Promoter of Lady GaGa's Russian Concert Fined for Gay Propaganda

Organizer Planeta Plus gets fined after a female concertgoer claimed her 13-year-old daughter was exposed to sexual intercourse between women at the show which was held in the country last year.

Concert promoter for Lady GaGa's show in Russia has been fined for "propaganda of alcohol consumption and homosexuality." The Hollywood Reporter says that a St. Petersburg court has asked the show's organizer, Planeta Plus, to pay $614 (20,000 rubles).

The fine came as a response to a complaint by a local resident named Nadezhda Petrova. Along with her daughter, she attended GaGa's concert last year. Petrova claimed that during the show, her 13-year old daughter was exposed to an imitation of sexual intercourse between women and advocacy of alcohol consumption.

Judge Olga Rositskaya ruled that the promoters had violated a clause in Russia's administrative code on "protection of children from information that could harm their health and/or development."

The ruling will allow the plaintiff to sue Planeta Plus in a criminal court, demanding millions of rubles in damages for a "psychic trauma" suffered by her daughter at the show. A Russian online newspapper Gazeta.ru cites a spokesperson for a conservative organization called Labor Union of Russian Citizen as saying that Petrova is indeed considering further legal action.

Planeta Plus' general director, Yevgeny Filkenstein, has commented on the news, telling NTV-Peterburg, "We don't agree with this verdict because no one listened to us. Because of these laws against gay propaganda adopted here, because of these cheap publicity tricks, all viewers suffer. Just recently, Peter Gabriel, who has never performed in Russia, refused to come because of this law and because he supported Pussy Riot."