Post-Soviet Pop Go Gay: Rsia's Trajectory to Eurovisn Victory on JSTOR

Contents:

• EUROVISN'S SERGEY LAZAREV: GAY LIFE EXISTS RSIA
• RSIAN POLICIAN NMNS EUROVISN AS 'EUROPE-WI GAY PARA'
• 'YOU'RE NOT SAFE MOSW', GAY EUROVISN FANS TOLD AHEAD OF MARCH
• ISRAEL'S REPRENTATIVE TO EUROVISN STOPPED RSIA FOR 'BEG GAY'
• EUROVISN NTT SETS STAGE FOR GAY PROTTS
• RSIA IS PNG S EUROVISN HOP ON A GAY-IENDLY SGER WHO SPURNS S CRIMEAN POLICY
• ISRAELI ENTRANT TO EUROVISN SAYS HUIATED AT RSIAN AIRPORT FOR BEG GAY
• 8 REASONS WHY EUROVISN IS GAY HEAVEN

EUROVISN'S SERGEY LAZAREV: GAY LIFE EXISTS RSIA

Image source, Getty ImagDpe his untry's ntroversial laws, Rsia's Eurovisn entrant says the LGBT muny will be weled to his untry if he ws the rights mpaigners have often cricised 2013 legislatn which means heavy f are hand out for people providg rmatn about homosexualy to unr Lazarev is the favoure to w, which means Rsia would host next year if that happens.

"Gay life exists Rsia, " he tells source, Getty Imag"There is more talk and mours about problems than exist. "The law also allows Rsian thori to block accs to webs emed to promote Eurovisn Song Contt has a large LGBT followg around the 2014, a Rsian polician lled the Eurovisn Song Contt "a Europe-wi gay para" source, Getty ImagRecently, the Israeli entrant to Eurovisn, who's openly gay, cricised his treatment Rsia after an cint at Mosw Star says he had his passport ripped up ont of him when he entered the untry to perform. "I had two performanc Mosw's gay clubs and the crowds were huge.

“There are no gay people Rsia, ” Lemtov asserts, echog the disturbg words of real-life Chechen print Ramzan Kadyrov back 2017. I thk if you look back at performers here back the ‘80s, a lot of people didn’t thk Gee Michael was gay.

RSIAN POLICIAN NMNS EUROVISN AS 'EUROPE-WI GAY PARA'

The Rsian polician who spired a ntroversial anti-gay law has found a new source of gay propaganda: the Eurovisn song Petersburg legislator Valy Milonov – who sponsored a lol law agast homosexual propaganda 2011 that helped pave the way for a siar feral law last year – has wrten a letter to Rsia's Eurovisn selectn mtee askg not to send Rsian micians to the 2014 petn Copenhagen May. Callg the event a "Europe-wi gay para, " Milonov argued that Rsian performers' participatn would "ntradict the path of cultural and moral renewal that Rsia stands on today". "The participatn of the obv transvte and hermaphrode Concha Wurst on the same stage as Rsian sgers on live televisn is blatant propaganda of homosexualy and spirual y.

Milonov cricised Rsia's state-owned Channel One last May for broadstg the 2013 Eurovisn ntt, which he lled "gradatn the style of Hollan", reference to the French print, François Hollan, who had jt signed a law legalisg gay MP has also equently attacked ternatnal performers, most recently seekg to ban Ukrae's most popular band, Okean Elzy, om Rsia for supportg the Euromaidan protts that oted s print, Viktor 2012, he filed a plat that Lady Gaga had vlated the St Petersburg law agast promotg homosexualy among mors when she lled for rpect for gay rights durg her ncert the cy.

He also filed a plat argug that Lady Gaga and Madonna – who had lled for gay people to be treated wh digny at a St Petersburg ncert – had vlated visa l durg their Rsian tours. Hungary will not participate next year’s Eurovisn song ntt, amid speculatn the cisn was taken bee the petn is “too gay” for the taste of the untry’s far-right ernment and public media no official reason has been given for the whdrawal, the move amid an crease homophobic rhetoric Hungary, where the anti-migratn prime mister, Viktor Orbán, has lnched a “fay first” policy aimed at helpg tradnal fai and boostg birth rat.

