Demonstrators, Pop Star Brutally Attacked During Gay Protest

MOSCOW, RUSSIA -- British pop star Richard Fairbrass and several European lawmakers were among the activists that were attacked and beaten up by Russian ultra nationalists during a demonstration for gay rights in Moscow Sunday.

Fairbrass was punched in the face and kicked by anti-gay activists while speaking to Reuters in an interview. "We understand this is a gay event and so we came down here today," Fairbrass told Reuters before being hit.

Richard Fairbrass, 53, is best known for his part in the British pop group Right Said Fred which had an International smash hit with the song "I'm Too Sexy." In Britain, Fairbrass remains a famous musician and TV personality.

Russian police detained gay protesters calling for the right to hold a Gay Pride parade in central Moscow while nationalists shouting "death to homosexuals" brutally attacked the demonstrators. None of the nationalists were detained by police and demonstrators claim police ignored the violence.

The demonstrators tried to present a petition signed by some 40 European lawmakers to Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, who has called gay marches satanic acts, to lift a ban on the parade.

Police grabbed several demonstrators, including Russian gay rights movement leader Nikolai Alexeyev and German parliament member Volker Beck, and forced them into a bus.

Marco Cappato, a European Parliament deputy from Italy, was kicked by a gay rights opponent as he spoke to journalists before he was hauled away by police. "Where are the police? Why don't you protect us?" Cappato shouted.

"I didn't feel protected," said Vladimir Luxuria, a transgender member of the Italian parliament.

"We were peacefully trying to present a letter. That is never a reason to arrest people," said Sophie IntVeld, a Dutch member of the European Parliament.

The nationalists and extreme Russian Orthodox believers held icons and denounced homosexuality as "evil" while a group of young men turned up with surgeon's masks, which they said would protect them from the "gay disease".

An Orthodox woman repeatedly threw water from a bottle at Peter Tatchell, a British human rights activist, as he tried to speak. Tatchell was then attacked by a young man in a camouflage T-shirt who punched him in the head.

Yulia Volkova and Lena Katina of the pseudo-lesbian Russian pop group Tatu also briefly appeared the demonstration, but quickly left as their car was pelted with eggs.