'Our mere existence is illegal.' As Mosw toughens anti-gay law, LGBTQ Rsians fear for the future | CNN

Contents:

• ‘OUR MERE EXISTENCE IS ILLEGAL.’ AS MOSW TOUGHENS ANTI-GAY LAW, LGBTQ RSIANS FEAR FOR THE FUTURE
• PROVG YOU'RE GAY TO THE TURKISH ARMY
• HOW SECTN 28 BIRTHED TODAY’S GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
• BEG LGBTQ+ 18 YEARS AFTER ANTI-GAY SECTN 28 TN LAW
• PUT HA FIRMATO IL DIVIETO DI "PROPAGANDA GAY" RSIA
• LET’S SAY GAY
• DON’T SAY GAY BILL: FLORIDA SHOULD LEARN OM THE HARMFUL LEGACY OF BRA’S SECTN 28
• ‘DON’T SAY GAY’ BILL SIGNED BY FLORIDA GOV. RON DESANTIS
• RSIA, LO SPOT NTRO LE ADOZNI GAY CHE FA FURIARE GLI LGBT
• A CLASH OF RIGHTS? GAY MARRIAGE AND THE FREE EXERCISE OF RELIGN

‘OUR MERE EXISTENCE IS ILLEGAL.’ AS MOSW TOUGHENS ANTI-GAY LAW, LGBTQ RSIANS FEAR FOR THE FUTURE

Siamo un gppo di uomi tersati all’aspetto ary, al g di olo e anche all’aspetto fetish che ciò porta nell’ambo di quella che doveva sere un’alternativa ai soli circui gay “classici”. Artilo28 ofe la possibilà di plorare l’aspetto uniform l mondo gay.

Non abbiamo nsun altro fe se non quello di divertirci e di stuire una alternativa ai circui gay più diffi (disteche, pubs e loli vari). Article28 offers you the chance to explore the gay ary world.

Our aim is to have fun and to be an alternative to the most popular gay circus (diss, var clubs, crog, etc.

PROVG YOU'RE GAY TO THE TURKISH ARMY

Un documento datao 30/12/2001 proveniente dal Centro di documentazne Roberto Saver Tersigni - Omphalos attta e isteva la prassi di richiere ai cirli Arcigay l'atttazne di sere soci e prova ll'omossualà che nferiva l'enzne dal serviz are quanto nsirati "imperfetti e abili" e qudi "abili" al serviz are. ↑ Niente patente perché gay. ↑ Patente rtua a gay, i misteri rirrono.

HOW SECTN 28 BIRTHED TODAY’S GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT

Arcigay, onero gli omossuali dal serviz are. Artilo 28, gppo di gay feticisti lle divise ari. But they fear a harsh new anti-gay law passed by Rsian lawmakers will leave them ltle choice.

As the Kreml prepared to falize the expansn of the 2013 discrimatory anti-gay law, members of the LGBTQ muny Rsia told CNN they feared the uncerta future ahead.

BEG LGBTQ+ 18 YEARS AFTER ANTI-GAY SECTN 28 TN LAW

The measur clu g private acunts on social media, havg accs to a work of tsted people, sendg their son to a private krgarten where the fact a kid has two moms is ls likely to spark a homophobic reactn, and g a private hospal where they n ls risk of a doctor llg child protectn thori to make quiri about their fay set-up, they said. “As an thor of books that raise [the LGBTQ] topic, of urse, I am very ncerned about this, ” gay wrer Ksenia told CNN. Sce the first law on “gay propaganda” passed 2013, Rsia has seen repeated crackdowns on the gay muny, most notably 2017 and aga 2019 the southern regn of Chechnya, where activists reported dozens of men and women were taed and some tortured and killed for their sexual orientatn, and no proper vtigatn followed.

“This is not only an anti-gay law, this is also explicly an anti-trans law, ” said Vanya Solovey, an advocy and program officer for Eastern Europe and Central Asia at the trans rights group Transgenr Europe, referencg the part of the package that forbids the promotn of rmatn that uld e people to want to change their genr assigned at birth. Milary service is mandatory for all Turkish men - they n only pe if they are ill, disabled or homosexual. But provg homosexualy is a huiatg oral.

"Ahmet, a young man his 20s, told officials he was gay at the first opportuny after he was lled up, as he and other nscripts unrwent a health check. ''I had a few days' beard and I am a mascule guy - they told me I didn't look like a normal gay man. '' Instead he gave them a photograph of himself kissg another hop this will give him what he needs - a "pk certifite", which will clare him homosexual and therefore exempt om ary the years, gay life has been beg more visible Turkey's big ci.

