesbians!" according to Associated Press.

Screaming protesters, some clutching crucifixes, threw garbage and rotten eggs at the apartment on Tverskaya Ulitsa. One woman was detained after lifting a banner that said, "Mr. President, stop these sodomites from leading us down to the path to death!"

"Pederasts! Your place is in hell!" shouted one bearded demonstrator, reports AFP. Another demanded "Why this perversion in our Orthodox country?"

The banner was quickly pulled down by angry neighbors -- to the cheers of passers-by, according to the Moscow Times report.

Police tried and failed to break down the door of the apartment to arrest the protesters, leading to a standoff that lasted several hours, The Telegraph reports.

City Hall rejected more than 100 requests by Gay Russia to hold their annual gay pride parade in May, citing security concerns. Mayor Yury Luzhkov is a fierce opponent of the parade and his office has denied every parade request since 2005, a move upheld as constitutional by the Moscow City Court in April 2007.

A small group of protesters gathered outside the famed Tchaikovsky music conservatory, chanting "No to homophobia" and other slogans, organizer Alexeyev told Ekho Moskvy radio.

The demonstration started with about 25 people gathering by a statue of 19th century Russian composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky, AFP reports. Tchaikovsky is widely considered to have been gay.

"We came to bow before this great composer in this most symbolic place in the capital," Alexeyev told the demonstrators.

"It is more symbolic than the building where the country's greatest homophobe sits," said Alexeyev, head of the Gay Russia organization, referring to the Moscow mayor.

Hundreds of riot police and journalists ringed the square in front of City Hall just a few blocks away in anticipation of a larger protest that had been promised but never materialized,  Associated Press reports.

The guerrilla protests held at unannounced locations were more peaceful than in recent years, when anti-gay activists attacked protesters in full view of police. Despite the lack of violence, the mood on Sunday was hardly festive. AFP reports that anti-gay protesters were seen punching a gay man to the ground at one of the events.

Sunday's events were timed to mark the May 27 anniversary of a 1993 change in the law that decriminalized homosexuality in Russia.

Police arrested about 15 anti-gay protesters, Interfax reported, and a bus full of people that officers said were detained for registration violations sped away in the moments before the march began.

An Associated Press photographer saw several people detained by police. Radio station Ekho Moskvy said up to 15 people were detained; Interfax said all 15 detained were nationalists. Police could not immediately be reached by Associated Press for comment.

However, a police spokesman told AFP 36 people had been arrested, apparently mostly at the banner unfurling event.

Alexeyev told AFP that one gay activist had been briefly detained.

Because those arrested were mainly opponents of the pride event rather than gay activists, it appeared police were keen to minimize trouble rather than strictly enforce the ban.

This year's event saw fewer foreign activists attending, after previous years saw the arrest of European lawmakers and an attack on a grandson of the gay 19th century writer Oscar Wilde.

However one Canadian activist, Ken Coolen, told AFP: "We've decided to support our brothers and sisters here.

"To put so much effort and hatred into attempts to downtread human beings is so sad," said Coolen, from the organization Vancouver Pride.

A massive security presence was visible early in the afternoon, as hundreds of regular officers and OMON riot police lined Moscow's main thoroughfare, blocking access to Tverskaya Ploshchad, Moscow Times reports.

"We're protecting the children," said a police officer, who refused to give his name to Moscow Times. "Do you think it's proper for [gays] to come out into the streets like this? Well, I don't."

In addition to the throngs of police and security forces, dozens of protesters flocked to Tverskaya to protest against what they described as an attack on traditional Russian values.

A tattooed 18-year old who happened upon the parade by chance didn't share the distress of the anti-gay protesters when asked about the demonstrations by a Moscow Times reporter.

"They just want to come out onto the street and show that they're gay," he said. "Sanctioned or unsanctioned, I just don't see what the problem is."

Full article: Gay Paraders Opt for Safer Approach | Moscow Times
Russian gay rights action crushed | Telegraph
Gay rights activists defy authorities with rallies | Associated Press
Russian gays defy ban, more arrests at Moscow protests | AFP