What To Know About Rsia’s So-Called ‘Gay Propaganda’ Bill | Time

Contents:

• THE COMMUNIST PARTY’S GAY PROPAGANDA
• 15 YEARS - PROPAGANDA GAY PARTY
• RSIA PASS LAW BANNG GAY 'PROPAGANDA'
• RSIAN LAWMAKERS MOVE TO TOUGHEN ‘GAY PROPAGANDA’ LAW, BANNG ALL ADULTS OM ‘PROMOTG’ SAME-SEX RELATNSHIPS
• GAY BERL
• RSIA PROPOS NEW “GAY PROPAGANDA” LAW
• WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT RSIA’S SO-CALLED ‘GAY PROPAGANDA’ BILL
• LGBTQ+ BERL – THE CY’S BT GAY BARS, CLUBS AND SNAS

THE COMMUNIST PARTY’S GAY PROPAGANDA

GAY.

In Rsia, the topic of homosexualy is the news nearly every day at the moment. “Gay propaganda” is now an offense punishable by arrt and imprisonment.

Gay men have been murred for their activism. Last month, Rsian Orthodox Church’s Patriarch said that gay marriage Rsia uld spark a lolized apolypse.

15 YEARS - PROPAGANDA GAY PARTY

And jt today, The Interpreter published a translatn of a news story about a journalist (and her iends, and hband) beg beaten a Mosw Bar for appearg homosexual, while thori looked on or refed to vtigate. Four Dutch gay rights activists have already been arrted unr this new law, sparkg even more ncerns the ternatnal muny that is set to send wav of athlet and tourists to Rsia. Ivan Savve (Twter), a blogger at Out There Magaze, has sent his re-imagg of the patg light of Rsia recent crack-down on homosexuals and those who support LGBT rights.

RSIA PASS LAW BANNG GAY 'PROPAGANDA'

But would apply exclively to two gay men kissg or, as is the se pot here, two Communist lears sharg raly affectn? This is as much about ntemporary visual culture as is about ntemporary right-wg homophobic extremism perpetrated by the Rsian state. As a gay man om Rsia, who happens to be an art historian and a b of a cultural & polil mentator, I fd this se to be particularly problematic, yet que a fertile ground for analysis.

RSIAN LAWMAKERS MOVE TO TOUGHEN ‘GAY PROPAGANDA’ LAW, BANNG ALL ADULTS OM ‘PROMOTG’ SAME-SEX RELATNSHIPS

In 2017, Germany’s Cabet approved a bill that would expunge the nvictns of tens of thoands of German men for “homosexual acts” unr that untry’s anti-gay law known as “Paragraph 175. That was jt before the Nazis me to power, magnified the anti-gay law, then sought to annihilate gay and transgenr Europeans. In the 1920s, Berl had nearly 100 gay and lbian bars or f.

Vienna had about a dozen gay f, clubs and bookstor. In Paris, certa quarters were renowned for open displays of gay and trans nightlife. Even Florence, Italy, had s own gay district, as did many smaller European ci.

Films began pictg sympathetic gay characters. And media entreprenrs realized there was a middle-class gay and trans rearship to whom they uld ter.

GAY BERL

Partly drivg this new era of tolerance were the doctors and scientists who started lookg at homosexualy and “transvtism” (a word of that era that enpassed transgenr people) as a natural characteristic wh which some were born, and not a “rangement. On the other hand, the greater “out-ns” of gay and trans people provoked their opponents.

” The Berl police gmbled that magaz aimed at gay men – which they lled “obscene prs materials” – were proliferatg. A Parisian town uncilor 1933 lled “a moral crisis” that gay people, known as “verts” at that time, uld be seen public.

Gay and trans people were an obv target. When Nazi lear Adolph Hler need to jtify arrtg and murrg former polil alli 1934, he said they were gay. This fanned anti-gay zealotry by the Gtapo, which opened a special anti-gay branch.

RSIA PROPOS NEW “GAY PROPAGANDA” LAW

Durg the followg year alone, the Gtapo arrted more than 8, 500 gay men, que possibly g a list of nam and addrs seized at the Instute for Sexual Rearch.

In Vienna, hled every gay man on police lists and qutned them, tryg to get them to name others. Italy, wh a fascist regime obssed wh virily, sent at least 300 gay men to btal mps durg the war perd, clarg them “dangero for the tegry of the race.

Still, if they had been proment members of the gay and trans muny before the fascists me to power, as Berl lbian club owner Lotte Hahm was, was too late to hi. In those mps, gay men were marked wh a pk triangle.

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

” One gay man attributed his survival to swappg his pk triangle for a red one – ditg he was merely a Communist. In 1929, Germany me close to erasg s anti-gay law, only to see strengthened soon thereafter.

(They really look like a happy gay fay).

Propaganda posters were an tegral part of atttg to the world the close relatnship between Cha and the Soviet Unn and as seen om this photographic llectn they walk hand--hand, kissg, clutchg each other, all happy and gay, so to speak. The homoerotic Che-Soviet munist propaganda posters look more like a gay uple’s vatn pics, or maybe an ad for terracial gay marriage. The signers of the posters didn’t realize how homoerotic they were and later on, many scholars have poted out the overt homoeroticism prent the imag.

LGBTQ+ BERL – THE CY’S BT GAY BARS, CLUBS AND SNAS

Scholars thk that there is ltle evince that the artists tentnally portrayed homosexualy the imag. Cha and the Soviet Unn were both rather homophobic societi. Rsia's parliament has unanimoly passed a feral law banng gay "propaganda" amid a Kreml ph to enshre eply nservative valu that crics say has already led to a sharp crease anti-gay law passed 436-0 on Tuday, wh jt one puty abstag om votg on the bill, which bans the spreadg of "propaganda of non-tradnal sexual relatns" among law effect mak illegal to equate straight and gay relatnships, as well as the distributn of material on gay rights.

Mut after passg the anti-gay legislatn, the Duma also approved a new law allowg jail sentenc of up to three years for "offendg relig feelgs", an iative lnched the wake of the trial agast the anti-Kreml punk band Psy two laws were wily cricised by Rsia's margalised liberal and human rights muni and e amid a wir crackdown agast pennt civil activy the untry. Put, who often mak a show of his fah, has creasgly lled upon the church to fill his own iologil vacuum followg a ntted printial electn last year, acpanied by unprecented protts agast se agast Psy Rt – which three members were found guilty of "hooliganism motivated by relig hatred" after performg an anti-Put anthem si a Mosw church – was wily seen as the lnch of an ultra-nservative 's anti-gay law, whose text was softened to remove explic referrals to "homosexual propaganda", troduc f of up to 100, 000 roubl (£1, 975) for dividuals who have ed the media or ter to promote "non-tradnal relatns". Internatnal gay rights activists, cludg Brish mpaigner Peter Tatchell and US activist Dan Choi, have regularly travelled to Rsia to support the untry's stgglg gay rights movement.

""The ernment is g the stcts – homophobia, xenophobia – to jtify s polici agast an pennt civil society, " Kochetkov said. Rsian lawmakers agreed to toughen the untry’s discrimatory law agast so-lled same-sex “propaganda, ” movg to ban all Rsians om promotg or “praisg” homosexual relatnships or publicly suggtg that they are “normal.