Belarusian gays, lesbians picket Minsk ministry

Gay rights activists staged a protest outside Belarus's Justice Ministry in Minsk on Monday.

A RIA Novosti correspondent said a dozen people were waving flags and chanting slogans demanding equal rights and condemning the treatment of gays and lesbians in Belarus.

The protest was allowed to go ahead for the first time after a series of similar events were broken up by police.

Homophobia is a big problem in Belarus, where the Russian word "pidor," a corruption of "pederast," is an everyday term of abuse.

Homosexuality was illegal in the Soviet Union.