GLBT people managed to stage two small, brief Pride marches in Moscow on May 29 despite another ban from Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, who says gay marches are “satanic.”

In previous years, police violently prevented or broke up the small “illegal” marches, but this time activists outwitted the authorities.

Hundreds of riot and undercover officers ended up at the wrong location.

“The (main) march was relatively short, around five minutes, but we managed to fool the police and the anti-Pride protesters,” said Moscow Pride organizer Nikolai Alekseev. “It was a real military operation. We had given a meeting point to a group of selected journalists whom we took for a three-hour excursion around Moscow until they reached the Pride spot at 1:15 p.m. Then, when they arrived, the march started and everyone came out waving a 20-meter rainbow flag.”

The march took place on Leningradsky Prospekt near the Belaruskaya train station.

“The guerrilla-style hit-and-run Moscow gay Pride march was over before the police arrived,” said British gay activist Peter Tatchell, who joined the march. “When they turned up, officers scurried around aimlessly, searching for protesters to arrest.”

“All morning the gay Pride organizers fed the police a steady stream of false information, via blogs and websites, concerning the location of the parade,” Tatchell explained. “They suggested that it would take place outside the EU (European Union) Commission’s offices. As a result, the police put the whole area in total lockdown, closing nearby streets and metro stations, in a bid to prevent protesters assembling there.”

The authorities also tailed journalists, in hopes of finding the parade, said Andy Thayer of Chicago’s Gay Liberation Network, who took part in the march.

Nonetheless, “Pride organizers were able to ‘embed’ and get coverage from major international news agencies, including the Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, Reuters, TF1 (France), Deutsche Presse-Agentur, Swedish television, BFM (French news channel), France 2, and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation,” Thayer said.

Earlier in the day, a different group of some 25 activists staged an unannounced gay march for 10 minutes on a downtown pedestrian street. It ended when police blocked their path and the marchers ran away. No attempt had been made to get a permit or permission for that march.

This was the fifth year that Mayor Luzhkov banned Moscow Pride, sent police to smash it, and called gay people names.

“For several years, Moscow has experienced unprecedented pressure to conduct a gay Pride parade, which cannot be called anything but a satanic act,” he said in January. “We have banned such parades and will ban them in future as well.”

Moscow Pride organizers have sued over the hostility in a series of cases that have been merged at the European Court of Human Rights. A ruling is expected within months.

The Malawian couple recently sentenced to 14 years in prison with hard labor after they held an engagement ceremony at a hotel were pardoned by President Bingu wa Mutharika on May 29.

Whether Steven Monjeza, 26, and Tiwonge Chimbalanga, 33, are a same-sex couple or whether Chimbalanga would more accurately be considered transgender is not clear. They were convicted of unnatural acts and gross indecency.

Mutharika ordered the couple’s immediate release.

“These two gay boys were ... totally wrong,” Mutharika said after a meeting with United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, according to the BBC. “However ... I have decided that with effect from today, they are pardoned and they will be released.”

Malawi had come under harsh international criticism for arresting, convicting and jailing the couple, and there were hints that foreign aid, on which the nation is heavily dependent, could be affected.

U.S. State Department spokesperson Philip Crowley had said Malawi should legalize gay sex.

“The United States is deeply disappointed in today’s conviction of same-sex couple Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza in Malawi,” Crowley had said. “The United States views the decriminalization of sexual orientation and gender identity as integral to the protection of human rights in Malawi and elsewhere in the world.”

The White House press office had called the couple’s imprisonment “unconscionable” and called for the decriminalization of sexual orientation and gender identity worldwide.

In response to the pardon, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said:

“The White House is pleased to learn of President Bingu wa Mutharika’s pardon of Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza. These individuals were not criminals and their struggle is not unique. We must all recommit ourselves to ending the persecution and criminalization of sexual orientation and gender identity. We hope that President Mutharika’s pardon marks the beginning of a new dialogue which reflects the country’s history of tolerance and a new day for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights in Malawi and around the globe.”

The Human Rights Campaign, the U.S.’ largest gay rights group, also welcomed the pardon.

“We salute the leaders who have spoken up for Steven and Tiwonge, particularly members of Congress and State Department officials,” said HRC President Joe Solmonese. “This is welcomed news that we hope will reverberate around the world in places–including our own country – where LGBT people are targeted for harassment and discrimination.”

The couple had been jailed since being arrested in December.

British Treasury Chief Secretary David Laws, 44, resigned his job May 29 after it was revealed that he had been giving his second-home allowance to his secret male partner.

Since 2006, British MPs have not been allowed to take the allowance for a London residence if they stay with a family member, spouse or partner in London. “Partner” is defined as someone an MP treats as a spouse.

Laws, who reportedly is wealthy, suggested he accepted the allowance because to not do so would have raised questions as to why he wasn’t taking it, which could have led to his being outed.

Assistance by Bill Kelley