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

Explore gay Mosw wh Mr Hudson. The bt of Mosw for the discerng gay man. Where to sleep, eat, drk, shop and play. * moscow gay life *

Of urse I am out bee I work fashn – most people my office are gay – but I have to hi om other people.

Sanctns Bar self – a semi-ironic anti-wtern theme bar rated wh oil dms, dollar bill toilet paper and a menu featurg Barack Obama’s face crossed out – has jt recently started dabblg attractg a gay clientele. There might not be much the way of Rsian public media celebratg gay life, but Tim watch the E work and the Kardashians and nsirs New York his spirual home. Reports of anti-LGBT activists settg up fake acunts to lure and then abe gay men (sometim rerdg on vio) have ma Andrey and his iends more ut.

But LGBT activist and journalist Elena Kostyuchenko said not all homosexual women are able to be so open. The lbian scene has shnk recent years, wh many of the more active members emigratg bee of the ernment’s anti-gay agenda.

GAY PUT'S MOSW: WHY THE CY IS PKER THAN YOU THK

On the eve of the Sochi Wter Olympics, we go to hidg wh the newly persecuted gay men and women of Vladimir Put's eedom-ee Rsia * moscow gay life *

They’ve even appropriated their own abe: if somethg silly or stupid or weird happens Europe, ’s rid as “Gayropa”. What ncerns many homosexual Mv most, seems, is ls fear for their safety or abily to meet other gay men and women, than legal legimacy– the abily to share property wh a partner, or pass on heranc whout terference om graspg relativ, or raise kids. He might be Mosw’s hight-profile openly gay man, but seems embarrassed about his cisn to e out on air, and keeps flectg my qutns to his iends.

They were tryg to ply wh a 2013 Rsian law that bans exposg mors to anythg that uld be nsired “gay propaganda. ”The anizers had good reason to be wary: Life has been challengg for gay Rsians sce the law passed, as the ernment has treated gay life as a Wtern import that is harmful to tradnal Rsian valu and Rsia’s Parliament is set to pass a legislative package that would ban all “gay propaganda, ” signalg an even more difficult perd ahead for a stigmatized segment of laws would prohib reprentatn of L. Exprsn wh s ratnale for the war Ukrae, sistg that Rsia is fightg not jt Ukrae but all of NATO, a Wtern alliance that reprents a threat to the Put drove home that argument a speech last week, sayg that the Wt n have “dozens of genrs and gay pri paras, ” but that should not try to spread the “trends” elsewhere.

Aleksandr Khste, a puty om the lg Uned Rsia party and the lead thor of the new anti-gay bills, was even more blunt. Lunchenkov said that 2010, when he was school, he felt that he uld exprs his gay inty eely among his classmat. Olenichev said that though the police do not track hate crim agast queer people, he and his lleagu have noticed an crease clients who have suffered inty-based attacks sce rhetoric behd anti-gay laws may have dangero nsequenc for gay Rsians, said Vladimir Komov, a lawyer wh the group Delo 2013 law was promoted as protectg children, while the new on “seek to prohib gay propaganda as a danger to the state system, ” fg as extremism, he Lunchenkov said the proposed laws uld leave gay people “aaid to go to medil clics to get treatment or ttg” for sexually transmted diseas.

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

On January 25, Kreml-iendly journalist Anton Krasovsky ved a bunch of drag queens on his show on KontrTV, a Kreml-owned channel. It was his personal prott agast a proposed law the Rsian parliament, the Duma, which would ban distributg “gay propaganda” to mors. The law’s broad fn of “propaganda” would prohib publicly discsg gay relatnships, parg them to h... * moscow gay life *

“I am more sred of beg drafted to fight the war than for beg arrted bee I am gay, ” said Andrei Melnikov, 19.

Lawmakers llg gays a danger on a par wh war “is more funny than sry, ” he now, gay Rsians and their alli have found exprsn spe rtrictive laws. A versn of this article appears prt on, Sectn A, Page 7 of the New York edn wh the headle: Life for Gay Rsians Is About to Get Worse.

GAY MOSW MOSW CY GUI

Wh the troductn of new laws agast “gay propaganda”, state-sponsored homophobia is on the rise Rsia. But spe of all this,… * moscow gay life *

Homosexualy is legal, although a vaguely-word 2013 law prohibs the promotn of ‘non-tradnal’ relatnships. That said, the vast majory of viss rema trouble-ee, even for visors who equent the cy’s ls-than-secret gay bar and club bt hotels MoswThe historic exterr of the Hotel Metropol, facg the ternatnally-celebrated Bolshoi Theatre and close to many of the other ma thgs to do Mosw, is nothg pared to s sumptuo terrs. The rpeted terrs give this stay a homely ambience, which marri well wh breakfast – which is served your CrewiRemend hotels Gay Mosw - Mosw.

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.

INSI THE IRON CLOSET: WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE GAY PUT'S RSIA

Thirteen years after homosexualy was crimalized Rsia — and a more tolerant era appeared to dawn — gays now fd themselv creasgly unr attack. They plan a march Mosw on March 17 that has so far not been given the go-ahead by officials. * moscow gay life *

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.

