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

Contents:

• WHY RSIA TURNED AGAST THE GAYS
• RSIA TO GAYS: SHUT UP AND DISAPPEAR
• ‘OUR MERE EXISTENCE IS ILLEGAL.’ AS MOSW TOUGHENS ANTI-GAY LAW, LGBTQ RSIANS FEAR FOR THE FUTURE
• WHY RSIA IS SO ANTI-GAY
• RSIA NOT ONLY COUNTRY WH ANTI-GAY LAWS
• DT LANCE BLACK URG HOLLYWOOD TO CONONT RSIA’S ANTI-GAY LAWS (GUT COLUMN)
• RSIAN ANTI-GAY BILL PASS, PROTTERS TAED
• ‘I’M AAID FOR MY FUTURE’: PROPOSED LAWS THREATEN GAY LIFE RSIA

WHY RSIA TURNED AGAST THE GAYS

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.

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.

Petersburg who left Rsia after his parents threatened to sue his therapist who backed him receivg hormone therapy; and Ivan, 18, who is gay, half Rsian and half Ukraian, and “didn’t want to kill people. “My parents are very nservative and they don’t believe gay people should exist, ” said Max, who didn’t disclose his last name for fear of retaliatn agast his parents who live St. Although is not illegal to be an LGBTQ+ person Rsia, a ago the Kreml passed a so-lled “gay propaganda law” banng the distributn of rmatn about gay relatnships among mors.

Shortly before the State Duma approved the 2013 legislatn a 436-0 vote, people prottg the bill's passg were attacked by those wh anti-LGBTQ+ viewpots before beg taed by Rsia crimalized homosexualy 1993, amendments to the Rsian Constutn 2020 banned LGBTQ+ unns the untry — an actn that was clared a human rights vlatn by the European Court of Human Rights. Marie Stthers, the anizatn's director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, said a statement, "In Rsia's new era of reprsn, state-sanctned homophobia is about to be ramped up to a whole new level.

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

""The new draft 'gay propaganda' law not only brazenly priv LGBTI people of their right to eedom of exprsn and endors their discrimatn, but will likely also lead to an crease vlent attacks and other hate crim agast them, " Stthers add. "Rsia has also been cricized recent years for s treatment of LGBTQ+ people Chechnya, whose mayor nounced homosexualy 2017, statg "We don't have those kds of people here. Brish gay rights activist Peter Tatchell stag an anti-Put prott agast the mistreatment of LGBT people Rsia ont of a monument to Soviet Marshal Gey Zhov on Manezhnaya Square Mosw on June 14, 2018.

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. The ntroversial law was met wh cricism and ridicule Wtern untri, cludg a lg the European Court of Human Rights 2017 that stated Rsia’s “gay propaganda law” is discrimatory, promot homophobia and vlat the European Conventn on Human Rights.

WHY RSIA IS SO ANTI-GAY

Rsian society remaed wily homophobic, and there were many who saw gays and lbians as an evable and evil Wtern import, but there were other thgs to worry about — reverg om the llapse of a polil-enomic system, clawg out of poverty, alg wh the explosn of vlence that engulfed a untry sudnly flowg wh sh and then me Vladimir spent the first two terms of his princy, om 2000 to 2008, lg wh no iology. " Th the law passed by the Duma jt hours after the anti-gay law was passed, makg "sultg relig believers" an offense punishable by up to three years send easit thg has been to monize the "Other, " creatg an ternal enemy for everyone to fear.

And fally, allows Rsia to do what do bt the days: prent self as Not The is no accint that Rsia is strippg away gay rights as (popular and legal) support for gay marriage the U. "I thk the most ridiculo qutns e up durg the y of an empire, " said Anton Krasovsky, a proment Rsian journalist recently fired for beg gay, when asked why the "gay qutn" had sudnly emerged Rsia. The AHA clus the ath sentence for some nsensual same-sex acts, prohibs anizatns om “normalizg” sexual diversy through clive programmg and requir everyone Uganda, cludg health workers, to report people who might be lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr or queer (LGBTQ) to the police.

” Bee the law, the Anti-Homosexualy Act, 2023, stat that anyone who has rmatn that a person has mted or tends to m an offense “shall report the matter to the police for appropriate actn, ” health provirs are still required by law to turn LGBTQ patients. On June 7, durg his State of the Natn addrs, Print Yoweri Meveni reerated the claims the health circular: “Therefore, those who say that the homosexuals will be arrted if they go for medil re, etc., are wrong. Office Geneva, Arthur Kafeero, claimed that the act was a rponse to “a wispread mpaign to promote homosexualy amongst children schools was disvered” and that “s methods and ntent too difficult and graphic to expla.

RSIA NOT ONLY COUNTRY WH ANTI-GAY LAWS

While not specific to health, asserted that the AHA was “misterpreted” by velopment partners, that only tend to prevent the “open promotn of homosexualy, pecially among children and vulnerable groups”; that “no activi of dividuals, groups, pani or anizatns” would be affected by the AHA; and that the ernment was mted to the provisn of servic to all Uganda, whout discrimatn. • June 10: Followg the arrt of two gay men his area, the client, who is a [key populatns] ordator at a ernment health facily, was threatened wh vlence by their lleagu at work and people the muny, who said he was rponsible for the actns of the two who had been arrted bee he was always the one supportg them and givg them treatment. 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. ) 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.

DT LANCE BLACK URG HOLLYWOOD TO CONONT RSIA’S ANTI-GAY LAWS (GUT COLUMN)

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. 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.

RSIAN ANTI-GAY BILL PASS, PROTTERS TAED

Many Rsian mentators, such as journalist and activist Renat Davletgilyev, believe the new law is a transparent attempt by the Put regime to shore up flaggg support among the Rsian public by appealg to homophobia, stg gays as the menacg “other, ” and monizg not only the Wt but Rsian antiwar liberals as “sexual viants. A report by journalist Sasha Belaya on the Khodorkovsky Live YouTube channel noted that the Duma’s discsn and passage of the legislatn had been acpanied by an anti-gay mpaign the Rsian state media that explicly targeted liberals and dissints. In a particularly ironic twist, some propagandists such as Olga Skabeyeva exprsed ncern that the ban on “LGBT propaganda” uld accintally brg the hammer down on homophobic propaganda, bee was unclear what kd of pictns of “nontradnal sexual relatns” were prohibed: Could her own show be slapped wh a fe for showg the Zygar/Shcherbak kiss, albe “wh undisguised revulsn, ” as an exposé of “the liberal public” and of “the Wt and s valu”?

The gay-bashg for domtic nsumptn uld achieve at least some sire effect a untry where nearly 70 percent of the populatn believ that nsensual same-sex relatns between adults should be illegal and half say they feel personal hostily toward LGBT people. 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.

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. Nearly three-quarters of Rsians believe that homosexually is morally unacceptable, more than disapprove of other hot-button issu such as extramaral affairs, gamblg and numbers e om newly released data om the Pew Rearch Center, which surveyed Rsians on their moral attus sprg 2013.

‘I’M AAID FOR MY FUTURE’: PROPOSED LAWS THREATEN GAY LIFE RSIA

Jt eight months before the gam, Rsia's ernmental body, the Duma, passed a law makg illegal to distribute homosexual "propaganda" to mors, which clus stagg gay pri events and advotg for gay law also bans foreign same-sex upl om adoptg Rsian the openg day of the Olympics (Feb.

[5 Myths About Gay People Debunked]History of anti-gay attusUnrstandg Rsia's wispread gay sentiment requir a look back, said Tatiana Mikhailova, a senr stctor of Rsian Studi at the Universy of Colorado, Boulr.