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

Contents:

• MEET THE GAY RSIAN TEENAGER USG TWTER TO COMBAT HOMOPHOBIA
• RSIA TO GAYS: SHUT UP AND DISAPPEAR
• WHY RSIA TURNED AGAST THE GAYS
• 'WE'RE NOT HIDG': GAY AND LBIAN RSIANS SAY A CULTURAL SHIFT IS UNRWAY
• BARACK OBAMA’S BROTHER CLAIMS HE’S ‘FELY GAY’ – MEDIA

MEET THE GAY RSIAN TEENAGER USG TWTER TO COMBAT HOMOPHOBIA

The European Court of Human Rights led 2017 that the 2013 law is discrimatory, promot homophobia and vlat the European Conventn on Human Rights. 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. Homosexualy was crimalized Rsia 1993, but homophobia and discrimatn is still rife.

RSIA TO GAYS: SHUT UP AND DISAPPEAR

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.

Ten years ago, a bill was passed banng so-lled "gay propaganda" relatn to children. Human rights groups say that was followed by a rise vlent homophobic attacks Rsia. But the fear generated by the legislatn is already leadg to censorship: onle cemas have leted LGBT-themed films and TV seri and eded out gay scen.

In one episo of the highly-acclaimed HBO seri The Whe Lot, a Rsian streamg service changed the word "gay" to "man", eded a towel onto one male character's bare backsi and leted a gay sex scene, jt days after the law was ptn, The book Shattered, about the romance between two men, has been heavily redacted RsiaBooks, too, are beg censored. The text has been redacted by the publisher, wh whole sectns replaced wh black of the -thors of the law, an openly homophobic natnalist lled Valy Milonov, agre to speak to me via violk. “This legislatn is the latt a strg of asslts on the rights of lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr people, this time unr the bric of state-ced transphobia.

WHY RSIA TURNED AGAST THE GAYS

“First Rsia tried to erase lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr inti om public view, and now they are targetg transgenr people themselv, ” Reid said. “Rsia should reverse s outrageo policy and ensure rights to inty, fay life, and medil re for lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr people – startg wh reversg the anti-trans law. As Rsia ntu to flounr Ukrae, wh attempts to pture the small town of Bakhmut turng to a grisly reenactment of the Battle of Verdun, and Kreml propagandists lurchg back and forth between hysteril swagger and the five stag of grief, the Rsian polil tablishment has cid to tackle what’s really important: a natnal “Don’t Say Gay” law.

A bill that outlaws “LGBT propaganda”—fed so broadly as to ver not only gay or transgenr rights advocy but potentially all public exprsns of “nontradnal” sexualy or genr inty—passed the State Duma on November 24 and was approved by the upper hoe of Rsia’s fake legislature, the Council of Feratns, last Wednday.

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

” (Thk of as the Really Don’t Say Gay Law. ) But do rell Soviet-era censorship unr which any mentn of Tchaikovsky’s homosexualy was scbbed om books and films about the great poser’s life, while bgraphil prefac to Soviet edns of Osr Wil cloaked the reason for his imprisonment such phemisms as “transgrsns agast moraly. ” Ocsnally, foreign books wh gay characters, such as Iris Murdoch’s 1973 novel The Black Prce, slipped past the censor’s vigilant eye.

But there uld have been no qutn, for stance, of publishg Jam Baldw’s gay-themed masterpiece Gvanni’s Room, even though Baldw was acclaimed the official Soviet media as a fighter agast Amerin racism; the novel had to wa until 2007 for s first Rsian edn. This is not the first time Put-era Rsian legislatn has gone after “gay propaganda”: A more limed 2013 law add “propaganda of non-tradnal sexual relatns” to a broar law that banned the distributn of “harmful” material to mors.

BARACK OBAMA’S BROTHER CLAIMS HE’S ‘FELY GAY’ – MEDIA

The Duma voted down an amendment that would have exempted “universally regnized cultural products” such as lerature and art om the ban; theory, this means, for example, that Rsian translatns of Vladimir Nabokov’s novel Pale Fire, whose prcipal narrator Charl Kbote is nspicuoly gay, uld fall unr the ax.

Jt last month, the premiere of a play lled The Prcs and the Ogre at a children’s theater Novosibirsk was nceled—or at least layed, sce will apparently open this month after vettg by the Mistry of Culture—bee of an anonymo plat om someone who found too gay.