Madonna’s St. Petersburg trial dismissed
Russian information agency RAPSI have been hosting a live text broadcast of the Madonna gay propaganda trial in St. Petersburg’s Moscovsky District Court, where a total of nine claimants representing socially conservative advocacy groups are seeking damages for Madonna’s alleged violation of a city ordinance banning gay propaganda.
The plaintiffs sought approximately $10.7 million in damages, claiming that Madonna’s show of support for the LGBT community constituted a violation of St. Petersburg’s gay propaganda ordinance, which purportedly aims to protect children. The St. Petersburg law on prohibiting propaganda of homosexuality and pedophilia among under-aged, which gathered a host of both supporters and opponents, came into effect on March 30.
Under the amended law public actions intended to promote homosexual and bisexual relations and transgender issues among under-aged are to be punished by administrative fines amounting to 5,000 rubles ($170) for individuals, 50,000 rubles ($1,700) for officials and from 250,000 to 500,000 rubles ($8,500 to 17,000) for legal entities.
A live transcript – totally worth checking – is available at rapsinews.com.
At 19:45 the judge was back from his chambers and announced that the claims were rejected in full. The claimants have an opportunity to appeal the judgement.