Rsian anti-gay law prompts rise homophobic vlence | Rsia | The Guardian

Contents:

• NO END TO CHECHNYA’S VLENT ANTI-GAY CAMPAIGN
• 1 5 RSIANS WANT GAYS AND LBIANS 'ELIMATED,' SURVEY FDS
• HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH RELEAS VIO SHOWG CINTS OF ANTI-GAY VLENCE RSIA
• LGBT HATE CRIM DOUBLE RSIA AFTER BAN ON 'GAY PROPAGANDA'
• RSIAN LGBTQ ACTIVIST IS KILLED AFTER BEG LISTED ON GAY-HUNTG WEBSE
• THE FEAR OF BEG GAY RSIA
• RSIAN ANTI-GAY LAW PROMPTS RISE HOMOPHOBIC VLENCE
• RSIAN ANTI-GAY GANG VLENCE SEEN FOR THE FIRST TIME ON MERA

NO END TO CHECHNYA’S VLENT ANTI-GAY CAMPAIGN

In July, about a week after the Kreml phed through nstutnal amendments that clu fg marriage as a unn between a man and woman, Tsvetkova was fed for a send time unr the untry’s notor “gay propaganda” law and forced to pay 75, 000 Rubl ($1000) over her lorful illtratns of same-sex upl and their young children.

Mizula lost support bee of the “tremendo level of public outrage about the bill’s homophobia and transphobia, ” Jonny Dzhibladze, a ordator at Vykhod (“Comg Out”), a St. They urged the thori to protect the activist, who says she has received ath threats om an anonymo homophobic work lled Saw that publish the nam and ntacts of LGBTQ people, and lls for vlence agast them.

1 5 RSIANS WANT GAYS AND LBIANS 'ELIMATED,' SURVEY FDS

As the global LGBT muny marks Pri Month, lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr people face growg, state-sanctned homophobia and vlence Rsia, activists say. In s World Report 2023, the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) noted that Rsia has adopted “new, homophobic legislatn and ramped up homophobic…rhetoric. I nnot image anythg better for a [gay] Chechen than havg your mother stop talkg about marryg you off or curg you and, stead, jt treatg you normally.

The urt found that the law “served no legimate public tert, ” rejectg suggtns that public bate on LGBT issu uld fluence children to bee homosexual, or that threatened public morals. 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. The Rsian LGBT Network has reported that May 2021, Chechen-speakg men abducted Ibragim Selimkhanov Mosw and forcibly returned him to Chechnya’s pal Grozny, where thori terrogated him about gay people the regn.

MOSCOW, Sept 25 (Thomson Rters Foundatn) - Receivg photos of mutilated bodi wh the warng “you’re next” rattled gay rights activist Nika Toov but when he saw surveillance men outsi his home, he fled Rsia for threats via social media me om Pila - Rsian for “saw” - a homophobic group which has said was behd the fatal stabbg July of an LGBT+ activist whose name was among a dozen on their wily-circulated assassatn “blacklist”.

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH RELEAS VIO SHOWG CINTS OF ANTI-GAY VLENCE RSIA

Although the police did not treat the murr as a hate crime ially, they promised to vtigate whether Pila had anythg to do wh Grigoryeva’s ath after plats om lbian gay, bisexual and transgenr (LGBT+) rights - which tak s name om the “Saw” Amerin horror movi - is the latt threat to shake the LGBT+ muny Rsia, where homosexualy was emed a crimal offence until 1993 and classed as a mental illns until 1999. Vlence agast gay people and hostily om the wir muny has been on the rise sce 2013 when the Kreml adopted a gay “propaganda” law as part of a drive to fend what Print Vladimir Put lled Rsia’s “tradnal valu” mpaigners say the law has helped thori crack down on activists and ntributed to a rise anti-LGBT+ hate crim as well as police reluctance to vtigate Rsian LGBT Network, which offers legal aid to gay people, said only eight out of 64 s of physil vlence agast LGBT+ people that received 2018 were vtigated by the police headquarters, Kreml spokman Dmry Pkov and human rights missner Tatyana Moskalkova did not rpond to requts for ment. ATTACKSPila has ed s webse, Instagram, Rsia’s biggt social work VK and msagg app Telegram to ll for gay Rsians to be ported, posted a list of LGBT+ activists to be assassated, and offered sh rewards for attacks on them.

”Pila’s webse and all of s onle acunts were blocked last month after plats om activists who fear s threats are fuellg homophobia and vlence agast LGBT+ people. “They openly ll for vlence agast certa people, but law enforcement has taken no actn whatsoever, ” said Alexanr Kondakov, a soclogist at Fland’s Universy of Helski who thored a study on anti-gay hate crim Rsia.

LGBT HATE CRIM DOUBLE RSIA AFTER BAN ON 'GAY PROPAGANDA'

Growg numbers of lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr (LGBT) people have been attacked and harassed across Rsia the lead-up and aftermath of the adoptn of the feral anti-LGBT “propaganda” law June 2013. LGBT people scribed beg beaten, abducted, huiated, and lled “pedophil” or “perverts, ” some s by homophobic vigilante groups and others by strangers on the subway, on the street, at nightclubs, at f, and one se, at a job terview.

“Vlence experienced by LGBT people Rsia is unmistakably motivated by homophobia, but the thori liberately ignore that the are hate crim and fail to protect victims, ” said Tanya Cooper, Rsia rearcher at Human Rights Watch.

