'Alone and fear': oral of married gay uple forced to flee Rsia | Rsia | The Guardian

Contents:

• THIS RSIAN GAY COUPLE HOP THEIR WEDDG WILL HELP CHANGE MDS
• HOW RSIA’S FIRST MARRIED GAY COUPLE END UP FLEEG
• RSIAN GAY COUPLE WH ADOPTED CHILDREN SEEKS POLIL ASYLUM IN U.S.
• GAY COUPLE FLE RSIA AFTER SAME-SEX-MARRIAGE SNDAL
• RSIAN GAY COUPLE WH ADOPTED CHILDREN SEEKS ASYLUM U.S.
• 'ALONE AND FEAR': ORAL OF MARRIED GAY UPLE FORCED TO FLEE RSIA
• GAY COUPLE STGGL TO STAY TOGETHER AS WAR UKRAE RAG ON
• 1 5 RSIANS WANT GAYS AND LBIANS 'ELIMATED,' SURVEY FDS
• GAY MARRIED UPLE FLEE RSIA AFTER RECEIVG ATH THREATS
• RSIAN NSTUTN CHANGE ENDS HOP FOR GAY MARRIAGE

THIS RSIAN GAY COUPLE HOP THEIR WEDDG WILL HELP CHANGE MDS

For three years they had to hi their love Rsia, where the law allows the removal of children om gay parents. “My mother hat gay men, she let me unrstand clearly, when I was 15 years old, ” Shcherbak said. “The biggt surprise we had was the overwhelmg supportive reactn om thoands of Rsians, which basilly shows that people Rsia are not homophobic, jt brawashed, ” Zygar Rsian enomy may be shrkg, the Rsian ary has failed all the Kreml’s adl for wng the war Ukrae, but the Rsian thori still fd time to persecute Rsia’s LGBTQ muny.

Lawmakers are discsg what else n be banned unr the fn of so-lled “LGBT propaganda”—now there is an ia to ban any promotn of homosexualy on the ter and culture.

It had seemed like a momento event at first, a turng pot for gay Rsians.

HOW RSIA’S FIRST MARRIED GAY COUPLE END UP FLEEG

Their story, broadst on state televisn, had returned the topic of gay marriage to the natnal nversatn  a untry where tolerance towards LGBT people has nosedived unr Print Vladimir saga began on the morng of Jan.

Not only is gay marriage illegal  Rsia;  2013 the untry passed a law agast so-lled “gay propaganda, ” which mak  punishable for gay upl to kiss or rry a rabow flag  the vicy of mors. The law and acpanyg rhetoric have buttrsed homophobia  the untry — a recent poll found that 83 percent of Rsians fd sex between people of the same genrs to be “reprehensible. “Rsia officially accepts gay marriage, ” he announced.

“We did this not jt for , but for everyone who is sred to be gay  public. “[The marriage law] was wrten by normal people who didn’t take the dark nuanc of ternatnal law to acunt, ” said Valy Milonov, the puty who troduced the origal 2013 “gay propaganda” bill. But before the thori left the apartment late that night, Igor Kochetkov, who heads the Rsian LGBT Network, said they issued a veiled threat, sayg they would not be able to protect the uple om homophobic a YouTube vio of the Rossia-24 broadst, Rsians lled for the uple’s heads.

RSIAN GAY COUPLE WH ADOPTED CHILDREN SEEKS POLIL ASYLUM IN U.S.

We did this not jt for , but for everyone who is sred to be gay public. ” Kochetkov Kochetkov, the episo is an important moment for gay Rsians and an opportuny for society to have a discsn about gay rights. Nikolai Alexeyev, who has been at the foreont of the gay rights movement for years, don’t believe the uple’s story will lead to ncrete chang, even if  prents a posive moment for discsn.

“We’ve already tried everythg, ” he told The Mosw only avenue open to gay upl is the European Court of Human Rights, he said, where there already is a se pendg of three Rsian gay upl who were married abroad and are tryg to have the unns regnized back urt is expected to announce s cisn  the next six months to two years, Alexeyev said. “When that lg is hand down, we n have a real discsn about the potential for gay marriage  Rsia, ” he said.

GAY COUPLE FLE RSIA AFTER SAME-SEX-MARRIAGE SNDAL

Alexeyev also dismissed the legal loophole as nsequential, notg that Rsian law is clear about s stance on gay marriage overall, even if  do not fe marriage explicly. Тhis week at the Gogol Center, though, Pecheyk rebutted siar suggtns already circulatg that his iend did not ntribute to the gay rights e. MOSCOW -- A Rsian gay uple have asked for asylum the Uned Stat after Rsian thori lnched an vtigatn to their adoptn of two children.

