“The end of the ban on blood donation by homosexuals was the first positive normative action by the Russian authorities since the decriminalization of homosexual relation in 1993,” the site said. “The campaign by the activists of GayRussia lasted three years.”

Moscow’s third gay pride took place June 1. “Despite an impressive deployment of police in the streets of Moscow, the city authorities were unable to prevent ... two public rallies,” the site said. About 35 activists misled police into going to the wrong location and then managed to stage a rally at the Tchaikovsky statue at the Moscow Conservatory and a very brief pride march. A bit later, they unfurled a big banner from an apartment balcony across from City Hall.

Mayor Yuri Luzhkov has banned pride for three years running, calling it “satanic” and charging that gay “propaganda” contributes to the spread of HIV.

In St. Petersburg, the gay film festival “Side by Side” was blocked from starting Oct. 2 by city officials who declared the clubs The Place and Sochi, where the films were to be screened, to be fire hazards. Originally, the festival was to take place in a state cinema house, which backed out of the deal. The festival then was moved to a private theater, which then backed out as well.

GayRussia.ru also named three “Russian Homophobes of 2008.” Oleg Betin, governor of the Tambov Region, won for saying: “Tolerance? To hell! Faggots should be torn apart and their pieces thrown in the wind.” Mayor Luzhkov was selected for calling gay pride parades “weapons of mass destruction,” among other strange remarks. And Russian MP Victor Ilyukhin snagged a spot for calling for the recriminalization of gay sex.

GayRussia said the top three international stories of the year were the fight for same-sex marriage in California, gay Australian Matthew Mitcham’s gold-medal dive at the Beijing Olympics (the highest-scoring dive in Olympic history), and the Dec. 18 statement read to the United Nations General Assembly in which 66 nations called for the decriminalization of gay sex worldwide and affirmed that international human rights standards include protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity.