Meet the gay Rsian man blackmailed to filtrate terrorist groups Syria - Coda Story

Contents:

• INSI THE IRON CLOSET: WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE GAY PUT'S RSIA
• OBAMA MEETS WH RSIAN GAY RIGHTS ADVOT
• MEET THE GAY RSIAN TEEN USG TWTER TO FIGHT HOMOPHOBIA
• AN INTERVIEW WH A GAY, RSIAN NEO-NAZI
• MEET THE GAY RSIAN MAN BLACKMAILED TO FILTRATE TERRORIST GROUPS SYRIA
• 6 WAYS TO HELP GAY RSIANS SEEK ASYLUM THE U.S.
• PUT’S PRI? SIX FAMO GAY SONS OF RSIA
• GAY MAN RSIA FORCED TO HIDG OVER YOUTUBE TERVIEW
• GAY ACTIVISTS IN RSIA MEET WH OBAMA
• GAY DATG UKRAE
• ‘I’M AAID FOR MY FUTURE’: PROPOSED LAWS THREATEN GAY LIFE RSIA
• BEG GAY IS ILLEGAL MANY COUNTRI. L.G.B.T.Q. TRAVELERS ARE GOG ANYWAY.
• 'WE'RE NOT HIDG': GAY AND LBIAN RSIANS SAY A CULTURAL SHIFT IS UNRWAY
• MEET ANTON KRASOVSKY, THE GAY MAN RUNNG FOR MAYOR OF MOSW
• WHO CONTROLS A GAY RSIAN TEEN-AGER’S STORY?

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

In other words, where Bud Light has buckled unr prsure as bigotry grows agast the LGBTQ+ muny, Gay Water’s creator Spencer Hodson wants his new boozy brand to be the anthis of that. “The key issue that Bud Light tapped to was the fact that they didn’t unrstand their re dience and know enough about them,” Hodson, a gay man, told CNN about the ntroversy that began when the Anhser-Bch beer brand sent fluencer Dylan Mulvaney a n of beer. “Puttg a product wh the word gay the tle is reprentatn self,” which he hop reclaims the word om the negativy ’s sometim associated wh.

OBAMA MEETS WH RSIAN GAY RIGHTS ADVOT

The two chatted about the limed amount of gay people wh , and wh Hodson burnt out om his tradnal day job tech, started the nned cktail. Hodson built up a strong social media followg on TikTok and Instagram durg Covid-19 and is g some of the money om that (as well as om iends and fay) to help fund Gay Water.

“Gay is an umbrella term and the ia behd the brand is to be as clive as possible, which means we want alli, we want straight people to be part of this muny we’re buildg.”. For now, Gay Water is sold largely onle (wh a few retailers) and four sugar-ee flavors — watermelon, lime, peach and grapeu — at lnch.

Gay Water might not have the ep pockets pared to s petors, like Whe Claw, but “even at small sle, pani of many siz are havg succs makg spir-based seltzers and premixed cktails,” Bryan Roth, an analyst for Feel Goods Company and edor of the alhol beverage newsletter, Sightl+, told CNN. “There’s lots of space the spir-based seltzer tegory which Gay Water n play, pecially if the brand n offer a cultural or emotnal nnectn that will feel more excg than the prospect of another peapple-flavored vodka seltzer om natnal or ternatnal rporatns,” Roth said. Of urse, other drks e the word “gay,” too, cludg Gay Beer and So Gay Rosé, Hodson noted, which are also tryg to reach the queer muny and offer them an alternative the straight-domated space.

MEET THE GAY RSIAN TEEN USG TWTER TO FIGHT HOMOPHOBIA

In December 2022, Rsia expand s existg “gay propaganda” law to exert ntrol over public discsns and narrativ surroundg non-heterosexual relatnships and inti. “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.

AN INTERVIEW WH A GAY, RSIAN NEO-NAZI

“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. Petersburg, has also distguished self as most tolerant of the LGBT muny, acrdg to the rults of a recent banned “homosexual propaganda” among mors 2013, leadg the urts to ban gay pri events and public pollg show surgg anti-LGBT sentiment.