PUT HA FIRMATO IL DIVIETO DI "PROPAGANDA GAY" RSIA

Caf and clubs wh an openly gay clientele have been openg Istanbul, and last summer's gay pri march - unique the Mlim world - was the largt while there are no specific laws agast homosexualy Turkey, openly gay men are not wele the army. At the same time, they have to "prove" their homosexualy orr to avoid ary, nscripted the late 1990s, very quickly realised that he was not ma for the army.

''I had a fear of guns, '' he ptn, Last summer's gay pri march Istanbul was the largt ever held TurkeyAs a gay man he was also aaid of beg bullied, and after ltle more than a week he plucked up the urage to clare his sexual orientatn to his manr.

LET’S SAY GAY

''Gay men say the precise nature of the evince mand pends on the whim of the ary doctor or manr.

Sometim, stead of photographs, doctors rely on a "personaly tt" Turkish army refed BBC requts for an terview, but a retired general, Armagan Kuloglu, agreed to gay men the army would e "disciplary problems", he says, and would be impractil creatg the need for "separate facili, separate dormori, showers, trag areas" says that if a gay man keeps his sexualy secret, he n serve - an echo of the US ary's recently dropped Don't Ask Don't Tell policy.

DON’T SAY GAY BILL: FLORIDA SHOULD LEARN OM THE HARMFUL LEGACY OF BRA’S SECTN 28

"But when someone out and says he is gay, then the army needs to make sure that he is tly gay, and not simply lyg to eva his mandatory duty to serve the ary.

''The social stigma associated wh homosexualy Turkey is such that outsi the young and urbanised circl big ci like Istanbul and Ankara, is hard to image a man clarg that he's gay when he's not. "Doctors are g unr immense prsure om their manrs to diagnose homosexualy, and they obey, even though there really are no diagnostic tools to terme sexual orientatn, '' says one psychiatrist who formerly worked at a ary hospal.

And next to that, brackets, ''homosexualy'''s ary hospals still fe homosexualy as an illns, takg a 1968 versn of a document by the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn as their people Turkey say wh rentment that gay men are actually lucky, as at least they have one possible route out of ary service - they don't have to spend months the barracks, or face the possibily of beg ployed to fight agast Kurdish for openly gay men, life n be far om is not unmon for employers Turkey to qutn job applints about their ary service - and a pk certifite n mean a job of Gokhan's employers found out about not by askg Gokhan himself but by askg the that, he says, he was bullied. And he don't know what to expect when he appears ont of them he not jt do his ary service and keep his homosexualy a secret?

‘DON’T SAY GAY’ BILL SIGNED BY FLORIDA GOV. RON DESANTIS

Introduced by Margaret Thatcher’s ernment 1988, the much-reviled legislatn prohibed the promotn of “homosexualy as a pretend fay relatnship”, and was aimed at lol thori, but specifilly mentned schools. It was, as Baker put , “a homophobic and unequal law which picked on a mory group”’s send book, Outrageo!

RSIA, LO SPOT NTRO LE ADOZNI GAY CHE FA FURIARE GLI LGBT

Spanng the 1980s and beyond, Baker outl the history, ristance, and sometim surprisg effects of this notor legislatn agast a backdrop of synthpop, double nim, the AIDS crisis and risg homophobia. It was tellg people, implicly, that they were send-class cizens and that the ernment didn’t want children to be gay or lbian. Sectn 28 also sanctned a lot of homophobic bullyg.

I still wasn’t sure whether I was gay or not when I was 14, 15, 16… Lookg back on suatns that happened to me, such as bullyg at school, I realised that I grew up durg an credibly homophobic climate, which I jt thought was normal. When I looked at social surveys about negative attus to homosexualy, they peak 1987, when 64 per cent of rponnts say that homosexualy is ‘always wrong’. Some people have drawn a lk between media panic around ‘gay iology’ the 1980s and ‘genr’ or ‘trans iology’ today, both ostensibly for the ‘protectn’ of children.

A CLASH OF RIGHTS? GAY MARRIAGE AND THE FREE EXERCISE OF RELIGN

It was the exactly the same the ’80s and ’90s wh gay people as well. There was this very negative characterisatn of a ‘gay ant lobby’, or lbians particular, who were also femists, and seen as separatists who wanted to turn everybody ’s tertg that Stonewall has gone om an anisatn which ially was foced on equaly for gay men and lbians and is now takg on more of the mantle for trans people. You also n thk about what happened Birmgham 2019, wh the teacher Andrew Moffat and the ‘No Outsirs’ programme for teachg children about the existence of homosexualy.

The repeal of Sectn 28 hasn’t ma homophobic bullyg go away schools by any means.