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

Contents:

• ‘THEY STARVE YOU. THEY SHOCK YOU’: INSI THE ANTI-GAY POGROM CHECHNYA
• WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT RSIA’S SO-CALLED ‘GAY PROPAGANDA’ BILL
• RSIAN ‘GAY PROPAGANDA LAW’ DISCRIMATORY, EUROPEAN URT L
• EUROPEAN COURT BLASTS RSIA 'GAY PROPAGANDA' LAW
• 1 5 RSIANS WANT GAYS AND LBIANS 'ELIMATED,' SURVEY FDS
• CHECHNYA LGBT: DOZENS 'TAED NEW GAY PURGE'
• AFTER COMG OUT AS GAY, A RSIAN VLIST'S NEW REALY
• BEG GAY RSIA: ‘YOU NEVER TALK ABOUT ’
• 'WE'RE NOT HIDG': GAY AND LBIAN RSIANS SAY A CULTURAL SHIFT IS UNRWAY
• GAY MAN RSIA FORCED TO HIDG OVER YOUTUBE TERVIEW
• RSIA’S ‘GAY PROPAGANDA’ LAWS ARE ILLEGAL, EUROPEAN COURT RUL
• RSIANS PROTTG ABE OF GAY MEN CHECHNYA ARE DETAED
• CHECHNYA IS TRYG TO EXTERMATE GAY PEOPLE. OUR SILENCE ONLY EMBOLNS VLADIMIR PUT AND RAMZAN KADYROV.

‘THEY STARVE YOU. THEY SHOCK YOU’: INSI THE ANTI-GAY POGROM CHECHNYA

But for the young man who lls himself Maksim, as for sr of other gay men arrted a pogrom this month Rsia’s Chechnya regn, pivoted to nearly two weeks of beatgs and said had started wh a chat room nversatn wh “a very good old iend who is also gay, ” and who suggted that they meet at an apartment.

Kadyrov, is a new turn the regn’s long history of rights Gazeta, an opposn newspaper, first reported the pogrom, sayg that at least 100 gay men had been arrted and three killed the roundup.

WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT RSIA’S SO-CALLED ‘GAY PROPAGANDA’ BILL

The victims e assumed nam their everyday followg acunt is based on terviews wh Maksim, who is his 20s, and two other gay men who were taed by Chechen secury agents. ” Hill for The New York TimThe crackdown began after GayRsia, a rights group based Mosw, applied for perms for gay pri paras the Cs regn, promptg unterprotts by relig groups, the men said.

In Chechnya, beme somethg even worse — a mass “prophylactic” cleansg of homosexuals, the secury service agents told the gay men as they round them men were held for as ltle as a day or as long as several weeks, acrdg to Human Rights Watch and to terviews wh gay men who later ped the regn.

RSIAN ‘GAY PROPAGANDA LAW’ DISCRIMATORY, EUROPEAN URT L

Pkov, told journalists that the Rsian thori had found no evince that the Chechen police had arrted gay quickly beme clear to Maksim and the other men that the Chechen thori were applyg the same tactics ed by Rsia and by Mr. Secury service agents took to posg as gay men lookg for dat on the Village and other chat rooms, or persuad those they had already ptured to lure acquatanc, those arrted said spread among gay Chechens.

EUROPEAN COURT BLASTS RSIA 'GAY PROPAGANDA' LAW

His acunt of the ceptn ed to ta him was nsistent wh others documented by Human Rights Watch and wh the acunts of the two other gay men terviewed separately for this six of the men the apartment were transferred to a makhift cell an abandoned buildg, where they were tortured wh electricy one by one, Maksim 11 days, he was released to a male relative, who was told that Maksim was gay. Petersburg, which has tablished an emergency, round-the-clock volunteer group to help gay men pe the reassure the victims they are tryg to help, the activists have taken extraordary preutns, operatg virtually as a partisan cell behd enemy l, though they have done nothg illegal unr Rsian law. “The people don’t tst anybody, ” said Olga Baranova, director of the Mosw Communy Center, a support group for gays that is part of the volunteer work helpg gay men flee arrivg at the safe lotn outsi Chechnya, several young men said they had spected that the volunteer group was also a trap but had no other optn but to accept the help, Ms.

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

” Some lawmakers have also shown support for an pennt bill that would make any so-lled “gay propaganda” a crimal offense, acrdg to the Associated Prs.

CHECHNYA LGBT: DOZENS 'TAED NEW GAY PURGE'

Petersburg and Mosw have been marked by state vlence and arrts, while an crease the number of attacks on LGBTQ people throughout Rsia—both by dividuals and by anized homophobic groups—creased after the 2013 law, acrdg to a 2014 report published by Human Rights Watch. In 2017, the European Court of Human Rights led that Rsia’s “gay propaganda law” was discrimatory, promoted homophobia, and vlated the European Conventn on Human Rights and that “served no legimate public tert.

It’s also temptg to let Kadyrov’s words shape Wtern disurse about Chechnya: that (or Islam) is trsilly homophobic, that vlence, or honor killgs, are simply part of Chechen life.

