Far From Rsia's Biggt Ci, Beg Gay Means Beg Always Unr Threat

Contents:

• ‘I’M AAID FOR MY FUTURE’: PROPOSED LAWS THREATEN GAY LIFE RSIA
• 'ANY DAY YOU N BE TAKEN': INSI WHAT 'S LIKE TO BE GAY CHECHNYA
• FAR FROM RSIA'S BIGGT CI, BEG GAY MEANS BEG ALWAYS UNR THREAT
• THE FEAR OF BEG GAY RSIA
• THE 5 BEST CENTRAL RSIA GAY CLUBS & BARSSEE ALL THGS TO DOGAY CLUBS & BARS CENTRAL RSIA
• GAY RSIA
• THE 5 BEST MOSW GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS MOSW
• TOP 13 COUNTRI WH BIGGT GAY POPULATNS

‘I’M AAID FOR MY FUTURE’: PROPOSED LAWS THREATEN GAY LIFE RSIA

Petersburg, has also distguished self as most tolerant of the LGBT muny, acrdg to the rults of a recent banned “homosexual propaganda” among mors 2013, leadg the urts to ban gay pri events and public pollg show surgg anti-LGBT sentiment. In recent weeks, thori the North Cs republic of Chechnya have aga been acced of illegally tag and killg gay men and Petersburg me first place among 20 Rsian ci whose rints are the most gay-iendly, acrdg to the Zoom Market agency’s rearch published Saturday. Novosibirsk and Mosw placed send and third, followed by Voronezh, Krasnodar and the oppose end of the rankg, the marketg agency named Saratov, Chelyabsk and Kazan as the three least tolerant Rsian ci toward LGBT Market surveyed 2, 400 rponnts om 20 Rsian ci on how they feel about sexual mori and whether any of their iends are gay.

”The anizers had good reason to be wary: Life has been challengg for gay Rsians sce the law passed, as the ernment has treated gay life as a Wtern import that is harmful to tradnal Rsian valu and Rsia’s Parliament is set to pass a legislative package that would ban all “gay propaganda, ” signalg an even more difficult perd ahead for a stigmatized segment of laws would prohib reprentatn of L. Exprsn wh s ratnale for the war Ukrae, sistg that Rsia is fightg not jt Ukrae but all of NATO, a Wtern alliance that reprents a threat to the Put drove home that argument a speech last week, sayg that the Wt n have “dozens of genrs and gay pri paras, ” but that should not try to spread the “trends” elsewhere. Olenichev said that though the police do not track hate crim agast queer people, he and his lleagu have noticed an crease clients who have suffered inty-based attacks sce rhetoric behd anti-gay laws may have dangero nsequenc for gay Rsians, said Vladimir Komov, a lawyer wh the group Delo 2013 law was promoted as protectg children, while the new on “seek to prohib gay propaganda as a danger to the state system, ” fg as extremism, he Lunchenkov said the proposed laws uld leave gay people “aaid to go to medil clics to get treatment or ttg” for sexually transmted diseas.

'ANY DAY YOU N BE TAKEN': INSI WHAT 'S LIKE TO BE GAY CHECHNYA

Lawmakers llg gays a danger on a par wh war “is more funny than sry, ” he now, gay Rsians and their alli have found exprsn spe rtrictive laws. A notable exceptn me 2013, when the ernor of St Petersburg did not forbid the cy’s LGBT pri para, although did enunter vlently homophobic protters who tried to obstct the metrics of hatredIn fact, the vlent far-right groups keep close tabs on LGBT activists Rsia and the events they hold – or try to.

FAR FROM RSIA'S BIGGT CI, BEG GAY MEANS BEG ALWAYS UNR THREAT

As we disvered om urt cisns last year, after the “propaganda” bill was signed to law, the number of hate crim agast lbians and gay men doubled. After facts me to light about the systematic torture of gay men at secret tentn mps Chechnya, the republic’s prs secretary immediately retorted that “you nnot reprs those who are not and nnot be here the Chechen Republic.

Statistilly, a gay person is safer St Petersburg than a smaller cy like NizhnevartovskVery often, hate crim are mted as soon as perpetrators learn about the victim’s sexualy, which is ually revealed a nversatn a private space over a drk or meal.

THE FEAR OF BEG GAY RSIA

This uld expla why the mayor of Svetlogorsk thks there are no gay men his town – anybody wh half a md that posn would leave the place as soon as they felt threatened. Image urty of the rults aren’t surprisg; they jt prove once aga that homophobia is on the rise Rsia and that hate crim are supported s remote regns. So this secrecy around the existence of homosexuals is rerced not only by polil cisns, but also by dividual mov as many LGBT people opt to hi their sexualy.

"Ricky's oral was mid-2018 and was a faiar early 2017, the world had beme aware of reports that Chechen thori were roundg up and torturg dozens of men they spected of beg gay, what me to be known as a "gay purge".

