150 people gathered to attend an LGBTI pride event in a public park in Russia, despite being told by Russian authorities they should hold the event at a landfill site.

The event was held yesterday (26 July) at the Field of Mars park in St Petersburg, a public park where federal law decrees such an event was allowed to be held.

The pride rally was organized by gay rights group Ravnopraviye (Equality), even though they were banned from marching, because of Russia’s anti-gay propaganda law.

The group had previously applied for a permit from city authorities to hold a pride march but were flatly refused.

The St Petersburg Times reported authorities are obliged to suggest alternatives, and they mockingly suggested the village of Novosyolk, which is next to a cemetery, and a space near the Gulf of Finland, which is a landfill site.

The landfill is described as a ‘two-meter-deep, 10-meter-wide square pit’, covered in grass.

Yury Gavrikov, the chairman of Ravnopraviye (Equality), said the suggestions made by the authorities are a ‘classic’ example of their attitudes towards gays.

Despite this opposition, the pride event held yesterday went without any major incidents.

Queerussia.com reports the event was secured by police, and there were no violent outbursts or counter-groups protesting.

One protester brought a torn rainbow flag; it had been destroyed in a less peaceful gay pride rally before, to symbolize the suffering of LGBTIs in Russia.

Another speaker spoke about HIV and AIDS.

A young man was removed from the scene because he was not LGBTI and was handing out nationalistic leaflets.

In May, protesters braved being pelted with eggs to release rainbow balloons into the sky in another LGBTI pride event in St Petersburg.