Rsia's LGBT 'Concentratn Camps': Prisons For Gay Men In Chechnya, Reports Say

Contents:

• THAT TIME I TOLD THE HEAD OF CHECHEN POLICE I WAS GAY. STANDG A JAIL CELL: REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK
• COLUMN: ‘DON’T SAY GAY’ IS A PUT REGIME CREATN. BRTNEY GRER IS S PRISONER
• CHECHNYA: ESPED GAY MEN SENT BACK BY RSIAN POLICE
• RSIA'S LGBT 'CONCENTRATN CAMPS': PRISONS FOR GAY MEN IN CHECHNYA, REPORTS SAY
• RSIAN PRISONS REPORTEDLY SPEND YOGA AFTER CLAIMS IT MAK INMAT GAY
• RSIA ‘HAS SECRETLY OPENED NAZI-STYLE PRISONS WHERE HUNDREDS OF GAY MEN ARE HELD AND SOME MURRED,’ LOL REPORTS CLAIM
• CHECHNYA GAY PURGE: FOOTAGE TAKEN SI PRISON SHOWS WHERE MEN WERE 'TAED AND TORTURED'
• GAY LIFE STAL’S GULAG
• COOMA JAIL: PRISON THAT WAS ONCE 'WORLD'S ONLY JAIL FOR GAY MEN'
• CHECHNYA IS TRYG TO EXTERMATE GAY PEOPLE. OUR SILENCE ONLY EMBOLNS VLADIMIR PUT AND RAMZAN KADYROV.
• INSI THE IRON CLOSET: WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE GAY PUT'S RSIA
• NEO-NAZI WHO TORTURED GAY PEOPLE VIRAL VIOS DI PRISON OF SUICI
• WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT RSIA’S SO-CALLED ‘GAY PROPAGANDA’ BILL
• GAY MAN IN RSIA APPARENTLY RAPED BY VIGILANT ON VIO
• RSIAN LAWMAKERS PROPOSE EXTENDG 'GAY PROPAGANDA' LAW TO ALL ADULTS
• GAY MAN RSIA FORCED TO HIDG OVER YOUTUBE TERVIEW
• UZBEKISTAN: GAY MEN FACE ABE, PRISON
• KG VON TELLS POLICE HE'S 'GAY' IN RURFACED JAIL VIO

THAT TIME I TOLD THE HEAD OF CHECHEN POLICE I WAS GAY. STANDG A JAIL CELL: REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK

This cy is the pal of the Chechen Republic -- part of the Rsian Feratn -- and the foc of what many are llg a gay purge over the last two ab had slipped om the headl, but over the urse of a year, rights groups had told that the persecutn has ntued and that thori had waed for the backlash to subsi. Sanctns list for human rights vlatns and ’s his police force that's been acced of torturg and imprisong gay of the most important men the untry wanted to spend the eveng wh and he seemed lighted at the attentn. But I don’t thk any n pare to tellg a man who is the head of a police force acced of torturg hundreds of LGBTQ people that I’m ma our way to the prison block, and by this time, we had amassed a small followg of armed guards and other officials: a bigger dience for the general's one-man News' Jam Longman toured a prison wh Apti Aldov, the head of police Chechnya, a Rsian republic that has allegedly purged LGBTQ people over the last two Longman As we walked, I gradually got the sense that might be ok to tell him I’m gay.

COLUMN: ‘DON’T SAY GAY’ IS A PUT REGIME CREATN. BRTNEY GRER IS S PRISONER

I told him my sexualy bee perhaps on some level I thought that I uld shift somethg his md and challenge his perceptns about gay as we sat the parkg lot of our hotel, I said to him, "We have spent the afternoon [and] eveng together.

”Sce 1993, is no longer illegal to be LGBTQ Rsia, but sce adoptg the “gay propaganda” law 2013, is illegal to talk about around a ’s right, Vladimir Put created a “don’t say gay” bill first. Image source, Getty ImagImage ptn, Chechnya has long been acced of persecutg sexual moriTwo gay Chechen men who fled to Rsia after allegedly beg tortured have been returned to Chechnya and are "mortal danger", a rights group Rsian LGBT Network said Salekh Magamadov and Ismail Isayev had been seized and returned by Rsian police.