RSIAN LGBTQ ACTIVIST IS KILLED AFTER BEG LISTED ON GAY-HUNTG WEBSE

The groups of radil natnalists lure gay men and teenage boys on the pretext of a fake date, hold them agast their will, and huiate and expose them by viotapg the enunter. Victims told Human Rights Watch that assailants followed them and many s h them, while accg them of beg gay, llg them “faggots, ” and hurlg homophobic slurs at them public plac. Out of 78 victims of homophobic and transphobic vlence and harassment terviewed for the report, 22 did not report attacks agast them to the police bee they feared direct harassment om police and did not believe the police would take the attacks serly.

Human Rights Watch found that although Rsia has hate crime laws, law enforcement agenci do not treat even the most egreg homophobic attack as a hate crime. “The anti-LGBT “propaganda” law don’t protect anyone, but do give homophob a nvenient reason to believe LGBT liv matter ls to the ernment, ” Cooper said.

Nearly 1 5 Rsians want to “elimate” gay and lbian people om society, acrdg to a new survey, a fdg that has ced fear and anger among LGBTQ activists the untry.

THE FEAR OF BEG GAY RSIA

”The survey, published this week by the Levada Center, a nonernmental rearch anizatn based Mosw, also found that 32 percent of rponnts wanted to “isolate” gay men and lbians om society, pared to 9 percent who wanted to “assist” them. Unr the legislatn, also known as the “gay propaganda law, ” any act or event that thori em to promote homosexualy to children is punishable by a fe.

Over the past several years, there have also been a number of disturbg reports of state-sponsored tentn, vlence and torture agast gay and bisexual men Chechnya, a semitonomo Rsian regn“The state giv the signal that LGBT people are not real people, that they are send- or even third-class cizens, ” Zakharova said. ”Dpe reports of creased vlence and the enactment of the “gay propaganda law, ” Kocherga said the suatn has improved over the past three s, when the Soviet Man project first started. “Thgs om a polil pot of view have bee worse, but still somehow Rsian nscns tri to be better, ” she said, notg that 1989, the survey’s first year, 35 percent of those polled wanted to “elimate” gays and lbians, pared to 18 percent the latt fdgs.

“It’s nice to see that actually the willgns to see homosexuals, to accept them, is actually risg, ” Kocherga poted to a separate survey released by the Levada Center last year that found Rsian attus toward LGBTQ people — while still predomantly negative — have improved, pecially among young, ted women. Twenty percent of last year’s participants said they pletely agree that gay men and lbians should have equal rights Rsia, pared to jt 7 percent 2013 when the “gay propaganda law” was passed. The 2019 data also found that those wh gay and lbian acquatanc have more posive attus toward sexual Zakharova said the suatn for the untry’s lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer muny is ed dire, the Rsian people are “not as homophobic as thori or feral mass media try to portray them.

RSIAN ANTI-GAY LAW PROMPTS RISE HOMOPHOBIC VLENCE

In December 2022, Rsia expand s existg “gay propaganda” law to exert ntrol over public discsns and narrativ surroundg non-heterosexual relatnships and inti. Wh the ey of the world about to turn to the Wter Olympics Sochi, a human rights group has released a new disturbg vio highlightg vlence agast gay, lbian, transgenr and bisexual people unr Rsia's anti-gay laws that went to effect last year. "The vio shows gay men Rsia beg punched, kicked and beaten by attackers who filmed and dissemated the footage, which was then piled by the human rights victims, the group add, "were aaid to go to the police to report vlence, fearg further harassment and believg the police would not bother to pursue their attackers.

"Last June, the Rsian Parliament passed a bill makg homosexual propaganda illegal, banng the discsn and promotn of "nontradnal sexual relatnships to mors. "We know mt surely ncern you, as eply ncerns all of , that sce beg selected as the host untry for the Wter Olympics, the Rsian ernment has tensified s asslt on the human rights of s lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr (LGBT) cizens, " the letter said, ntug:"Rsian cizens and foreigners are banned by law om publicly supportg equaly for LGBT people. LGBT Rsians have effectively been phed to the margs of society and are now forced to live wh daily threats to their safety a untry that is promotg state-sanctned homophobia and transphobia.

"The letter — distributed to CEOs at pani cludg Co Cola, General Electric, McDonald’s, Procter & Gamble, Samsung and Visa — urged sponsors to speak out agast Rsia’s anti-gay 'propaganda' law and ask the Internatnal Olympic Commtee (IOC) "to unrtake systemic reforms to monor and prevent human rights ab future host untri.

RSIAN ANTI-GAY GANG VLENCE SEEN FOR THE FIRST TIME ON MERA

Kochetkov, who also appeared on Pila’s list, fears that by not gettg to the bottom of what happened to Grigoriyeva, the thori are “normalizg vlence agast gay groups, ” which uld have “cril nsequenc. He said homophobia has been swellg Rsia sce the 2013 passg of the so-lled gay propaganda law, which prohibs behavr that uld be seen as promotg homosexualy to mors, cludg same-sex kissg public or rryg a rabow flag.

MOSCOW (Thomson Rters Foundatn) - Hate crim agast lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr (LGBT) people Rsia have doubled five years, rearchers said on Tuday, the wake of a law banng “gay propaganda”. “(Offenrs) have bee more aggrsive and ls fearful, ” said Svetlana Zakharova, a board member wh Rsian LGBT Network, the untry’s most proment gay rights mpaign group, which has noted the same trend. Homosexualy Rsia, where the fluence of the socially nservative Orthodox Church has grown recent years, was a crimal offence until 1993 and classed as a mental illns until 1999.