Alexey, a teenage LGBT activist from Saint Petersburg, was shortlisted for prestigious International Children\u2019s Peace Prize, a prize, which is given on an annual basis to a child supporting the rights of children. Alexey was nominated for the prize on the initiative of ADC \u201cMemorial\u201d and this nomination was supported by Russian LGBT Network, Children-404 project, International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) and other human rights defenders.<\/p>\n
Besides Alexey, 13-year old Andrew from Ghana and 18-year old Nekha from the USA were shortlisted, both of them for their active involvement in gathering funds for children and orphans suffering from hunger. Alexey was nominated for the prize for his braveness and readiness to speak out on behalf of LGBT teenagers, who adopted a name \u201cChildren-404\u201d in the Russian Federation following introduction of discriminatory law \u201cbanning propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations among minors\u201d. Young LGBT persons, who need psychological consultations and moral support the most, were banned from getting any information on the topics of varied gender identities and sexual orientation. More than that, these children were just banned from social life and public debates altogether. Both \u201cChildren-404\u201d project and Alexey himself received a high praise for their efforts to claim undeniable value of the rights of children and teenagers, who belong to gender and sexual minorities, as was stressed in the press release