Photo Illtratn by Thomas Levson/The Daily Beast/GettyWhen the lower chamber of the Rsian parliament passed a new law banng genr-affirmg surgery for transgenr people, nfirmed Milana Romanova’s worst fear: The relative eedom that transgenr people had enjoyed Rsia sce 1997, durg her entire life, was over. The new law—passed Friday, and which now go to the upper chamber and Print Put for fal approval—hted dangeroly of creasg medil prsure on gay
Contents:
- RSIA TO GAYS: SHUT UP AND DISAPPEAR
- MY HARROWG JOURNEY THROUGH GAY CONVERSN THERAPY RSIA
- RSIA'S LGBT 'CONCENTRATN CAMPS': PRISONS FOR GAY MEN IN CHECHNYA, REPORTS SAY
- HOW TO SAY GAY RSIAN
RSIA TO GAYS: SHUT UP AND DISAPPEAR
* russian gay conversion *
About 30 years ago, the World Health Organizatn stopped nsirg homosexualy and bisexualy psychologil diseas.
Rsia - where homophobia is an unofficial state policy - is one of them. Methods of the so-lled nversn therapy Rsia take different forms; the mlim-majory Northern Cs, where gay people are subject to a state-n mpaign of torture and murr, often hand hand wh relign.
MY HARROWG JOURNEY THROUGH GAY CONVERSN THERAPY RSIA
I grew up gay Put’s Rsia, where homosexuals are nmned, terrorized, and disenanchised. While reportg on an unsettlg “cure,” I wound up vtigatg my own sexualy. * russian gay conversion *
Ruals of exorcism, are wispread, wh mullahs - members of the clergy - tryg to expel geni that rry the s of homosexualy out of a person’s body. The mon way of “curg” homosexuals is by privg them of all ntact wh the outsi world and forcg them to perform difficult manual labour.
Some proponents of gay nversn therapy openly advertise themselv. The most famo of them is Yan Goland, an 84-year-old psychotherapist om Nizhny Novgorod, who boasts to have “cured” more than 80 homosexuals.
For Goland and his lik, this psdotreatment is a source of e; but even some ee ernment clics ntually diagnose patients wh “homosexual orientatn, ” such as one clic Simferopol, Crimea did 2020. Margalisg LGBTQ+ people is a state-approved urse of actn, as showsed by the 2013 “Gay propaganda” law. In a sea of nned cktails, Gay Water wants to stand out.
RSIA'S LGBT 'CONCENTRATN CAMPS': PRISONS FOR GAY MEN IN CHECHNYA, REPORTS SAY
Reports have surfaced that "ncentratn mps" have been opened up Chechnya where gay men are beg taed and tortured to m that they would leave the republic. * russian gay conversion *
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, however, is out and proud. The nned cktail is named after a lloquialism given to the popular mixed drk (vodka and soda) orred at bars by the gay muny. “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.
He thought of creatg Gay Water about a year ago while on a vatn wh his iend that had got a job wh the beverage dtry. 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.
HOW TO SAY GAY RSIAN
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.