CHECHNYA: ESPED GAY MEN SENT BACK BY RSIAN POLICE

The group says they were later forcibly returned to thori Chechnya, a southern republic of people and other sexual mori face systematic persecutn predomantly Mlim Chechnya, where homophobia is regn's thorarian lear, Ramzan Kadyrov, has nsistently nied allegatns of illegal tentns and human rights and other ernment officials have even suggted there are no members of the LGBT+ muny source, RtersImage ptn, Chechen lear Ramzan Kadyrov (R) has nsistently nied allegatns of human rights abDpe official nials, dozens have e forward wh allegatns that they have been taed and tortured by thori bee of their sexual Magamadov and Mr Isayev are among LGBT Network said the men had arrived at a police statn the Chechen town of Gurm on Saturday. "They are tired and ightened, " a spokman for the group, Tim Btsvet, told AFP news the ctody of Chechen thori, the men were "mortal danger", Mr Btsvet source, Getty ImagImage ptn, Chechnya has nied the existence of gay people the regnThe group has been monorg alleged ab Chechnya sce 2017, when dozens of gay people were reportedly 2019, the group alleged a h wave of persecutn and ab, accg Chechen police of killg two people unr torture. A ernment spokman dismissed that report as "plete li" said he was subjected to torture - cludg electric shocks and ptn, 'Rlan', a gay man who says he fled: "It's the extermatn of gay men"More on this story.

RSIA'S LGBT 'CONCENTRATN CAMPS': PRISONS FOR GAY MEN IN CHECHNYA, REPORTS SAY

The allegatns me after a few eyewns and survivors said terviews wh the Rsian publitn that they were arrted and taed at one of the secret prisons Argun, a town the Chechen Republic, 100 gay men have been reportedly taed and at least three killed the past week Chechnya by the police. Yoga "provok unntrollable sexual aroal that n lead to homosexualy, " read the fdgs clud a letter sent to the Prosecutor-General's Office by Yelena Mizula, a member of the Feral Council, Rsia's upper hoe of parliament.

RSIAN PRISONS REPORTEDLY SPEND YOGA AFTER CLAIMS IT MAK INMAT GAY

The reasong, acrdg to the newspaper, which had obtaed a py of the letter, was that bee yoga class were offered maly to mat workg terg, fellow prisoners unwillg to "take slop om the hands of gays" uld unleash hunger strik and rts. Chechyna has reportedly opened s first prison mp where men are 'tortured or killed' bee of their sexualyPublished: 15:52, 10 Apr 2017Updated: 16:03, 10 Apr 2017GAY men are allegedly beg put to ncentratn mp-style prisons Rsia, has been claimed. “Law enforcement and secury agency officials unr ntrol of the thls head of the Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, have round up dozens of men on spicn of beg gay, torturg and huiatg the victims.

RSIA ‘HAS SECRETLY OPENED NAZI-STYLE PRISONS WHERE HUNDREDS OF GAY MEN ARE HELD AND SOME MURRED,’ LOL REPORTS CLAIM

Speakg before Put signed the bill to the law on Monday, Tanya Loksha, associate Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch said: “The 2013 ‘gay propaganda’ law was an unabashed example of polil homophobia, and the new draft legislatn amplifi that broar and harsher ways. For ee real time breakg news alerts sent straight to your box sign up to our breakg news emailsSign up to our ee breakg news emailsThe warn of a Chechen prison alleged to be one of the lotns where gay men were taed and tortured by police has claimed his officers would “not even want to touch such people” Kataev, head of the mistry of ternal affairs for the town of Argun, showed a team om Vice News around s now abandoned police facily an attempt to disprove the alleged abe of more than 100 men.

Officials Chechnya, a feral subject of Rsia, have nied the reported “gay purge” and repeatedly claimed that there are no LGBT people the predomantly Mlim Saratova, Chechnya's Human Rights Commissner and ernment advisor, claimed she had seen no evince of the alleged persecutn.

CHECHNYA GAY PURGE: FOOTAGE TAKEN SI PRISON SHOWS WHERE MEN WERE 'TAED AND TORTURED'

This terview troduc the work of acclaimed historian Dan Healey, who sheds light on how gay men survived the Soviet Gulag, their life afterwards and different attus the USSR to gay men and Healey, Profsor of Morn Rsian History at Oxford Universy, has explored the history of homosexualy tsarist and Soviet Rsia, the nature of masculy unr socialism, the problems of sexual disorrs and sexual vlence the USSR and the history of medice Stal’s Gulag. Healey is the thor of the only published monograph on the history of homosexualy Rsia: Homosexual Dire Revolutnary Rsia: The Regulatn of Sexual and Genr Gkov spoke to Dan Healey after the lnch of his latt book: Rsian Homophobia om Stal to do we know about gay/queer people Gulag?

