The Rainbow flashmob - an action of informal members of the gay movement - has been taking place in recent years on May 17. At 7 pm gays and lesbians together with their friends and relatives gather together in crowded places of a city in order to fly balloons with attached postcards with a message against homophobia.

Yesterday gay activists informed that preparations for that GLBT event have started in Russia.

May 17 is not chosen as a day of Rainbow flashmob accidentally - at this day in 1990 homosexuality was excluded from the list of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems.

IDAHO (the International Day Against Homophobia) is officially recognised in the UK, France, Mexico, Belgium, Brazil, Costa-Rica and Luxembourg and is celebrated informally in many other countries. Last year the RainbowFlash-2010 GLBT action took place in 48 cities around the globe. Finland, Armenia and Kazakhstan were the countries that celebrated the IDAHO for the first time in their national histories.

Russian GLBT community has organized a virtual coordinating centre of the RWAHO (Russian Week against homophobia) - see the link.

Rainbowflash 2010 in Saint-Petersburg that took place on May 17 last year was the most popular gay action in Russia, organized by Russian LGBT Network. In Moscow at least three groupsof gay activists including the "Rainbow association" (website in Russian >>) plan to organize this gay event on May 17,2011.

English translation presented by Yerdna Bananes