Pederast Alekseev. What do LGBT activists think about Nikolai Alekseev and his attempts to hold a gay pride parade in Russia?

On February 24, in the Baza telegram channel there were photographs of a document signed by the head of the city of Boguchar, Voronezh region, Ivan Nezhelsky, approving the gay pride parade. Nezhelsky later said that the photo got onto the Internet by accident, and the organizers of the procession were refused.

An application to hold a gay pride parade was submitted by activist Nikolai Alekseev. February 20 on your page on VKontakte he wrote: “Boguchar, Kantemirovka, Rossosh, Pavlovsk, Kalach, Buturlinovka, Talovaya, Bobrov, Ostrogozhsk and Novovoronezh. The grandiose campaign for freedom of assembly for LGBT people has reached 350 cities in 81 of the 85 constituent entities of the Russian Federation.” In none of these 350 cities has an activist’s application ever been granted.

TDs talk about who Nikolai Alekseev is, why he needs gay pride parades, and what other LGBT activists think about him and his affairs.

The most ardent defender

The name of Nikolai Alekseev often appears on the news agenda in connection with the gay pride parades that he is trying to hold in different cities of Russia. He consistently receives refusals, consistently goes to trial and brings the case to the ECHR. Holding gay pride parades does not help, but it brings fame and sometimes money. Thus, in October 2010, the European Court ordered Russia to pay Alekseev 12 thousand euros and reimburse costs in the amount of 17.5 thousand euros. In 2018, the ECHR again declared the bans on gay pride parades in Russia illegal at the request of Alekseev, but did not give any money. He called this decision a “filkin’s letter” and stated that “the judges of the European Court have signed off on their complete impotence before the Russian Federation.”

In the LGBT community, Alekseev is known as one of the most ardent defenders of rights and the creator of a movement called “GayRussia.Ru”. Over the years, Alekseev organized unsanctioned parades in Moscow, was beaten and caught by the police, advocated the legalization of same-sex marriage and rushed to defend anyone who was discriminated against.

He has several high-profile victories to his credit. For example, in 2008, he ensured that LGBT people were allowed to be blood donors. And in 2009, thanks to the efforts of Alekseev, the court declared the closure of the gay club “Soul and Body” in Moscow illegal.

Alekseev studied at Moscow State University at the Faculty of Public Administration. He received a diploma with honors and remained in graduate school in the specialty “constitutional, municipal and administrative law.” He chose the rights of sexual minorities as the topic of his dissertation, but did not finish it because, according to him, the topic caused dissatisfaction among the leadership of the department.

Nikolai Alekseev holds a crossed out ballot during elections to the State Duma, 2007 Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Some LGBT activists criticize the activities of Nikolai Alekseev, calling them provocative and discrediting. For example, he was accused of provocations in the North Caucasus; his statements about holding gay pride parades in several cities in the region, among other things, provoked mass detentions of gays in Chechnya.

And in 2011, American activist Scott Long accused Alekseev of anti-Semitic statements, citing a remark in his LiveJournal: “The Prime Minister of Israel called on Western leaders to support the Egyptian dictator Mubarak... and who are the Jews after that? In fact, I already knew who they were.”

In 2008, Alekseev married a Swiss resident named Pierre, and in 2016 received local citizenship. Nevertheless, he continues his active work to protect LGBT rights in Russia. Some activists are confident that applications for holding gay pride parades, which Alekseev submits en masse to the administrations of Russian cities, are a provocation and a desire to make money. Others are confident that there is no other way to change attitudes towards LGBT people in Russia.

Alexey Sergeev

My opinion about Nikolai is contradictory. On the one hand, I pay tribute to the scale of his activities in promoting freedom of assembly for everyone in Russia, LGBT openness and talent as a PR man. He was the first in Russia to systematically take to the streets and demand equal rights (Moscow Gay Pride). He was not afraid of harsh detentions and attacks by radicals. He showed “in person” that throughout Russia the right to freedom of assembly for LGBT citizens is not respected - both within the country and in Europe.

He rose to prominence in the media through this activity

Even in the last few years, thanks to his requests to hold a gay pride parade throughout Russia, a wave of publications has swept through the local media - each time this is an information source for a discussion on an “invisible” topic, a way out of the zone of silence.