GAY LIFE STAL’S GULAG

That giv you a kd of snapshot of the posn of the group of people imprisoned for their homosexualy unr Article 154-a of the RSFSR Penal relatns between men were punishable by imprisonment of between three and five years, and sexual relatns between men wh the e of vlence or the subjugatn of one party to the other were punishable by imprisonment of between five and eight subjects of your book were not only people arrted unr Article 154-a. Soviet lears feared that homosexual groups uld make a pact wh Germany or other powers to stabilise the n, however, offer a circumstantial explanatn about the polil nature of the cisn.

It’s known that 1933 Genrikh Yagoda, the head of the Soviet secret police, wrote a letter to Stal which he said that “homosexuals are beg arrted, but we have realised that we don’t have an article to charge them unr. Also, “outg”, the public disclosure of rmatn about gays’ sexual orientatn, uld, an atmosphere of public homophobia, bee a potential risk for blackmail by foreign telligence polil terpretatn of this “crime” was the reason for the severy of sentenc unr Article 154-a, as “polils” were “socially hostile” mat the Soviet prison mp system.

Agents of the OGPU/NKVD (as the Soviet secret police was known at different tim), the police and other bodi that alt wh the matters knew exactly what “crime” they were arrtg homosexuals for. Public ’s nearly impossible to answer the qutns, bee few even amongst the most ted of Gulag mat left any wrten documentatn behd, given the homophobia of Soviet society and the all-embracg fear the populatn. Koz’s se is tertg bee he left a diary which he had kept all his adult life, and part of , the entri for 1955-1956, has been even Koz don’t speak about his own homosexual experienc, if he had any, the mps.

COOMA JAIL: PRISON THAT WAS ONCE 'WORLD'S ONLY JAIL FOR GAY MEN'

The younger partner a male gay relatnship would sometim bee more feme and even take a female name, and an equivalent velopment might take place a lbian society bee more homophobic after the Gulag was closed down?

One famo se was that of filmmaker Sergey Paradjanov, who was arrted and imprisoned several tim for his homosexualy, the first time ’s well known that there were gays and bisexuals the polil and cultural el of the Stal era. Metropole Hotel, where he lived, and which was of urse a rels thg to there any evince of workers, peasants and other groups which were not part of the telligentsia beg punished for homosexualy? The letter seems fact to have been a piece of provotn on the part of the OGPU, signed to jtify arrtg gays the terts of natnal another letter to Stal, the OGPU proposed more severe sentenc for public exprsns of homosexualy and for payment for sex between men.

One document om the Stal era (disvered by historian Ira Rolduga) talks about the fact that when 1932-1933 open gay men Lengrad suggted havg relatns wh straight men, the latter rpond wh vlence and aggrsn. I thk that for Stal, homosexualy was a “male” issue, nnected to natnal and his circle did not approve of women’s emancipatn: there was not a sgle woman the PolburoWomen, on the other hand, didn’t serve the armed forc and weren’t particularly active the secury ans, so they were ls of a risk.

CHECHNYA IS TRYG TO EXTERMATE GAY PEOPLE. OUR SILENCE ONLY EMBOLNS VLADIMIR PUT AND RAMZAN KADYROV.

Image source, The Greatt MenaceImage ptn, Cooma jail was once ed exclively to imprison gay menSet one of the lst and wdit small towns Atralia, Cooma prison holds a dark only was reopened 1957 wh the specific purpose of rceratg men for "homosexual offenc", was also said to be ed as a human ttg ground wh the ultimate goal of eraditg homosexualy om 's jail is believed to have been the only known homosexual prison the world, acrdg to a new now, even some prison staff say they didn't know the real reason gay prisoners were segregated Strzelecki, 66, started as a ctodial servic officer at the prison 1979, and later set up the Corrective Servic Mm Cooma. "You wouldn't bunk two together… that was one of our biggt problems - keepg an eye on them, " says Mr New, now source, Thomas McCoyImage ptn, L Strzelecki (left) worked at the jail before settg up the lol Corrective Servic MmHistoril documents suggt New South Wal (NSW) Jtice Mister Reg Downg took cred for tablishg the reportedly exprsed "pri" at his pet project, tellg the Sydney Morng Herald 1957: "Nowhere Europe or Ameri did I fd any prisons where homosexuals were separated om other prisoners.