The nam of most of those terviewed have been changed at their requt out of ncern the Chechen thori or their fai might harm acunts pat a picture of a place where there is now virtually no space to be gay, where datg rri potentially lethal nsequenc and the supprsn of their inty is obligatory for LGBT people. He has done that, g allegedly savage methods, and the procs Kadyrov has remolled Chechnya around himself, erectg a police state and a cult of personaly built around an obssive machismo centered on sport, particularly martial the majory-Mlim regn, wh a eply nservative culture, beg gay was never accepted.

THE 5 BEST CENTRAL RSIA GAY CLUBS & BARSSEE ALL THGS TO DOGAY CLUBS & BARS CENTRAL RSIA

"It is a dictatorship, " said Harlem, who fled Chechnya several years ago and now ns LGBT World Bi, an NGO that tri to help gay people leave the Cs.

"In 2017, that nservative hostily to homosexualy seemed to nvert to anised terror, part of a broar nservative mpaign that has also targeted dg and alhol Dzhabrailov, 27, only the send man to e forward publicly about his tentn 2017, told ABC News that armed police took him om the hair salon where he was workg. For 14 days, he said, he was held a basement wh several other gay men, taken out for torture ssns, where he was electrocuted and subjected to a mock Dzhabrailov tells ABC News'' Jam Longman the torture and terrogatn he says he endured at the hands of Chechen News"They put me on the wall, put bag on my head, " he remembered.

GAY RSIA

Kadyrov and other officials have famoly said gay men don’t exist realy, Kadyrov’s ner circle have been acced of playg key rol the 2017 "purge. "For ’s crazy that someone among might be gay, " Apti Aluadov, Chechnya’s puty terr mister and a top manr of s police forc, told ABC News September. Aluadov, who was also sanctned 2013 by the Uned Stat over the same se as Ddov, claimed the gay men allegg torture were simply seekg asylum the Wt or that they themselv were likely not Chechens.

Insi, Aluadov showed the reporters the empty cells, which were clean and looked rarely ed, as though mostly sisted he uldn't nceive how a Chechen man uld be gay and said was not him but Chechen society that will not tolerate gay men. Victims have repeatedly scribed beg hand back over to their fai wh a suggtn that they kill them themselv and many of speakg anonymoly said they feared their relativ would harm them if they found such circumstanc, discsg homosexualy, let alone g out is impossible. He scribed a daily sappg fear, where every teractn wh the police uld rried potentially tastrophic durg the new wave of arrts last wter, Omar's mother advertently disvered he was gay.

He eventually sought asylum , a bisexual man livg the neighborg republic of Dagtan, where attus are very siar to Chechnya, had a wife and a 1-year-old baby when he said his life was men lured him to an apartment where they beat him and forced him to adm he was gay on mera. 'It’s harr for women bee they n’t leave'Many LGBT Chechens lk the eptn of more systematic vlence the past few years to a worseng atmosphere of homophobia Rsia, signaled by the passg of the notor so-lled "anti-gay propaganda" law law, which effectively banned public displays of homosexualy, has been cricized by rights groups as green-lightg discrimatn and vlence agast LGBT over Rsia, gay people reported creased hostily. But Chechnya seemed to enurage and may have later given ver to extreme vlence by the secury 2016, there was still a ty but still active unrground gay scene Chechnya.

THE 5 BEST MOSW GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS MOSW

Most lbian's romantic liv are rced to talkg on onle msenger servic, she said, or meetg some ways life Chechnya, where women are already face rtrictns, is even harr for gay women. TOLYATTI, Rsia — The last two years have been btal for Konstant Golava, a 22-year-old environmental activist and the only publicly out gay person this grty dtrial cy known for r factori, chemil plants, and nothg early 2012, as soon as Golava started dissematg news ems related to LGBT issu through his social media acunts, mors about his sexual orientatn began to spread. Bee he would often return home late after beg at a gay club or gatherg, his parents worried that his nocturnal schle meant he was alg dgs.

In early December, the new feral law was ced fg Rsian LGBT activists Nikolai Alekseyev and Yaroslav Yevthenko 4, 000 bl (about $120) each for holdg a banner readg "Gay propaganda don't exist.

Beyond the legal mefield, however, the anti-gay mpaign appears to have provid sanctn for unfettered exprsns of anger and hatred toward the LGBT muny, whout fear of nsequenc. There are equent reports om around the untry about people beg fired for their sexual orientatn, beg beaten up by anti-gay gangs, or otherwise sufferg mistreatment and discrimatn. Golava has received moral and legal support om gays and lbians nearby Samara, a historic Volga River port and the regnal pal that unts more than 1 ln rints.

TOP 13 COUNTRI WH BIGGT GAY POPULATNS

A key ally has been Mikhail Tumasov, a longtime Samara rint who two years ago anized an advocy group to ph back agast the anti-gay momentum. In 2011, the magaze Spletnik, which translat as "The Gossip, " cg such cints as a recent effort by a lol right-wg party to strip LGBT people of work rights, clared that "the Samara regn is among the most homophobic the untry. 1, World AIDS Day; public gathergs durg an annual "week agast homophobia, " which LGBT groups across the untry have anized each sprg for several years; and surveys of people public venu that have revealed an crease negative attus toward LGBT people as the regnal and feral ernment mpaigns have progrsed.