Rsia to Gays: Shut Up and Disappear - The Bulwark

Contents:

• INTIMATE PHOTOGRAPH OF GAY RSIAN UPLE WS WORLD PRS PHOTO OF THE YEAR 2014
• THE 5 BEST MOSW GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS MOSW
• PHOTO ESSAY: THE DANGERS OF BEG GAY RSIA
• PUT’S PRI? SIX FAMO GAY SONS OF RSIA
• FROM RSIA WH LOVE: PHOTOS OF BRAVE GAY ACTIVISTS FIGHTG HOMOPHOBIA
• RSIA TO GAYS: SHUT UP AND DISAPPEAR
• CHECHNYA’S HORRIFIC ‘GAY PURGE’: A 4-YEAR TIMELE OF ABDUCTN, TORTURE AND MURR
• BEG GAY IN RSIA: A HISTORY OF ATTUS
• RSIA BANS IMAGE 'HTG' THAT PUT IS GAY
• TOP RSIAN TENNIS PLAYER DARIA KASATKA OUT AS GAY

INTIMATE PHOTOGRAPH OF GAY RSIAN UPLE WS WORLD PRS PHOTO OF THE YEAR 2014

A photograph showg an timate moment between a young gay uple St Petersburg has won the top prize at the World Prs Photo of the Year by Mads Nissen, a staff photographer for the Danish daily newspaper Poliken, the image shows Rsian uple Jon, 21, and Alex, 25, an photograph’s sight to gay life Rsia highlights the creasg difficulti lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr people face unr Put’s regime.

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.

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. - The world's first fe art photography magaze dited to queer and gay 2 - the Pri Issue featur ten photographers om ne untri: AY (UK), David Charl Colls (Atralia), Matthew Fley (USA), Ashish Gupta (India), Manuel Monyo (Mexi), Juan Anton Papagni Me (Argenta), Sebastian Perotti (Argenta), Mric A.

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

It now reprents more than 67 photographers om 27 untri - cludg Cha, India, Iran, Poland, Rsia and Turkey where gay rights are reprsed and queer liv unr nstant have been onle and physil exhibns, and two sold out BOYS! Is a project by The Ltle Black Gallery, curated by -founr Ghisla Pasl, to promote queer and gay now reprents more than 60 photographers om 25 untri - cludg Cha, India, Iran, Poland, Rsia and Turkey where gay rights are reprsed and queer liv unr nstant threat.

The law stat that " is sential to put place measur which provi for the tellectual, moral and mental well-beg of children, cludg a ban on any activi aimed at popularizg homosexualy … cludg stillg distorted ias that society plac an equal value on tradnal and nontradnal sexual relatns.

" While " would not be an offence to be a person of homosexual orientatn, " activists worry the wordg of the law is vague enough to leave officials across Rsia the eedom to harass, timidate and ultimately prosecute LGBT people on flimsy law, which follows years of creepg anti-homosexual legislatn a number of Rsia's regns, has been wily nmned by foreign ernments, pecially leadg up to the 2014 Wter Olympics Sochi. From left, Artyom Buriy, 24, Filipp Razskiy, 16 and Valiy Tsimodanov, 20, all members of “Occupy Pedophilia, ” a antly homophobic group that specializ huntg and filmg vlent attacks on spected gays and pedophil.

PHOTO ESSAY: THE DANGERS OF BEG GAY RSIA

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. Attacks on the gay muny have bee the norm: Sce the law’s passage, Mosw’s ma gay club, Central Statn, has seen at least five attacks—cludg a shootg, a poison gas attack, and a raid which equipment was stolen and the roof was damaged. Adam* said was dangero to e out as gay his home untry and feared beg forced to an arranged marriage wh a said he was "so lucky" to wed his soulmate, Ray, Manchter and wish everyone uld marry who they love.

'Authentilly myself'Ray said he had also stggled growg up gay the 1970s and 80s England, which was "tough" said his relig school "dmmed to you, 'you are gog to hell'" Adam returned home to Sdi Arabia, spe beg more than 3, 000 apart and later rtricted by the Covid-19 panmic, they kept touch daily and the romance years ago, Ray proposed on a vio ll and after succsfully applyg for a UK fiancé visa, Adam moved to Manchter December 2022.

PUT’S PRI? SIX FAMO GAY SONS OF RSIA

Adam said he had been aaid to even wear lours his home untry so the first thg he did when he moved was start to "grow my mullet, got my ears pierced and booked appotments for tattoos" relled how, ntrast, one of his gay iends Sdi had been forced to marry a woman, addg: "It has ed not only his life but the life of his wife. The uple, who live London, said a "really betiful memory" was on the way home when one of their sons shouted out of the black b wdow to Trafalgar Square, "My dads jt got married" and cheered "Yay, gay marriage".

FROM RSIA WH LOVE: PHOTOS OF BRAVE GAY ACTIVISTS FIGHTG HOMOPHOBIA

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. 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.

RSIA TO GAYS: SHUT UP AND DISAPPEAR

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. 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.

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.

CHECHNYA’S HORRIFIC ‘GAY PURGE’: A 4-YEAR TIMELE OF ABDUCTN, TORTURE AND MURR

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. 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.

BEG GAY IN RSIA: A HISTORY OF ATTUS

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. A notable exceptn me 2013, when the ernor of St Petersburg did not forbid the cy’s LGBT pri para, although did enunter vlently homophobic protters who tried to obstct the metrics of hatredIn fact, the vlent far-right groups keep close tabs on LGBT activists Rsia and the events they hold – or try to.

RSIA BANS IMAGE 'HTG' THAT PUT IS GAY

After facts me to light about the systematic torture of gay men at secret tentn mps Chechnya, the republic’s prs secretary immediately retorted that “you nnot reprs those who are not and nnot be here the Chechen Republic. Statistilly, a gay person is safer St Petersburg than a smaller cy like NizhnevartovskVery often, hate crim are mted as soon as perpetrators learn about the victim’s sexualy, which is ually revealed a nversatn a private space over a drk or meal.

TOP RSIAN TENNIS PLAYER DARIA KASATKA OUT AS GAY

April 1, 2021, marks four years sce the world at large was first ma aware of Chechnya’s gay purge — atroci mted agast LGBTQ people wh the Rsian republic’s borrs, a horrific, ongog stratagem of abductn, tament, torture and murr. Gradually rebed by Wtern ernments over the years as first-hand acunts began to emerge, Chechnya’s gay purge has largely been ignored — if not supported through omissn — by Rsian Print Vladimir Put and his ernment.

After weeks of verifitn, the Rsian-language newspaper shar heart-wrenchg news out of Rsia’s North Cs: More than 100 people have been taed Chechnya, all of whom are gay or spected to be. ” Lol thori tell a news agency, “You nnot arrt or reprs people who jt don’t exist the republic, ” suggtg that Chechnya has no gay cizens, and that if did, those cizens’ relativ would have executed them unr honor killg ctoms. Amnty Internatnal lnch an “urgent actn” mpaign askg dividuals to wre to Rsian thori “urgg them to rry out prompt, effective and thorough vtigatns to the reports of abductns and killgs of men believed to be gay Chechnya and to ensure that anyone found guilty or plic such crim will be brought to jtice acrdance wh the laws of the Rsian Feratn.