INSI THE IRON CLOSET: WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE GAY PUT'S RSIA

Attempted buggery rried five years, and a harsher crackdown, a clse was add statg "wh or whout the nsent of such person" source, State Library of NSWImage ptn, Reg Downg exprsed pri separatg gay prisoners om othersBoth Mr Wotherspoon and the podst ce evince of police actg as "agents provotrs" to ce men to m homosexual acts.

"They'd e hunky policemen to entrap gay men by enticg them to have sex, ually public toilets, " Mr Wotherspoon 1958, the NSW ernment announced a mtee of quiry to the "e and treatment of homosexualy". It nam Cooma prison as "a special stutn for nvicted homosexual offenrs" which will "facilate the vtigatn" a "scientific evaluatn of the problem and possible solutn" has been found, Mr Downg is quoted as sayg, "the ernment nsirs that the problem mt be attacked wh vigour".

NEO-NAZI WHO TORTURED GAY PEOPLE VIRAL VIOS DI PRISON OF SUICI

"The elive report has never been found - somethg Mr Abboud says amounts to a "ver up" source, Getty ImagImage ptn, Cooma is a town of about 7, 000 peopleIt's unclear when homosexual prisoners were no longer sent to Cooma.

Corrective Servic NSW and the NSW Department of Communi and Jtice cled to ment on the allegatns, cg their "historil nature" Abboud believ gay prisoners may have been sent there until the early 1980s, cg a 1982 statement om the rrective servic mister claimg the policy still stood. Sex offenrs were also sent to Cooma and this further stigmatised gay prisoners, says Mr Wotherspoon says, wh recent parliamentary bate of a Relig Discrimatn Bill threateng to allow discrimatn based on sexual orientatn, such recent history rri a soberg warng.

WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT RSIA’S SO-CALLED ‘GAY PROPAGANDA’ BILL

All the dirty work - such as cleang the toilets and so on - is ually left to the members of this “downgrad” are those who’ve mted ser transgrsn eher the ‘zone’ (such as not payg a bt or stealg om other mat), but also those who m crim or belong to unfavorable tegori on the outsi (beg gay tomatilly puts you that tegory). “Wele to Chechnya: Insi the Rsian Republic’s Deadly War on Gays, ” which premiered at the Sundance Ftival January and airs on HBO next week, is one of the most harrowg films I have ever seen. “Image the 21st century, a supposedly secular untry, ” says David Isteev, at the start of this acclaimed documentary, “you have s where people are killed simply bee they are homosexual — where they are maimed, where the fai of the people are urged to kill their children and siblgs.

“Wele to Chechnya” follows Isteev, emergency program ordator for the Rsian LGBT Network, and his fellow activists as they risk their liv tryg to protect gay Chechens om beg targeted both by the thori and their own fai. “We documented a large-sle, vic, anti-gay purge” marked by “torture, enforced disappearanc, and extrajudicial killgs, ” Tanya Loksha, the Rsia program director at Human Rights Watch, told me a phone terview om Mosw.

GAY MAN IN RSIA APPARENTLY RAPED BY VIGILANT ON VIO

For David France, the award-wng director of “Wele to Chechnya, ” mak no sense to talk of a “first” or a “send” purge, as is all part of a sgle ongog mpaign of persecutn agast gay Chechens. As Human Rights Watch has noted, the Rsian republic “is a highly nservative, tradnal Mlim society; homophobia is tense and rampant, and homosexualy is generally viewed as a sta on fay honor. “If there’s no punishment, ” says an exhsted-lookg Isteev toward the end of the film, “if LGBT people are regard as subhuman, if you n do anythg to them, means that tomorrow, anyone n fd themselv the sho of gay Chechens.

RSIAN LAWMAKERS PROPOSE EXTENDG 'GAY PROPAGANDA' LAW TO ALL ADULTS

And the Put regime has ramped up hostily towards gays and lbians as part of s broar policy of hard-le natnalism, ” said Muriel Atk, a Rsian history profsor at Gee Washgton would have add further ncerns to a ght suatn. ”Black, gay and female a Rsian penal lonyRudra Sil, a Rsian historian and polil science profsor at the Universy of Pennsylvania who was also speakg prr to Grer's release, said he was not exactly sure what life would be like for Grer at a penal lony. “Rsia has been unrgog a procs of reform of the crimal jtice system over the last 20 years, but there is still far too ltle nsiratn given to the promotn of genr equaly and protectn of the rights of women and girls nflict wh the law, ” the report said Grer’s beg a Black gay woman would have ma even harr to reach a diplomatic agreement or secure her release.