At the same time, his “legal” strategy itself is inflexible and, most likely, will not give the result that he expects. The idea was to get refusals in hundreds of cities so that payments of compensation according to ECHR decisions would be sensitive to the Russian budget. This is naive, because even a million euros for the Russian authorities is a needle prick, and on the other side of the scale is the “spiritual bond” of confrontation with the “corrupt Geyropa.” But even here, the last decision of the ECHR on Alekseev’s package of claims was without monetary compensation (judging by his posts on social networks, he was very offended by the ECHR). For me, this is what everything was going towards from the beginning. If you use the same tool in changing conditions, it is not a fact that it will be able to lead to the desired result.

On the other hand, many colleagues who worked with Alekseev note a number of his complex personal qualities, because of which they had to part with him (vanity, attempts to attribute all the merits to himself alone, conflict, devaluation, and so on). Since I personally communicated with him only twice and not enough to draw conclusions, I will leave this topic. I personally reconsidered my attitude after his anti-Semitic statements and support for Russian actions in Ukraine. A person who calls himself a human rights activist who defends only minorities, in my opinion, has no right to be an anti-Semite or to attack a national minority. Otherwise, this is no longer about human rights.

There is a reproach from LGBT people from the regions that Alekseev from Moscow is applying for applications, will agitate homophobes, and the locals “will now have to live with it.” However, he usually does not come into contact with local activists, and this irritates many. From a legal point of view, Alekseev has every right, as a citizen of Russia, to submit a notice of action anywhere from Kaliningrad to the Far East. If local LGBT people have never done this in 25 years, have not used their right (not obligation) to freedom of assembly, then it is somewhat strange to reproach someone who does this, speaking on their own behalf. On the other hand, “you can’t be nice by force,” and there is a certain ethics. We in the Alliance decided for ourselves this way: we are going to another region either in response to homophobic statements by officials (as part of the RosGeyTour campaign - we are coming to you), or to support local activists who are going to take part in a rally. In any case, the media potential of public events is an important thing. Even if they try to disrupt the action, this is a point for discussion, discussion. The worst thing is silence, we see this from the terrible events in Chechnya, where “there are no gays.”

Alina Alieva

activist of the Samara trans*, queer, intersex initiative group “KIT-Initiative”

I, as a representative of a trans*queer organization, can say that Alekseev’s statements about holding a gay pride parade did not influence us in any way. My personal opinion regarding these statements is that they are stupid and harmful. Because the gay pride parade is among the top triggering things related to LGBT people. And what some activists understand by “gay pride” is not even close to gay pride parades in other countries. Here in Russia, this is a street protest action, like kissing at the State Duma. Seven years ago this was still needed to make some noise and increase visibility. But today this is only harmful. Because a mass LGBT action will only cause triggers, aggression and misunderstanding on the part of people on the street, even among LGBT representatives themselves. There are many other ways to educate and increase the visibility of community problems, which, unlike such actions, achieve their goals to one degree or another.

The maximum thing a gay pride parade is needed for is advocacy. For the authorities to refuse to hold the parade, and if they allow it, for several of its participants to be beaten, then there will be courts and appeals to the ECHR, which will raise the problem to the international level. But she's already there. I speak about this somewhat cynically and sarcasticly, because the very topic of gay pride parades seems stupid and sabotage to me. It distracts people's attention from the problems that we (LGBT organizations) are actually solving.

For example, problems with employment, stigmatization in educational institutions, the use of violence by relatives and non-relatives in everyday situations who learn about a person’s LGBT status, and so on. And when everyone starts making noise about these stupid parades, including in the media, then people who are far from this topic confirm their opinion that LGBT people need to express themselves on the street and nothing else.

Thank God, now many media outlets have begun to talk about real problems and real stories of real LGBT people, and not fairy tales about how a gay man from the Russian outback sits and is sad about how he can’t get to the parade.

Alexei

activist of the Petrozavodsk LGBT network “Nachalo”

I learned about Alekseev after the Petrozavodsk administration received a request to hold a gay pride parade in the city. I saw a publication in a local online magazine, allegedly gays of Petrozavodsk want to go to the parade. But we didn’t want anything like that and had nothing to do with this statement. Our organization had only just registered officially; we were only ten days old. And because of Alekseev, Cossacks stood at my door immediately after the information hit the media and wanted reprisals. We received a lot of threats from a variety of people, so I have an extremely negative attitude towards Alekseev.