It was his personal prott agast a proposed law the Rsian parliament, the Duma, which would ban distributg “gay propaganda” to mors. The law’s broad fn of “propaganda” would prohib publicly discsg gay relatnships, parg them to heterosexual on, or llg them “normal.

” That is, would effectively crimalize the procs of g out—so often the drivg force for wir social acceptance of gays. “In the urse of the nversatn, beme clear that their 23-year-old iend was a homosexual, which enraged the rt of the group, ” acrdg to a news report.

EIGHT HORRIFIC AND UPLIFTG STORI ABOUT BEG GAY THE NEW RSIA

* moscow gay life *

”Courty of AfishaA Febary issue of Afisha magaze featured the stori of 30 gay man’s mourng iends posted ttimonials onle. ”In Febary, as the gay-propaganda law ma s way through the Duma, a popular Mosw magaze lled Afisha ran a rabow flag on s ver.

Shortly before I left Mosw last fall, she had approached our mutual iend Boris, a r young gay man who -owns several of the rtrants and bars we loved to lger .

I’d never seen this circle awa a child so yet, although Elena was born the day the Duma passed a law banng foreign adoptns by gay upl, and a week before Put signed the gay-propaganda bill to law, no one drew a nnectn between her birth and a legislative ph that prohibs anyone llg Sasha and Boris’s relatnship “normal. Comparg gays to paedophil and terrorists, medil cur for homosexualy, homophobic murrs, bans on gays workg wh mors, an absurd se agast Madonna (whout Madonna!

OUT AND ABOUT: GAY NIGHTLIFE MOSW

DAN HEALEY, Active, Passive, and Rsian: The Natnal Ia Gay Men's Pornography, The Rsian Review, Vol. 69, No. 2 (APRIL 2010), pp. 210-230 * moscow gay life *

As of summer 2013 thgs aren’t exactly gog great for gay Rsians when to the law, and there are some — ed, many — who thk that we’re headg back to the Eighti, when there was still a workg law agast sodomy. The whole suatn has only been exacerbated by a recent spate of homophobic murrs: Volgograd, two young men, wh prev nvictns, tortured and killed a 23-year-old man bee of what is known Rsian as his “non-tradnal sexual orientatn”; the same motive was spected the recent vlent ath of a 39-year-old Kamchatka the far east of the untry.

GAYS RSIA FACE BACKLASH, PLAN PROTTS

It might seem to the sual observer that, jt as — to quote a famo sayg — there was no sex the USSR, so there is no gay culture today’s Rsia, or even any gay life at all. And, ed, many parts of Rsia the possibily of livg an open and untroubled life as a gay man or lbian is only gettg more remote.

GAY THE USSR

Year after year, Nika tri to rurrect his sgg reer; Fiery Lady has gone off to bee an artist and only wears drs at hoe parti; most of the mols the days are skater boys, and they’re maly straight; the sportsmen have left en masse to bee ter rts; the betiful boys have stopped gog to gay clubs, the expats hook up g apps like Grdr or Hor, and the policians are openly passg homophobic laws. But for all that, Mosw gay culture hasn’t disappeared: has metamorphosed om one big, and pretty happy, scene to a mass of ltle subcultur. They’re vised by gay guys g om the provc lookg for easy money, suburban who tradnally go out to the same place once a week, and butch and unkempt lbians who quickly break to an ecstasy of dancg or an ecstasy of brawlg.

But a lot of gay-iendly plac have spng up, although they do everythg they n to distance themselv om that tle. The suatn wh gay clubs is the same as wh bars: the only dited gay club still workg is Central Statn, on Komsomolskaya Square jt north-east of the cy centre, and the clientele’s pretty much the same as the gay bars. Valy Kozak, a former buyer and stylist, sists that I shouldn’t say that he ns gay nights and is at pas to strs that he’s happy to see boys and girls of any orientatn, but neverthels ’s at his Love Boat events that all Mosw’s key players the gay scene have their fat cid and their hearts broken.

While might have s own Bergha, gay Mosw do not, unlike Berl, have any sex clubs, shared tert societi, cemas, gay guis, bety salons, hotels, hostels or gay neighbourhoods.

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

Pl there’s the serly backward suatn wh gay rights, which is only gettg worse, and public opn, which is not exactly kdly disposed to homosexual relatnships.

THE 25 MOST SHOCKG ANTI-GAY STORI OM RSIA SO FAR

The prence of the ter, the relative openns of the borrs — the chance to travel and to realise your creative plans the cy — mak life for gay men and women Mosw not only possible, but relatively happy. The Harriman Instute is pleased to prent the exhib 'Mosw: Gay Cisg S of the Soviet Capal, 1920s-1980s' featurg a seri of works photographs by artist Yevgeniy Fiks.

'Mosw' documents gay cisg s Soviet Mosw, om the early 1920s to the USSR's dissolutn the early 1990s.

The 25 most shockg anti-gay stori om Rsia so far

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THE 5 BEST MOSW GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS MOSW