Leading gay rights activist Nikolai Alexeyev filed a defamation lawsuit for 1 kopek against Mayor Yury Luzhkov on Wednesday for saying "queers" undermine a morally healthy society.

Luzhkov, who has called gay pride parades "satanic" and has banned them in Moscow, railed against gays in interviews Tuesday on the radio program "Face-to-City" and later on TV-Center television. "Gay parades cannot be held in Moscow because of public morals and the safety of sexual minorities," he said. "First, our society has healthy morals and does not accept these queers and, second, if they get permission to parade there is another radical part of society that would kill them."

Alexeyev said he held little hope that he would win the lawsuit that he filed in Moscow's Tverskoi District Court. "Nobody in Russia can win against the authorities. This is about raising awareness," he told Reuters.