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

Contents:

• 'WE'RE NOT HIDG': GAY AND LBIAN RSIANS SAY A CULTURAL SHIFT IS UNRWAY
• ‘I’M AAID FOR MY FUTURE’: PROPOSED LAWS THREATEN GAY LIFE RSIA
• Q&A: GAY RIGHTS RSIA
• DISPATCH: JAIL TIME FOR BEG GAY RSIA
• BEG GAY RSIA: ‘YOU NEVER TALK ABOUT ’
• THE FEAR OF BEG GAY RSIA
• ‘OUR MERE EXISTENCE IS ILLEGAL.’ AS MOSW TOUGHENS ANTI-GAY LAW, LGBTQ RSIANS FEAR FOR THE FUTURE
• INSI THE IRON CLOSET: WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE GAY PUT'S RSIA
• EIGHT HORRIFIC AND UPLIFTG STORI ABOUT BEG GAY THE NEW RSIA
• CHANGG PERCEPTNS OF WHAT IS LIKE TO BE GAY MOSW – ONE TOUR AT A TIME

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

Rsia's World Cup volunteers have warned they will hunt down gay England fans and report them to police if they see them kissg publicPublished: 9:00, 28 Jun 2018Updated: 9:02, 28 Jun 2018RUSSIA'S World Cup volunteers have warned they will hunt down gay England fans and report them to police if they see them kissg public. But what are the laws regardg homosexualy Rsia - and n same sex upl actually be prosecuted for beg openly affectnate? While 's not agast the law to be a gay relatnship Rsia, same sex marriag are illegal.

LGBT rights groups say homophobic attacks have rocketed sce print Vladimir Put approved the ntroversial law outlawg the promotn of a gay liftyle to mors 2013. In 2017, dozens of gay men were reportedly taed and tortured Chechnya. 2 One volunteer group Rsia have warned gay fans uld be sent to policeCred: East2wt News.

Although sexual activy between gay people was crimalised 1993, homosexual upl are not eligible for the legal protectns offered to heterosexuals Rsia. Gay people are allowed to serve the ary, but there is an unofficial "Don't ask, don't tell policy". Dpe beg slammed for the recent crease social discrimatn, crim and vlence agast homosexuals, big ci such as Mosw and Sat Petersburg are said to have thrivg LGBT muni.

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

In the past, however, there has been a ristance to Gay Pri paras by lol ernments. In a report issued April 2012, a panel of five expert advisers to the Uned Natns Human rights Council nmned the wave of torture and killgs of gay men Chechnya.

In January 2018, two gay men whose marriage was registered by Rsian officials fled the untry after receivg ath threats. Stotsko said he had exploed a loophole the gay marriage law, cg another law that means Rsia regnis marriag registered abroad.

Meanwhile, gay supporters attendg the World cup were also warned is dangero to hold hands public Rsia.

Q&A: GAY RIGHTS RSIA

In January 2016, state Duma rejected a proposal by the munist Party to punish people who publicly show their homosexualy wh f and arrts. Gay rights champn Peter Tatchell arrted Mosw after takg part ‘illegal prott’ hours before World Cup kick off.

The European Court of Human Rights led 2017 that the 2013 law is discrimatory, promot homophobia and vlat the European Conventn on Human Rights. 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. Homosexualy was crimalized Rsia 1993, but homophobia and discrimatn is still rife.

DISPATCH: JAIL TIME FOR BEG GAY RSIA

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. 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.

BEG GAY RSIA: ‘YOU NEVER TALK ABOUT ’

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.

”Some gay Rsians doubt that the new laws will greatly affect them.

THE FEAR OF BEG GAY RSIA

“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. It banned, quote, "propaganda of homosexualy and pedophilia among mors.

And particularly where that base of support is close to relig views, there is a lot of crossover there that works for polil opportunists who are g official forms of homophobia to fe their polil That is Dan Healey, profsor of Rsian history at the Universy of Oxford.

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

Rsia’s lg party’s most recent mpaign to ban “polyamory and bisexualy propaganda” is part of an ongog attempt to enact homophobic polici and prerve what the Kreml nsirs “tradnal valu.