'YOU'RE NOT SAFE MOSW', GAY EUROVISN FANS TOLD AHEAD OF MARCH

Earlier this year, the speaker of the Hungarian parliament pared same-sex adoptn to paedophilia, while a pro-ernment televisn mentator referred to Eurovisn as “a homosexual flotilla” and said not participatg would benef the natn’s mental health. Earlier, the Hungarian webse quoted unnamed sourc si public media speculatg that the reason for the whdrawal was likely to be that Eurovisn was emed “too gay”. Orbán has steered clear of cendiary homophobic rhetoric, although he has repeatedly emphasised his view that marriage n only be between a man and a woman.

But recent months the homophobia among the prime mister’s ner circle has ratcheted MP om Orbán’s Fisz party lled for a boytt of Co-Cola after the brand lnched an advertisg mpaign g photographs of a gay uple, while László Kövér, the speaker of the Hungarian parliament, pared proponents of equal marriage and adoptn to paedophil. Kövér ntrasted those who wanted same-sex adoptn rights to a putative “normal homosexual” who unrstood his lower stat the world. “I wele the cisn, cludg om a mental health perspective, that Hungary will not take part the homosexual flotilla that this ternatnal song petn has been rced to, ” said András Bencsik, the edor of a pro-ernment magaze and equent TV mentator.

”The sndal rells opposn to Eurovisn Rsia, where a homophobic MP lled for the untry to whdraw 2014, sayg that participatg would “ntradict the path of cultural and moral renewal that Rsia stands on today” European Broadstg Unn, which ns the ntt, said: “It is not unmon for EBU members to have breaks participatn the Eurovisn song ntt, ” and poted out that Hungary had been absent on prev ocsns. The protters are not monstratg agast Eurovisn as such, but agast plans by gay rights activists to hold a para Mosw this weekend on the day of the 's mayor, Yuri Luzhkov, who memorably scribed gay pri events as "satanic", has prohibed all prev gay rights meetgs. Several gay activists who took part unthorised ralli 2006 and 2007 were badly beaten up Mosw – among them Peter Tatchell, who was punched, kicked, left wh severe bisg to the head, and then arrted, and the Right Said Fred sger Richard Fairbrass.

ISRAEL'S REPRENTATIVE TO EUROVISN STOPPED RSIA FOR 'BEG GAY'

Tatchell says he is g back to Mosw for Saturday's gay rights rally, lled "Slavic Pri". "Saturday's Slavic Gay pri is about more than gay human rights.

It is about the right of all Rsian people to eely exprs their opns and prott peacefully, " Tatchell said, addg: "The ban on gay paras is jt one example of the systematic supprsn of civil liberti Rsia. "Nohels, there is now a distct possibily that Rsian natnalists and neo-Nazis will once aga beat up gay monstrators – as well as visg Eurovisn fans – what would be a severe blow to Rsia's ternatnal reputatn and to Eurovisn, already reelg om eastern European bloc-votg sndals.

" Asked whether gay Brish fans should avoid travellg to Mosw this Saturday, he warned: "Everybody has to make their own choice. "That Eurovisn has a wi gay followg isn't much of a secret, even Rsia. "Lots of gays and lbians are fans of Eurovisn.

EUROVISN NTT SETS STAGE FOR GAY PROTTS

It's a very gay event, " Alekseev said. Germany's entrant this year, Osr Loya, is openly gay, wh his natnaly – he's an Amerin – provokg more discsn Germany than his sexualy.

His song is tled Miss Kiss Kiss is therefore somethg of a paradox that Mosw should be hostg the event – given that Luzhkov is the most homophobic mayor Europe, and shunned by his peers London, Berl and Paris.

RSIA IS PNG S EUROVISN HOP ON A GAY-IENDLY SGER WHO SPURNS S CRIMEAN POLICY

In theory, Rsia is obliged to allow gay ralli, and other gathergs, unr s nstutn. In practice, Luzhkov has outlawed every gay event, and recently dubbed gay people "weapons of mass stctn"'s far-right and orthodox Christian groups yterday ma clear they plan to given their own unpromisg rponse to any gay maniftatn. "We won't allow this satanic gatherg, " Nikolai Dovynko, the aniser of last week's anti-gay picket told the Guardian.

ISRAELI ENTRANT TO EUROVISN SAYS HUIATED AT RSIAN AIRPORT FOR BEG GAY

"Asked whether his movement, the uned orthodox youth, was plottg to e vlence agast gay and lbian Eurovisn fans, he replied: "We don't want to hurt anybody physilly.

8 REASONS WHY EUROVISN IS GAY HEAVEN

" The group's leaflet mix imag om prev gay paras wh photos of terrorist attacks.