Dear friends,
My colleague Yuri, a campaigner for All Out, was just detained by police in Moscow this morning, along with four other fellow activists.
They were on their way to deliver over 2 million signatures to Russian authorities, demanding justice for the kidnapping and torture of gay men in Chechnya.
Hordes of police were waiting. They were taken away immediately.
A trial is set for May 29 and we want to be ready.
Your donation today will also allow us to continue to campaign fearlessly with our partners on the ground, until there is justice for the gay men persecuted in Chechnya.
We'll continue to work with the Russian LGBT Network – the group leading the evacuation of men at risk in Chechnya, which All Out members helped fund. The police confiscated the 2 million signatures, but we're determined to get them into the hands of Russian authorities.
We will also keep working with groups like Avaaz and Change.org to unite even more global voices. Your support is already working – together we pressured German Chancellor Angela Merkel to publicly urge President Vladimir Putin to stop the violent crimes against gay men in Chechnya.
But there's a lot more work to do. Today's events show that we've gotten the attention of Russian authorities. With your help, we can recover stronger than ever and keep up the drumbeat demanding justice for the Chechen 100.
In solidarity,
Matt Beard
