Patrons celebrating "Coming Out Day" at a Moscow club were caught off guard by an attack on Friday when they initially thought masked men were part of a planned performance for an open mic session.

NYT:

The police in Moscow on Friday were seeking two dozen masked men who stormed one of the city’s most popular gay bars early Thursday and beat patrons — most of them women — with fists and bottles. More than 10 people were injured, and three women and a man were hospitalized after the attack, which coincided with a “Coming Out Day” party, club employees said.

The violence comes during an unnerving year for gay men and lesbians in Russia. Three cities, including St. Petersburg, have passed laws criminalizing “homosexual propaganda,” and a spokesman for the Russian Orthodox Church, the country’s predominant faith, has endorsed an initiative to introduce the laws nationwide.

So far, no such law has been passed in the capital. However, a measure banning gay pride parades in Moscow for a century, until May 2112, was upheld by the city’s highest court in August.

Although homosexuality was decriminalized in 1993, discrimination against gays remains strong in Russia. Attempts to hold gay pride events have provoked violence by police and militant Orthodox activists.

Independent monitors say this was the seventh violent attack against gays in reported in Russia this year, but said the true number is much higher since many attacks go unreported due to the stigma.

Cenk's guest Friday on the "Aggressive Progressive" segment was Darcy Burner, who is running in Washington's first district in the Democratic primary for that seat. She has also been a guest at CrooksandLiars, and is also listed on our "Blue America" page.

Also, Markos Moulitsas of Daily Kos recently attended a Townhall event with Ms. Burner, where he enthusiastically endorsed her candidacy for Congress.

Cenk began with "I love this Aggressive Progressive segment and usually I do it, but I've got an even more aggressive progressive for you. Now you think, "come on, really." Well, it's Darcy Burner. You know what she advocates for, let me show you a quick little list here":

--"First of all, "suing the bejesus" out of corporations for wage discrimination,"
--"Then targeting boycotts against conservative funders"
--"And a campaign to "cast off the shame and embarassment" of women who've had an abortion"

"To which I say, "about damn time." So Darcy's going to join us now and not only is she running in Washington's first district in the Democratic primary for that seat, she also used to run ProgressiveCongress.org, and the Progressive Congress Action fund, and the list goes on and on."

Cenk: So Darcy, what are you doing? I'm told that Democrats aren't supposed to ruffle feathers; you not supposed to be an actual progressive."

Darcy: Well, you know, I think that's a big piece of the problem the Democratic Party has and maybe we should elect more Democrats with actual values.

Cenk: Shocking. Alright, now you've gotten into some quote-unquote trouble by the press there because they say that you're stridently pro-choice. Well, given that the country is 72% in favor of legalized abortion, wouldn't that seem to play to your advantage?

Darcy: One would think. One would think. But there's this culture around the idea that we should all be timid and meek and not actually stand up for the things that matter. I disagree.

Cenk: Now, Darcy, in your district they say well, look now, this is an important swing district and if we have someone clearly on the left here, it might hurt our cause. Now that's conventional wisdom, why do you disagree with that.

Darcy: That isn't what any of the actual numbers show. First, I've been polling ahead of all of the more timid, conservative, 'other' Democrats in this primary. Second, if you look at what happens around the country when you have progressives running and conservative Democrats running, progressive candidates consistently do better than the more conservative candidates. It turns out that American voters like people who will actually fight for them.

Cenk: Shocking! Republicans succeed. Why? They fight, right? They might be wrong, but they fight. Now, Elizabeth Warren also getting a ton of donations in Massachusetts, I just read a story today, they're like...wow, why? Well, it's because she fought the banks. For example, what would you do with the banks, Darcy?

Darcy: We have a huge number of bankers who have broken the laws and they should go to jail. It's long past time the people who brought down the economy for personal profit paid for it.