Fighting  between gays and ultra rights in a Moscow club set an ominous tone to the beginning of May but it proved no reason to cancel another gay event called "Gay Picnic-2006".

A journalist from the gay friendly newspaper "Moskovski Komsomoletz" who attended said "Actually it wasn"t easy to join the party. The meeting place was kept secret because of gays from the so-called "Russian National Union". On its website the "Gay Picnic" was described as a meeting of gays and gay friendly people.
At Metro "Medvedkovo" on the 9th of May a crowd of young gays had gathered at the exit, some camouflaged by not wearing their best jeans or makeup. We arrived by car. Within an hour 50 good looking guys had prepared a barbeque and were drinking and playing volleyball.

The creator of the event, Konstantin, told me it was their 10th meeting. 10 years ago it was a small community from the internet. More and more people attended each year and up to 200 were recorded during the trouble free years. This year a group came from St. Petersburg. Overall the crowd was fairly mixed, from students to guys who arrived in expensive cars. There was a plan of escape in the event of a "skins" attack but everything went quietly and peacefully.

One of the guys there told me "I don"t understand how a priest could bless an anti gay fight? They came to kill us but that"s against the first commandment "Do not kill".

The barbeque ended with a big fire and shooting as some of the guys were from the military and they had come armed to protect themselves."

Translation by Andrey V.