This weekend Moscow will host the Eurovision Song Contest finals. As musicians face off this Saturday, another contest of sorts will occur between gay rights activists and city Mayor Yuri Luzhkov.

The activists are fighting for their right to hold a march this Saturday, which Luzhkov banned for the third year in a row. The mayor is notorious for his anti-gay stance, calling homosexuals “satanic.” At an AIDs conference in 2008, he said the protests have not been permitted because “they could turn out to be one of the factors in the spread of HIV infections.”

Previous protests in 2006 and 2007 ended in violence. The annual marches, known as “Moscow Pride,” have all been banned by Luzhkov but held anyway. The organizer, Nikolai Alekseev, is a journalist. A documentary chronicalling his attempts to hold a march was released in 2008.

Alekseev expects violence again this year. “Groups of fanatics and extremists will be roaming the streets in the centre of Moscow looking for people to beat up,” he said. “Nobody will care. Moscow police will do nothing to protect them.”

According to the Moscow Weekly, Peter Tatchell, an activist beat up at the 2007 march, has invited Yuri Luzhkov to discuss their differences, saying:

I would ask Mayor Luzhkov to meet me and a delegation of Russian gay campaigners. We are seeking cooperation and an amicable solution. Dialogue with the mayor would be useful. I’m sure we can sort out these issues over a cup of tea and a cake at City Hall.

The mayor has refused to meet with the activists, however. At least 100 protestors are expected to defy the ban and illegally attend this weekend’s event, this time called “Slavic Gay Pride.”

Russia is well known for its homophobia. Earlier this Tuesday, two women attempted to register the country’s first same-sex marriage in the Tverskoi district of Moscow. The matrimony was officially rejected by the government.

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