'We're not hidg': Gay and lbian Rsians say a cultural shift is unrway

Contents:

• THE HISTORY OF HOMOSEXUALY RSIA: OM SOVIET SEX CHANG TO GAY GULAGS
• A BRIEF HISTORY OF LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
• 'WE'RE NOT HIDG': GAY AND LBIAN RSIANS SAY A CULTURAL SHIFT IS UNRWAY

THE HISTORY OF HOMOSEXUALY RSIA: OM SOVIET SEX CHANG TO GAY GULAGS

Members of a gay rights group at a prott St Petersburg, Rsia 2008.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR SOCIAL MOVEMENTS

()In morn Rsia, legislatn is pendg that would allow thori to take children away om gay parents.

Already, promotg a homosexual liftyle is illegal. Homosexualy was crimalised Rsia after the fall of the Soviet Unn, but gay and lbian cizens say they are beg subjected to a 'classic hate mpaign', backed up by hardle legal reforms. Earlier this year, the Rsian parliament passed legislatn makg illegal to promote a homosexual liftyle to mors.

'WE'RE NOT HIDG': GAY AND LBIAN RSIANS SAY A CULTURAL SHIFT IS UNRWAY

A new law has now been drafted that would allow Rsian thori to take children away om homosexual parents. Experts say the untry has a troubled history when to s treatment of homosexualy Healey is Profsor of Morn Rsian History at the Universy of Oxford and the thor of Homosexual Dire Revolutnary Rsia.

He explaed that while the Tsarist regime crimalised male homosexualy 1835, a bld eye was turned to ‘ordary homosexual behavur’ the last year and a half the Kreml has been nng a ncerted mpaign of hatred on televisn... ‘We know of stanc where there were members of the Romanov royal fay who were gay, and also of urse famo dividuals like Tchaikovsky, ’ said Profsor Healey.