I began to learn about him from other LGBT activists, found out that he had done bad things in Russia and fled to Switzerland, where he now lives. And he writes all these statements from there, without coordinating with local communities. He doesn’t care at all what happens to LGBT activists in Russia after this. I found him on social networks and wrote that submitting an application for a march without consulting with local communities is wrong. To which he replied that we have democracy in our country, and he himself decides what and where to write.

Regina

activist of the Mayak public movement, Vladivostok

Alekseev submitted an application to hold a gay pride parade in Vladivostok. Some LGBT people were scared and unhappy. Like, now everyone will think that all LGBT people are bad, they want a parade. Yes, we want a parade! I don’t call it a parade, though. This is a march where we protest against what is happening regarding LGBT people. In Vladivostok, there is strong discrimination and harassment from the authorities. From the police, who come to our events and behave extremely rudely, and from the administration, which does not respond to notifications about events and rallies.

I worked for many years in the administration of the Primorsky Territory. I recently quit there because unbearable discrimination began against me. Letters came to work from the police saying that I was an activist and was holding LGBT events. They didn't just notify my superiors, they asked me to take action. I was deprived of my bonus because of these letters, but it is impossible to prove this. And then at work they “carried out an inspection” and gave me recommendations to adhere to traditional family values.

I am a civil servant and a lesbian, and I want to protect myself, my family and my rights

I filed several lawsuits against the actions of the police and my superiors, and, of course, they kicked me off. So I support Alekseev’s actions. We have the right to defend our rights, we have the right to hold rallies. And we need to strive for their implementation.

Dmitry Musolin

activist of the Alliance of Heterosexuals and LGBT for Equality, St. Petersburg

Alekseev is a very unique character. We have known each other since St. Petersburg Pride, I think it was 2010. Then we were detained (for many it was the first detention and trial), and we believed that he would help with the papers as a lawyer. But he calmly left, and we were left alone in court. Many LGBT activists and even non-activists do not approve of his activities, but I think that all flowers are needed and all methods are important (within reason, of course).

His applications, his exits and trials, the way he raised the topic in the 2000s is also important. But then he somehow began to lose authority, there were anti-Semitic statements, flirting with someone, squabbles, and cursing at other initiatives.

he became, as it were, unshakable in the human rights community

As far as I know, when he was studying at Moscow State University, he wrote a book about same-sex marriage. Then for ten years he was the organizer of the Moscow Pride. Once a year I went out with the guys, trained correspondents, there was publicity. Then they began to ban him, catch him, he began to apply for parades, sue, and bring cases to the ECHR. It's all very boring and disgusting, but I'm sure it's necessary.

As for the activists in the regions, they are not little children whom he fooled; they must understand everything. By the way, his website GayRussia.ru does not open; apparently, he abandoned it after he left for Switzerland to join his husband.

Oleg Ovsyannikov

LGBT activist, Moscow

I have an ambivalent attitude towards him [Alekseev]. As a lawyer and a human rights activist, it’s good and positive. He is hardworking, professional, inventive, consistent, smart. I am sure that his activities will be highly appreciated over the years and will certainly bear fruit in the legislative direction. He is rightfully considered the country's "main gay activist." But at the same time, Alekseev is quite difficult in interpersonal communication. It has always been extremely difficult for him to endure criticism and insults from all sorts of “idiots” who are not able to understand his work and consider it “sabotage.” He is very hot-tempered, often rude, arrogant, and does not tolerate even playful doubts about his leadership. This is what gives him a negative reputation in the LGBT community.

Nevertheless, it is worth noting that barking at Alekseev is always among small LGBT activists. All the key people accept him this way and turn a blind eye to it because they value his perseverance and deeds.

One of the most resonant LGBT news of the week is a homophobic one in a small town in the Voronezh region, in which about 500 people took part. For the town of Boguchar, where only 11 thousand people live, this is an unimaginable crowd of people in its scale.

The dissatisfaction of the locals was not caused by “dominance on the stage and television”, not by the “blue lobby” in the regional administration, and not even by the participation of Sergei Lazarev in Eurovision from Russia. Boguchar residents were angry that on this day, February 26, an LGBT action was to take place in their city, the local administration was notified of it.

At the same time, it was not the gays and lesbians of Boguchar (who, no doubt, are there) and not even activists from Voronezh itself (there is a branch of the “LGBT network” in this city) who had to walk in the column, but some people from Moscow who submitted the notification about the action in Boguchar (as well as other cities of the Voronezh region).