Maxim Martskevich, the 36-year-old Neo-Nazi founr of Occupy Pedophilia, a Rsian vigilante group that tortured spected gay teenagers on vio, has reportedly mted suici while servg a 10-year prison sentence Siberia for an unrelated vlent offense, acrdg to the Mosw Tim. Through Format 18, he allegedly arranged the productn and sale of vios showg immigrants beg 2013, Martskevich beme famo amongst the Wtern LGBTQ muny for his vios associated wh Occupy Pedophilia, his group that ed social media to lure gay men wh promis of sex only to rerd their huiated and physil torment on mera.

In many of his vios, Martskevich and his horts punched and slapped the gay men, forced them to strip to their unrwear, shaved their heads reverse Mohawks, pated rabows the sheared strip upon their heads, forced them to hold sex toys, ma them state their full nam, had them utter self-nigratg statements like "I suck c*ck" and also forced them to drk one vio, Martskevich brandished a two-pronged fork towards a young man's eye and told him that he uld eher lose his eye or be sodomized wh the fork. One of the most popular groups had 75, 000 followers, acrdg to the Amerin tech news webse The mpaign also spawned a spoff group, Occupy Gerontophilia, which targeted young gay people acced of "prostutg" themselv to olr men. Petersburg and Mosw have been marked by state vlence and arrts, while an crease the number of attacks on LGBTQ people throughout Rsia—both by dividuals and by anized homophobic groups—creased after the 2013 law, acrdg to a 2014 report published by Human Rights Watch.

GAY MAN RSIA FORCED TO HIDG OVER YOUTUBE TERVIEW

In 2017, the European Court of Human Rights led that Rsia’s “gay propaganda law” was discrimatory, promoted homophobia, and vlated the European Conventn on Human Rights and that “served no legimate public tert. Although Rsia crimalized homosexualy 1993, homophobia is still rampant the untry and attempts to hold Gay Pri paras Mosw have been btally cshed by both police and antigay activists. LONDON, July 11 (Rters) - Rsian lawmakers have proposed extendg a ban on the promotn of "non-tradnal" sexual relatnships to mors to clu adults as well, a senr legislator said on 's existg "gay propaganda" law, passed 2013, has been ed to stop gay pri march and ta gay rights activists.

Authori say they are fendg moraly the face of what they argue are un-Rsian liberal valu promoted by the Wt, but human rights activists say the law has been broadly applied to timidate Rsia's LGBT the proposed chang, any event or act regard as an attempt to promote homosexualy uld cur a fe.

“This se is a particularly disturbg example of thori g Rsia’s ‘gay propaganda’ law as a tool for discrimatn and timidatn, ” said Kyle Knight, senr LGBT rights rearcher at the advocy group Human Rights Watch.

UZBEKISTAN: GAY MEN FACE ABE, PRISON

(Berl) – Men Uzbekistan who engage nsensual same-sex sexual nduct face arbrary tentn, prosecutn, and imprisonment as well as homophobia, threats, and extortn, Human Rights Watch said today.

“Article 120, and ab lked to , has placed gay and bisexual men Uzbekistan a eply vulnerable and margalized posn, leavg them wh almost no protectn om harassment by police and others, ” said Hugh Williamson, director of the Europe and Central Asia divisn at Human Rights Watch. Human Rights Watch terviewed ne gay men and lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr (LGBT) activists and reviewed other material, such as vios pictg and enuragg huiatn, sults, beatgs, or sexual abe of gay men that were posted onle and homophobic social media groups, such as TashGangs.

KG VON TELLS POLICE HE'S 'GAY' IN RURFACED JAIL VIO

The men terviewed, who asked to rema anonymo, said that they faced arbrary arrts, threats, extortn, psychologil prsure, and physil attacks by both police and non-state actors for beg gay. In a Febary 2020 report, the Eurasian Coaln on Health, Rights, Genr and Sexual Diversy (ECOM), an alliance of nonernmental anizatns workg on LGBT issu, cg lol activists, documented that police Uzbekistan harassed gay men, tag and terrogatg several of them between Augt 15 and September 15, 2019.