In recent weeks, thori the North Cs republic of Chechnya have aga been acced of illegally tag and killg gay men and Petersburg me first place among 20 Rsian ci whose rints are the most gay-iendly, acrdg to the Zoom Market agency’s rearch published Saturday. Novosibirsk and Mosw placed send and third, followed by Voronezh, Krasnodar and the oppose end of the rankg, the marketg agency named Saratov, Chelyabsk and Kazan as the three least tolerant Rsian ci toward LGBT Market surveyed 2, 400 rponnts om 20 Rsian ci on how they feel about sexual mori and whether any of their iends are gay.

MEET THE GAY RSIAN MAN BLACKMAILED TO FILTRATE TERRORIST GROUPS SYRIA

Print Barack Obama met wh lears of several Rsian social activist groups Friday, an event that likely touched on the sensive subject of gay rights the natn amid tensns over Syria.

Earlier this year, Rsian Print Vladimir Put signed a law passed by parliament that bans the public discsn of gay rights and relatnships where children might hear .

At the event Friday Rsia, Obama met wh reprentativ of groups that support a range of , cludg media eedom, protectn of the environment and lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr rights.

6 WAYS TO HELP GAY RSIANS SEEK ASYLUM THE U.S.

Like Kazakov, many other gay Rsians have recently fled to the Uned Stat hop of beg granted asylum, sayg they're fearful for their safety back home.

Attorneys at Immigratn Equaly, a New York Cy nonprof that offers legal servic to the LGBT muny and HIV-posive asylum seekers, say their seloads have skyrocketed om 50 to 60 requts for assistance om Rsian gays 2011 and 2012 to 180 requts last year. Many are tryg to pe vlent suatns that arose followg a 2013 law preventg gays om speakg about their sexualy or participatg public displays of affectn ont of mors.

PUT’S PRI? SIX FAMO GAY SONS OF RSIA

Human Rights Watch has lled for Rsia’s 2013 anti-LGBT-“propaganda” law to be repealed and for Rsian lears to publicly nmn vlence agast gays.

Vladimir Put’s regime has passed “gay propaganda” laws that effectively ban people om discsg anythg support of LGBT people, and now gay people and their alli live fear of prosecutn and attack – pecially om the neo-Nazi anti-gay group Occupy-Pedofilyay.

Apart om activists prottg Mosw and Sat Petersburg, most gays have eher gone to hidg or attempted to mask their inty, makg difficult for Wterners to know what ’s really like to be gay Rsia. But one brave gay Rsian teenager is changg this wh @_lgbt_teen, a Twter acunt about beg a gay teen Novosibirsk, the third most-populated cy most teenagers, Kirill tweets about his personal life, wh short sentenc about his recurrg prsn and mor updat on what he do his ee time.

GAY MAN RSIA FORCED TO HIDG OVER YOUTUBE TERVIEW

His avatar is a simple "SOS", and he often posts news about Rsia and imag of boys homoerotic suatns that uld also be seen as tragic – such as the 19th century Rsian pater Ilya Rep's Barge Hlers on the Volga, which shows over-worked men fallg on each other as they drag a barge across a Hlers on the Volga, a picture the Rsian pater Ilya Rep pated 140 years ago 1873, via Wiki CommonsVia email, Kirill was kd enough to speak to VICE about his Twter acunt, how he meets other gay teens and his plan to pe Rsia. People are different, but the male members of society are tryg to avoid havg anythg to do wh gays, [bee they don’t want anybody] to thk that they are gay.

However, I have experienced the unimagable lims of school homophobia, where you are nstantly huiated, sulted and almost beaten durg recs and by the school, while teachers act like they do not notice. I n't be granted asylum, bee I nnot prove school bullyg, and I do not have the mental health or the mental pacy to prott to help the gays. Our televisn statns talked about for several days and jt said, wh such theatril pathos, that “ France there is gay censorship and dictatorship”.

While at the same time, personally for me and for the majory of gays whom I know, our last hope is the Sofie on Twter: @sofiucksMore about Rsia:I'm a Rsian Lbian Pretendg to Be Straight to Avoid PersecutnThe NSFW Rsian Party Photos Might Send a Guy to PrisonAn Interview wh a Gay, Rsian Neo-Nazi. An vtigatn by a Mosw-based newspaper this sprg ma headl around the world that the Rsian ernment Chechnya, a republic the North Cs, was mtg horrific crim agast gay men.