As a result, there were no welcome guests from the capital. The Boguchar residents held a rally for an hour and went home.

What was that all about? The consequence of one of many similar attempts by the odious and irreconcilable fighter for gay pride parades from Chechnya to Chukotka Nikolai Alekseev.

That’s right—a fighter for “gay prides,” not an LGBT activist. Alekseev’s actions have had nothing to do with LGBT activism for at least five years.

Nikolai Alekseev is engaged in the fact that every month he sends several notifications about LGBT actions to different localities of the Russian Federation. He receives refusals everywhere and then appeals them in court, right up to the ECHR. There is an opinion that Alekseev’s whole scheme turned into a kind of business, but I can’t claim it - I didn’t hold a candle, I didn’t look into his wallet with a flashlight.

As my senior comrades in LGBT activism explained to me, in this way Nikolai Alekseev wants to prove that LGBT actions in Russia are impossible anywhere. It seems that ultimately this should somehow lead to the repeal of the “Mizulina law” or at least increase international pressure on Russia in terms of protecting the rights of LGBT people.

But what do we see in the end?

Endless notifications about Nikolai Alekseev’s pride events filled the information space. If you type in the search for the Yandex.News resource the query “LGBT Alekseev”, you will see hundreds, if not thousands of news from the category “They want to hold a gay pride in Serpukhov”, “The first gay parade may take place in Omsk”, “LGBT -activists were denied permission to hold a parade in the Kaluga region” (these are three real headlines that were published by different local media on one day taken at random - January 16).

In this news, which is read by Russians from various regions of our country, Nikolai Alekseev is presented as the “leader of the Russian LGBT community.” A community that has no other problems or tasks other than holding gay pride events in Serpukhov and Boguchar. Gays and lesbians also read this news. They read and think that LGBT activists are extremely fucked-up people who don’t want to help their brothers and sisters in their orientation, but want to dress in carnival costumes and march in formation along the Russian streets.

What can I say, many LGBT activists have encountered the fact that “ordinary” gays and lesbians are afraid of them like fire, sincerely thinking that they are only interested in pride events. Psychological and legal support? No, we haven't heard. Of course, I can’t place all the blame for the false perception of LGBT activism on Nikolai Alekseev alone, but he made a big contribution to it.

I won’t talk about what Alekseev’s applications for LGBT actions in the Caucasus led to and how he behaved further - gay blogger Felix Gluckman spoke about this perfectly.

I don’t want to talk about Alekseev’s possible connections with the Kremlin - talking about this without any facts is pointless. I will not remember his anti-Semitic statements, talk about his citizenship, etc. - this is useless.

But the fact is obvious that at the moment all the activities of this person are far from being in the interests of the LGBT community, and are not aimed at protecting them and improving their lives. With his statements, he only creates a fake image of activism in the media and increases hatred towards LGBT people throughout Russia.

Therefore, let Nikolai Alekseev continue his dubious activities - no one has the right to prohibit him from doing this. But at the moment he doesn’t deserve the prefix “LGBT activist,” much less “leader of the LGBT movement” (victories fifteen years ago, if there were any, don’t count). Only a “fighter for LGBT pride events”, in which, however, no one participates.

Announce the entire list, please! About the hidden tyranny of homosexuals and “other minorities”
The occupation of power by sexual and ethnic minorities threatens the existence of Russia
Today the situation is such that “democracy” has finally turned into a poorly hidden form of dictatorship of various minorities over the majority. And when the majority of the people of Russia are indignant at why the leading media, authorities and the education system put forward clearly antisocial initiatives that benefit global ethnic capital or outright perverts, we have the right to know by name what sexual orientation and nationality the characters occupy socially significant positions.
To the question of which government official “has a homosexual orientation,” Nikolai Alekseev, the leader of the Russian LGBT movement, founder of the human rights project gayrussia.ru, head of the Moscow Gay Pride, answered.
As we understand, this is not a complete list of perverts in power.
Thus, one should not be surprised why, despite the protests, state media occupied by various minorities at the expense of the national budget feed the society with dubious “liberal” ideas, banks captured by minorities finance them, and high-ranking perverts push “gender” and other laws that are categorically not accepted by the normal majority, who are forced to spend their time and energy on creating “parental resistance”.
Not long ago, we (PVNSSR) managed to achieve the resignation of Senator B.I. Shpigel, who in his position not only lobbied for the interests of a foreign state, but also his own business. In addition, according to information circulating on the Internet, in the 1980s, a certain Shpigel B.I. was prosecuted for seduction for molesting minor boys. But this is an isolated case of resignation, during which we repeatedly received threats from the servants of the said character.
Therefore, we should talk about the nationally proportional principle when occupying socially significant positions. In addition, society should know not only the income and real estate of “people’s representatives” and officials holding all government positions, but also their national roots, as well as their sexual orientation.
At the same time, we want to know this not “in the distant future,” but here and now.
And then it is necessary to raise the question of adopting a law stating that in case of fraud, these characters from various kinds of “minorities” should be removed from office and prosecuted for fraud.