Rsia adopted a ntroversial law 2013 that bans "propagatg homosexualy among mors. Unr the law, gay upl the untry are not allowed to adopt children.

RSIAN GAY COUPLE WH ADOPTED CHILDREN SEEKS ASYLUM U.S.

Couple arrted for vlatg Rsia’s ‘gay propaganda’ law.

Police the Rsian cy of Kazan Wednday arrted a publicly out gay uple, Haoyang Xu and Gela Gogishvili, for their alleged breach of the untry’s “gay propaganda” law. The two men are particularly active on social media, where they amassed a large followg by chroniclg their experienc Rsia as a gay, non-Slavic uple.

'ALONE AND FEAR': ORAL OF MARRIED GAY UPLE FORCED TO FLEE RSIA

-fund Rad Free Europe/Rad Liberty, they immediately experienced harassment after they began uploadg vios documentg their experienc as a gay uple Rsia. The threats me to un on Wednday, when the uple was arrted the Rsian cy of “gay propaganda” law, first troduced 2013, mak a crimal act Rsia to publicly release material pictg same-sex relatnships. LGBT-Network head Igor Kochetkov said police had told Stotsko and Vosekhovensky they would not be protected om possible attacks by homophobic vigilant.

A Rsian gay uple whose adoptn of two children sparked crimal proceedgs agast social servic officials have requted asylum the Uned Stat, the LGBT group Comg Out has said. ” Rsia banned gay adoptn, along wh “homosexual propaganda among mors, ” 2013. Maxim Olenichev, a lawyer at the Vykhod LGBT rights group, said the Rsian thori’ efforts “to stroy the gay fay are immoral and not based on the law.

GAY COUPLE STGGL TO STAY TOGETHER AS WAR UKRAE RAG ON

On a ld January eveng, as placloth police officers hammered relentlsly on the door of their flat near Mosw, newlywed gay uple Pavel Stotsko and Yevgeny Vosekhovsky began to nsir fleeg Rsia.

Although homosexualy is not agast the law Rsia, same-sex marriage is. We thought that we uld now live happily and lmly Rsia, and that, spe all the homophobia, the law was on our si, ” Stotsko said. The uple also received numero ath rights groups say homophobic attacks have rocketed Rsia sce Print Vladimir Put approved a ntroversial law barrg so-lled “gay propaganda” 2013, effectively makg an offence to promote LGBT rights public.

Dozens of gay men were taed and tortured Chechnya, a maly Mlim republic southern Rsia, last officers soon turned up at the uple’s flat Lyubertsy, a small town jt outsi the Rsian pal, and mand that they hand over their ternal passports.

1 5 RSIANS WANT GAYS AND LBIANS 'ELIMATED,' SURVEY FDS

Photograph: Sputnik/Rters“After Put me to power, after the ascent to power of those people who me om the crimal unrworld, crimal ctoms and ias that ‘gays are dirty people’ gaed more populary and are now wily accepted throughout the ernment, ” Stotsko said. Although Rsian police generally adopted a tolerant approach to foreign LGBT fans at this summer’s World Cup, which Rsia hosted, homophobic attus are Mosw, which Stotsko says is safer than the rt of Rsia, LGBT people n be subject to horrendo abe public, if they are open about their a social experiment rried out the cy 2015, two young men who walked hand--hand along the street were tnted repeatedly and even physilly attacked by passersby.

Last year, assailants beat a 29-year-old man to ath Mosw’s Gorky Park, near the Kreml, “for not drsg right” an eye-openg opn poll published last month by a state anisatn, two-thirds of Rsians said they believed there was a worldwi gay nspiracy to subvert their untry’s “tradnal valu”. That’s how Maxim wound up close enough to Stepan that they uld see each other on Hor, a gay hookup app.

GAY MARRIED UPLE FLEE RSIA AFTER RECEIVG ATH THREATS

Rsia has been stokg homophobia the regn ever sce Rsia enacted s so-lled “gay propaganda ban” ne years ago.

So they lived quietly, always reful about who knew they were gay.

Many queer people fled the new regime, and the fear that queer people might be targeted seemed to e te 2015, when the one gay club the regn was raid by separatists, who beat and robbed the patrons. They were still reful about who they told they were gay — Stepan didn’t even feel fortable tellg the doctor at the clic where he got his HIV treatment. While many LGBTQ people enthiastilly enlisted, many other queer people, like Stepan and Maxim, didn’t believe the ary would be a safe place for them bee of wispread homophobia.

RSIAN NSTUTN CHANGE ENDS HOP FOR GAY MARRIAGE

They were aaid they would be targeted as gays if Rsian-aligned troops ptured their town.