” Along wh the recent natnal referendum that clud a nstutnal ban on same-sex marriage, this mpaign, creasgly nservative and exprsly anti-LGBT+ rhetoric, reprents state-sponsored “policized homophobia” that unrme and repackage the prcipl of mocracy and human rights, as well as how those ncepts are terpreted by policymakers, Rsia and beyond. The 2013 “gay propaganda” law marked a signifint shift g legislatn to foster a sense of natnal inty at the expense of LGBT+ people’s fundamental rights.

In realy, policized homophobia and the objectifitn of tradn not only aims to draw symbolic boundari between “Rsian culture” and the Wt, but also nstcts an enemy—LGBT+ people. By enactg legislatn aimed at prervg "tradnal valu", cludg homophobic laws, the Rsian ernment has reposned self as a signifint iologil force the regn and around the world. For stance, after Rsia’s adoptn of the gay-propaganda law 2013, many post-Soviet untri’ parliaments nsired different eratns of a bill agast “homosexual propaganda.

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

Rsia’s anti-LGBT+ polici are not maniftatns of herent Rsian homophobia, but rather the velopment of a polil strategy by Rsian policymakers.

The implementatn of the “gay propaganda” law has rulted an crease anti- LGBT+ vlence and rtrictns on LGBT+ projects and iativ—om a ban on Pri events to the abily of LGBT+ anizatns to register the untry.

EIGHT HORRIFIC AND UPLIFTG STORI ABOUT BEG GAY THE NEW RSIA

The bt path forward lls for ternatnal actors to adhere to human-rights prcipl, mata polil prsure on the Rsian ernment, and support lol actors who work to rce homophobic rhetoric the public doma and crease the reprentatn of LGBT+ people. Image ptn, The gay rights activists were attacked by rival protters St Petersburg June spe the prence of policeGay people Rsia are unr prsure over their sexual orientatn, 20 years after the untry crimalised homosexualy.

A bill banng gay "propaganda" among juvenil has raised fears that the muny is beg spegoated by populist crim agast gay people Rsia have ma headl abroad, even if the te sle of the problem is hard to BBC News looks at some of the issu. While same-sex relatnships are Rsia, public exprsns of homosexualy are owned upon, backed up by anti-gay propaganda. Homophobic attacks have also creased sce the law was troduced 2013.

CHANGG PERCEPTNS OF WHAT IS LIKE TO BE GAY MOSW – ONE TOUR AT A TIME

Dpe this, there’s a thrivg, if outwardly discreet gay scene St Petersburg and Mosw if you know where to look for .

Source: GettyDpe same-sex relatnships beg legal Rsia - homosexualy was legalised 1993 – and thrivg gay scen and, attus towards LGBTQI muni this nservative society n be nsirably hostile. A 2013 by the Pew Rearch Center found that only 16 percent of Rsians believed homosexualy should be accepted by society, while a by the Rsian Public Opn Rearch Center (VCIOM) the same year found a staggerg 42 percent believed “non tradnal sexualy” should be prosecuted, up om 19 percent the other extreme are disturbg that the Southern Rsian republic of Chechnya, gay men are beg taed, tortured and even killed ncentratn mps an effort to force them is illegal to promote "non-tradnal sexual relatns to mors"Richard Ayoa and iend Greg Davi wisely show no affectn Mosw. Source: SBSRsia’s anti-gay propaganda law bans the "promotn of non-tradnal sexual relatns to mors”.

In 2013, four Dutch natnals makg a documentary on the gay muny the northwtern cy of Murmansk were jailed unr the law for spicn of “promotg homosexualy to children” VCIOM found that 88 percent of the Rsian populatn is favour of the propaganda aware that homophobia is monAnti-gay vigilante groups n be extremely vlent towards their victims. Source: YouTubeHomophobia and vlent attacks have bee more due to the anti-gay propaganda legislatn. There have been s of anti-gay Rsian vigilante groups lurg ers out to be or some s.