Nikolai Alexandrovich Alekseev(born December 23, 1977, Moscow) is a Russian human rights activist and activist of the LGBT movement, founder of the human rights project GayRussia.Ru, head of the Moscow Gay Pride.

Nikolai Alekseev became widely known as the organizer of gay pride in Moscow, as well as through a number of lawsuits over the observance of human rights against LGBT people. On October 21, 2010, Nikolai Alekseev won a case against Russia in the European Court of Human Rights, which unanimously ruled that by banning gay pride events, the Russian authorities violated three articles of the European Convention on Human Rights: the right to freedom of assembly, protection from discrimination and judicial protection.

Nikolai Alekseev was born and raised in Moscow in a family of engineers. He studied at a music school, graduated from high school with in-depth study of English in 1995, after which he entered the Faculty of Public Administration of Moscow State University. M. V. Lomonosov.

While studying at the university, Nikolai Alekseev was particularly attracted to the course on constitutional law. In the summers of 1996, 1997 and 1998, he completed a student internship at the Secretariat of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation in Moscow, including helping the judge prepare materials and draw conclusions on various cases before the Court.

In 1998, while a third-year student, Nikolai Alekseev published his first monograph, “Citizens’ Complaints to the Constitutional Court: Historical Excursion, Practice of European Countries, Legal Aspects of Filing and Consideration,” at the White Alva Publishing House. With the proceeds, he went on his first trip abroad to London. In the summer of 1999, I completed an internship in English in the UK for two months.

From November 2000 to February 2001, Nikolai Alekseev worked as a special correspondent for the Russian daily newspaper Segodnya, covering events in the UK.

In 2000, having defended his thesis on the topic “House of Lords of the British Parliament”, he graduated from the Faculty of Public Administration of Moscow State University with a gold medal and honors diploma. M. V. Lomonosov. Then he decided to devote himself to science and remained at the Faculty of Public Administration at Moscow State University, where he continued his graduate studies in constitutional, municipal and administrative law.

Initially, “House of Lords” was approved as the topic of the future dissertation, but Nikolai Alekseev decided to change it to a more relevant and concerning topic of the rights of sexual minorities. In his work, he wanted to describe the sexual and legal revolution and systematize Western experience, so that he could then move on to real proposals for improving the situation in Russia. In the summer of 2001, during a trip to France, he wrote the monograph “Legal regulation of the position of sexual minorities: Russia in the light of the practice of international organizations and legislation of the world.” However, according to Alekseev, the change in the topic of the dissertation caused dissatisfaction with the leadership of the department and faculty, and therefore in November 2001 he was forced to leave graduate school.

At the beginning of 2002, a month after Nikolai Alekseev left Moscow State University, his research was published by the BEK publishing house as a monograph, and in June the same publishing house released his second book, “Gay Marriage. Family status of same-sex couples in international, national and local law”, dedicated to a broad overview of the legal regulation of same-sex family unions in countries around the world.

In 2003, Nikolai Alekseev published a monograph dedicated to the history and modernity of the upper house of the British Parliament - “The House of Lords of the British Parliament: from the court of King Egbert to the revolution of Prime Minister T. Blair (825-2003).”

In 2004, Nikolai Alekseev sued Moscow State University, claiming that he was a victim of discrimination based on sexual orientation. The Nikulinsky District Court of Moscow left Nikolai Alekseev's claim against Moscow State University unsatisfied, having found no evidence of discrimination based on sexual orientation. The Moscow City Court, by its ruling, rejected the applicant's cassation appeal, upholding the decision of the court of first instance. Later, in May 2006, Nikolai Alekseev filed his first complaint against Russia with the European Court of Human Rights, demanding that the Russian authorities be convicted of violating his right to education, right to privacy and protection from discrimination. The Strasbourg Court registered the complaint under number 9689/06, however, as of 2011, it had not begun to consider it.

