MADONNA ‘GAY PROPAGANDA’ COURT DATE SET

A Russian court has set a date to hear a complaint against Madonna and concert promoters over the star supporting  gays and lesbians during her recent St. Petersburg concert.

In August, the singer spoke out against homophobia during the concert, defying a city law banning all gay and lesbian ‘propaganda’.

“I’m here to say that the gay community and gay people here, and all around the world, have the same rights. The same right to be treated with dignity, with respect, with tolerance, with compassion, with love,” said the star in the show.

“Are you with me?” she asked, urging audience members, some holding rainbow flags, to raise their arms to display pink armbands in order to show their “love and appreciation for the gay community”.

According to the Russian Legal Information Agency, the hearing has been set for October 11 at the Moskovsky District Court in St. Petersburg.

Anti-gay activists, who recorded the show as evidence, filed complaints against the star and the event organisers. They claim that 12-year-old children were present and are seeking 333 million rubles ($10.87 million) in damages.

St. Petersburg’s ‘The Promotion of Homosexuality, Lesbianism, and Transgenderism to Minors’ law bans any “public activities promoting sodomy, lesbianism, bisexuality and transgender identity” in the city.

Numerous LGBT rights campaigners have been arrested under the law, most for simply for holding up gay flags or placards with pro-gay messages.