GAY ACTIVISTS IN RSIA MEET WH OBAMA

But few journalists have wrten about how Rsian secury agenci gather kompromat, or promisg material, on gay men the regn orr to blackmail and rec them.

GAY DATG UKRAE

An exclive terview wh a young gay man Rlan (his name has been changed to protect his inty) om the neighborg Rsian republic of Dagtan by the Csian Knot sheds light on a practice which dat back to Soviet tim and is still ed by Rsian secury servic. There, a room on the send floor, he was terrogated, shown a secret rerdg of himself wh another gay man and given a choice: work as a spy for the Rsian ernment Syria or everyone on his ntact list would see the vio. Homophobic msag are wily circulated on Rsian state televisn and by policians, however the predomantly Mlim republics of the Cs beg gay n be adly.

The Novaya Gazeta vtigatn revealed that lol Chechen thori were systematilly enuragg fai to rry out honor killgs of their gay sons and brothers.

Subsequent follow ups to the story revealed that dozens of men, believed to be gay, had been round up and held secret prisons where they were tortured and some s killed. There are no ncrete numbers, but Rlan says the FSB’s practice of gatherg kompromat, promisg material ed for ercn, is well known to members of Dagtan’s secretive gay muny. By the time he met his recers, Rlan already knew of a gay iend who went to meet a man that he met onle and end up stead an apartment wh officers om secury servic.

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

If you’ve been followg the news the last few years you’ve likely heard that the suatn for gays and lbians Rsia has terrated signifintly. Vladimir Put’s anti-gay propaganda laws have sought to stifle homosexual exprsn – but Sochi’s openg ceremony featured some of the most proment homosexuals ternatnal history. The Sochi 2014 Wter Olympics openg ceremony referenced proment gay Rsians om the field of lerature, ballet, mic and film – cludg Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Vaslav Nijsky and Sergei Eisenste.

BEG GAY IS ILLEGAL MANY COUNTRI. L.G.B.T.Q. TRAVELERS ARE GOG ANYWAY.

The script for a film about Tchaikovsky’s life, which is beg ma wh Rsian ernment fundg, was reported to have been rewrten to exclu any suggtn that the poser was gay. He was a ntroversial character Rsia who phed the boundari of what was permissible ballet, cludg referenc to homosexualy and masturbatn.

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

Diaghilev was openly gay, and was scribed by the poser Nilas Nabokov as “perhaps the first grand homosexual who asserted himself and was accepted as such by society”.

MEET ANTON KRASOVSKY, THE GAY MAN RUNNG FOR MAYOR OF MOSW

Battlhip Potemk director Sergei Eisenste, a pneer of the e of montage film, is believed to have been gay, though he was married to a woman until his ath 1948. A movement Rsia is seekg Ivan the Terrible’s nonisatn – his homosexual leangs are jt one barrier to the Rsian Orthodox Church agreeg to this.

A gay Rsian man is hidg after Rsian thori opened a crimal se over a YouTube vio which he was terviewed by children, a se that has drawn attentn om human-rights activists. Maxim Pankratov told CNN he was facg threats and a potentially lengthy prison sentence for appearg the vio discsg his life as an openly gay man Rsia. The vio, origally posted on the Rsian-language “Real Talk” YouTube channel, featured four children terviewg Pankratov, 22, about his life and his inty as a gay man.

WHO CONTROLS A GAY RSIAN TEEN-AGER’S STORY?

The format of the vio is simple: Pankratov and his terviewers face each other chairs agast a blue background, and the children ask simple qutns: “How did you know you were gay? ” The law – which prohibs public discsn of gay rights and relatnships anywhere children may be prent – has drawn wispread ternatnal nmnatn. In the Rsian republic of Chechnya, for stance, wns and victims me forward to make public allegatns of mass arrts and torture of gay men.

“This se is a particularly disturbg example of thori g Rsia’s ‘gay propaganda’ law as a tool for discrimatn and timidatn, ” said Kyle Knight, senr LGBT rights rearcher at the advocy group Human Rights Watch.

04:19Download AudCopy the below to embed the WBUR d player on your seRumePolice ta a gay rights activist durg a prott near the State Duma, Rsia's lower parliament chamber, Mosw last January.