After the trial with Moscow State University, as well as the unsuccessful attempt by Mishin and Murzin to register a same-sex marriage in Russia, Nikolai Alekseev decided to devote himself to the fight for the rights of gays, lesbians, and transgender people in Russia. In an interview with In These Times, he stated: “At that moment I realized that I could not change anything in Russia by just writing books,” “I had to get involved in activism and try to bring about change on the issue of LGBT rights.” On May 17, 2005, Nikolai Alekseev announced the establishment of the Russian LGBT human rights project GayRussia.Ru in Moscow. In the same year, he joined the Committee for the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia.

On September 5, 2008, Nikolai Alekseev entered into a same-sex marriage. The wedding ceremony took place at the Geneva City Hall on the basis of the federal law on registered partnerships. Nikolai’s chosen one was a Swiss citizen named Pierre (surname not publicly disclosed), with whom they have been in a family relationship since November 1999. Nikolai Alekseev noted that this was the first case in Russia of a public person legally entering into a same-sex marriage. The couple does not have children, but they plan to have children in the future.

In a 2006 interview, he described himself as an Orthodox believer, but added that he was thinking of stopping affiliation with the church and converting to Buddhism, since “it is the most tolerant religion in the world.” In a 2012 radio broadcast, when asked whether he was a believer, he answered: “yes, at least I don’t consider myself an atheist.”

Describing the personality traits of Nikolai, his colleague Anna Komarova notes: “He is a complex person, by no means a soft person. But people who don’t like to exert themselves choose other activities.”

Nikolay Alekseev speaks English and French. He loves to travel and has visited more than forty countries around the world. He is interested in sports: football, cross-country and mountain climbing.

Nikolai Aleksandrovich Alekseev was born on December 23, 1977 into a family of engineers. He graduated from high school with in-depth study of the English language and studied at a music school.

After school, Alekseev successfully passed the exams at the Institute of Public Administration and Social Research (IGUiSI) of M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University. In 2000, he graduated with honors from Moscow State University, receiving the specialty of an expert in public administration and entered graduate school. When choosing the topic of his future candidate's dissertation, Alekseev first continued to work on the topic of his thesis, dedicated to the upper house of the British Parliament - the House of Lords. However, in the future he decided to focus on studying the legal status of representatives of sexual minorities. In the summer of 2001, Alekseev wrote a monograph “Legal Regulation of the Status of Sexual Minorities: Russia in the Light of the Practice of International Organizations and National Legislation of Countries of the World,” but he failed to get approval for a new dissertation topic. After attempting to pass the candidate exam in November 2001, Alekseev wrote a letter of resignation from graduate school “due to discrimination and the inability to continue working at the faculty” (in the order of his expulsion from the university, the reason was given as the loss of “connection with the department and failure to fulfill the curriculum of the graduate student’s work.” ).

In June 2002, Alekseev’s book “Gay Marriage: Family Status of Same-Sex Couples in International, National and Local Law” was published, and in 2003 his monograph “The House of Lords of the British Parliament: from the Court of King Egbert to the Revolution of Prime Minister T. Blair” was published ( 825-2003)".

In 2004, Alekseev sued Moscow State University. In his statement of claim, he accused the university of discrimination based on sexual orientation and demanded compensation for material and moral damage. In June 2005, the Nikulinsky District Court of Moscow refused to satisfy Alekseev’s claims, after which in March 2006, lawyers on behalf of Alekseev sent a complaint to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). They also demanded that the Russian Federation be obliged to pay the plaintiff compensation in the amount of 30 thousand euros.

In May 2005, Alekseev headed the work of the human rights Internet project GayRussia.ru. In the same year, he was elected chairman of the organizing committee of the Moscow Gay Pride, and since the beginning of 2006 he was also mentioned in the press as the executive secretary of the International Day Against Homophobia Committee located in Paris.

