Moscow Pride’s lawsuit at the European Court of Human Rights over Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov’s repeated bans of pride events was delayed Jan. 19 after Russia requested additional time to respond to the case.

The Russian government said it was too busy to file its reply in a timely fashion. The court responded by extending the deadline to Feb. 20.

Chief Moscow Pride organizer Nikolai Alekseev denounced the development, saying it took far too long for the Euro Court to accept the case in the first place, and now he has to wait longer while the Russian government engages in alleged stalling tactics.

“We are engaged in this fight for freedom of assembly for five years,”

Alekseev said. “All these years, we have been paying the price of the workload of the court. ... Now that the court finally opened our complaints, we are paying the price of the workload of the Russian mission in Strasbourg. Will this ever end?”

Alekseev said the delay makes it very unlikely there will be a decision in the case prior to his group’s fifth annual attempt to stage pride on May 29.

Luzhkov has banned gay pride events in each of the past four years and has sent riot police to violently arrest small groups of activists who ignored the bans.

The mayor has called gay parades “satanic” and, according to reports, “weapons of mass destruction.”

Beijing’s Mr. Gay China contest was canceled by police an hour before it was to begin Jan. 15.

Gayographic, a public-relations and event-management company that organized the contest at the posh Lan Club, told reporters that police claimed the competition lacked proper permits.

The pageant, with ticket prices ranging from $15 to $22, had sold out in advance and attracted heavy attention from international media.

A day later, police also canceled anniversary events of the Aizhixing Institute of Health Education, an HIV/AIDS organization.

“We are saddened that Mr. Gay China pageant has been canceled,” said a Jan. 18 posting on Gayographic’s English Web pages. “Please accept our sincere apologies for the inconvenience that has caused you and your friends. ... For those who bought tickets, please come to Mesh or Lantung this Thursday. We will give you the full refund. Our weekly Gayographic event at Lan Club is postponed indefinitely.”

The Moscow City Court on Jan. 21 upheld a lower-court decision supporting the city’s refusal to give a marriage license to a lesbian couple.

Irina Fedotova-Fet and Irina Shipitko, who later traveled to Canada and got married, said they now will appeal the case to the European Court of Human Rights.

The couple also plan to demand that Russia recognize their Canadian marriage as soon as they receive their marriage certificate from Toronto.

Fifty-two percent of Portuguese support legalization of same-sex marriage, according to a new Eurosondagem poll for Rádio Renascença, SIC TV and the Expresso newspaper.

Parliament voted 125-92 to legalize same-sex marriage on Jan. 8. Barring unexpected complications, the first gay weddings will take place in April or shortly thereafter.

The bill that legalized same-sex marriage specifically excluded access to adoption for married same-sex couples.

The Eurosondagem poll quizzed 1,010 people by telephone from Jan. 7 to 12.

Forty-three percent said they oppose same-sex marriage.

Same-sex marriage also is legal in Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands, Norway, South Africa, Spain and Sweden; in Argentina’s Tierra del Fuego province; and in the U.S. states of Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont. It will become legal in March in Washington, D.C., and Mexico City.

Belarus’ Minsk City Court on Jan. 19 dismissed the appeal of two gay activists who were fined for picketing the Iranian Embassy to protest Iran’s treatment of gay people.

Sergey Androsenko and Sergey Pravdin said they will appeal the latest ruling to the UN Human Rights Committee in Geneva.

“The decision which found me guilty of organizing an unsanctioned event violates my right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly guaranteed by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Belarus ratified,” Androsenko said.

He added that his fine – $307 – was unusually harsh for nations of the former Soviet Union, equaling one month’s worth of his salary.

Androsenko said he and two others staged the December picket because “the world can’t hear the voice of Iranian gays, who are being executed.”

“We, activists of LGBT movement, have to become this voice,” he said.

Malawi’s Information Ministry said Jan. 18 that international pressure will not dissuade the nation from prosecuting a gay couple for having a public engagement ceremony.

Steven Monjeza, 26, and Tiwonge Chimbalanga, 20, were charged with “unnatural offenses” and “indecent practices between males” after holding the event in Blantyre on Dec. 26. They face 14 years in prison.

The couple remain jailed pending resumption of their trial, which began Jan. 15 but was quickly adjourned after Chimbalanga, who reportedly has malaria, vomited and collapsed. He was later forced to get a mop and bucket and clean up the mess.

Information Minister Leckford Mwanza dismissed international criticism of the case, saying the gay lovers clearly are lawbreakers and suggesting that Malawi does not want unsolicited advice on handling its internal affairs.

Assistance by Bill Kelley