Since 2006, Alekseev has been one of the organizers of gay pride street marches (“gay parades”) aimed “at attracting public attention to the facts of discrimination against gays and lesbians in Russia, the development of tolerance and respect for human rights in society.” Speaking on the radio "Echo of Moscow", Alekseev emphasized that the organizers of the parade did not plan to hold a carnival procession ("as it happens in Western countries in the form in which gay parades are shown on our television in order to discredit the gay movement in Russia") , but only sought the opportunity to organize a human rights action “so that people could declare their rights.” However, organizers have repeatedly been denied permission to hold gay pride parades in Moscow, explaining this decision by “the need to protect public order, health, morality, the rights and freedoms of others, as well as to prevent riots.” Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov opposed gay pride parades, calling such actions a “satanic act” and one of the manifestations of “blasphemy under the guise of creativity and under the guise of the principle of freedom of speech.” Alekseev was unable to challenge the refusal to hold marches and pickets in court.

In January 2007, Alekseev filed a complaint with the ECHR against the repeated ban on marches and pickets in defense of the rights of representatives of the LGBT community (lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people). In October 2010, he won the case on the ban on gay pride events in Moscow in 2006-2008: according to the court decision, Russia had to pay Alekseev 12 thousand euros in compensation for moral damage and pay legal costs (17,510 euros). In the same month, after the resignation of Mayor Luzhkov, the first action of gay activists permitted by the Moscow government took place. It took place on October 1, 2010 near the building of the Swiss airline Swiss Airlines and was disrupted by representatives of the nationalist organization “Russian Image”.

In October 2008, Alekseev, together with activists from Belarus, founded the Slavic Gay Pride movement. In October 2009, he was appointed regional director for Eastern Europe of the International Association of Pride Organizers InterPride, and in October 2010 he was elected to the board of directors of InterPride.

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In October 2010, Alekseev announced that he was filing a lawsuit for compensation for moral damage and damage to business reputation against the chairman of the Moscow Helsinki Group Lyudmila Alekseeva and the Ekho Moskvy radio station due to the fact that two months earlier the human rights activist called him on the radio " a person who lies quite often." In April 2011, the Meshchansky Court of Moscow rejected the LGBT activist’s claim, citing the subjectivity of the opinion expressed by Alekseeva.

In January 2011, Russia asked the ECHR to reconsider the decision on the illegality of the ban on gay pride parades, but in April 2011 it received a refusal from the panel of the Grand Chamber of the ECHR, after which the court’s verdict came into effect. In July of the same year, the Russian authorities paid the organizers of the Moscow gay pride parades compensation in the amount of 29,510 euros - this is the amount that the ECHR decided to pay.

In the spring of 2012, a new law “On Administrative Offenses in St. Petersburg” was adopted in St. Petersburg, which contained a provision banning the promotion of homosexuality and pedophilia. This law provided for fines for “propaganda of sodomy, lesbianism, bisexuality, and transgenderism among minors,” which caused a wide public outcry. After the law came into force on March 30, on April 12, 2012, Alekseev held a one-man picket at the entrance to the St. Petersburg administration building and was detained. On May 4, 2012, the court fined him 5 thousand rubles: thus, he became the first to be punished for violating the new law.

The press also mentioned other actions carried out by Alekseev personally. Thus, in 2007, the media wrote about Alekseev’s public speech for the abolition of the order of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation of September 14, 2001, according to which the number of blood donors could not include “persons at risk (homosexuals, drug addicts, prostitutes)” (homosexuals were excluded from the list of persons prohibited from being blood donors in 2008).

In September 2008, Alekseev entered into a civil partnership agreement in Geneva with a Swiss citizen (his last name was not reported, but judging by one of the entries in Alekseev’s own blog, by the time the agreement was concluded they had lived together for 8 years).

In one of his articles, Alekseev called the systematic refusal of officials and the Russian judicial system to “recognize the right of Russian homosexuals to freedom of assembly” as a “symptom and symbol of human rights violations” in Russia. “Tomorrow, similar policies could be used against other social groups or minorities,” he warned.

In an interview with the publication "Big City" in June 2006, Alekseev called himself Orthodox. However, at the same time he stated that perhaps he would soon stop identifying himself with this denomination, since he was outraged by the behavior of the priests who “blessed the pogromists.” “It’s better to convert to Buddhism,” Alekseev stated, calling this particular religion the most tolerant in the world.

Alekseev is fond of sports, in particular, plays football (“at one time I even dreamed of becoming a professional football player”), and loves skiing - both cross-country and alpine. In the future, he dreams of becoming a father (“I think the time will come for this,” Alekseev said in 2005).