AFTER COMG OUT AS GAY, A RSIAN VLIST'S NEW REALY

” Nor, B says, is necsarily enmic to Islam, potg out that, although strict terpretatn of certa Quranic vers might legimize anti-LGBTQ attus, there are plenty of Mlims that aren’t homophobic — and do not take every verse the Quran lerally. Their relativ were advised to fd a “proper solutn” to get rid of the “sick” members of their fay … the thori guaranteed that if the fay cid to kill the gay/bisexual fay member (to wash the shame away wh blood), they would not be prosecuted for this crime. The Network nnot safely get evacuated gay and bisexual male Chechens to refugee mps bee they might be attacked by diaspora Chechens there who may bee aware of their sexual orientatn.

While the suatn for LGBTQ people Rsia is of urse much safer than Chechnya (for starters, male homosexualy is technilly legal), attus toward LGBTQ dividuals have creasgly shifted along natnalistic l — l that, as Kadyrov’s Chechnya, have been clearly drawn by the state. This polilly rooted, state-sponsored homophobia has bee a nvenient propagandistic spegoat for galvanizg cizens of a untry still fdg s feet the aftermath of the USSR’s fall; a shared hostily toward Wtern “others” n une Rsians and Chechens, spe hardly beg historic alli. Durg her vis to Rsia May, German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Put to tervene, cg "negative reports on the treatment of homosexuals, particularly Chechnya" and statg a news nference that she “asked Print Put to e his fluence to guarantee the rights of mori.

BEG GAY RSIA: ‘YOU NEVER TALK ABOUT ’

For Dzhibladze, Put has been able to rally his untry by focg on “the enemy om whout” — the Wt — as well as the “enemy om wh”: gays, who are wily seen as symptomatic of Wtern nce or vice.

Even the acronym, he says — which the ernment almost always s propaganda (rather than g Rsian-language terms) — tensifi a sense among the Rsian populace of foreignns; the ia that beg gay is some kd of polil allegiance (plete wh qutnable foreign acronym) rather than an orientatn. The law bans “propaganda of non-tradnal sexual relatns around mors” and was jtified by Rsia’s Duma as a necsary measure to protect children om homosexual fluence. On Tuday the European Court of Human Rights Strasbourg, France found that three gay Rsian activists were discrimated agast and their right to eedom of exprsn vlated when they were fed for prottg agast the law.

Nikolay Bayev, Aleksey Kiselev and Nikolay Alekseyev staged protts between 2009 and 2012, holdg banners statg that homosexualy is natural and normal, and not a perversn, acrdg to the urt lg. 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. “Above all, by adoptg such laws the urt found that the thori had rerced stigma and prejudice and enuraged homophobia, which was patible wh the valu – of equaly, pluralism and tolerance – of a mocratic society, ” the urt document said.

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

After the lg was announced, TASS reported that the Jtice Mistry disagreed wh , sayg: “The relevant acts did not tablish any measur aimed at banng homosexualy or s official censure, did not nta any signs of discrimatn and, s general sense, did not allow excsive actn by public thori. Image source, AFPImage ptn, Gay rights activists marched agast the law St Petersburg 2013Rsia's "gay propaganda" law is discrimatory and enurag homophobia, the European Court of Human Rights has Strasbourg judg said Rsia had discrimated agast three gay rights activists who opposed the law. It was adopted 2013, banng promotn of homosexualy among people unr law "rerced stigma and prejudice and enuraged homophobia", the lg rights groups nmned the the law, private dividuals emed to be promotg "homosexual behavur among mors" face f of up to 5, 000 roubl (£67; $85), while officials risk payg 10 tim that amount.

The Strasbourg urt said the f imposed on three Rsian gay rights activists vlated Article 10 (eedom of exprsn) and Article 14 (prohibn of discrimatn) of the European Conventn on Human Rights. Image source, AFPImage ptn, One of the gay ligants, Nikolai Alexeyev, has been arrted repeatedlyMP Valy Milonov, of the lg Uned Rsia party, who troduced the origal bill to the St Petersburg parliament and which formed the basis of the feral law, told BBC Rsian that the urt's cisn was "anti-natnal".

"It is absolutely harmful, and those who set up this cisn are enemi of Europe, " he three activists had been found guilty for prottg agast the law 2009-2012 - outsi a sendary school Ryazan, a children's library Archangel and an admistrative buildg St on gay rights RsiaThe urt rejected the Rsian ernment's claim that such a law was need to protect moraly.

GAY MAN RSIA FORCED TO HIDG OVER YOUTUBE TERVIEW

Such laws, the judg said, "embodied a predisposed bias on the part of a heterosexual majory agast a homosexual mory" orred Rsia to pay each of the activists damag of between €8, 000 (£7, 000; $8, 900) and €20, of the three, Nikolai Alexeyev, hailed the lg as a "total victory", the BBC's Sarah Rasford reports om had picketed a children's library, holdg a sign clarg that gay people uld also be great - and listg the Rsian poser Pyotr Tchaikovsky and filmmaker Sergei Eisenste as on this story. Nearly 1 5 Rsians want to “elimate” gay and lbian people om society, acrdg to a new survey, a fdg that has ced fear and anger among LGBTQ activists the untry. ”The survey, published this week by the Levada Center, a nonernmental rearch anizatn based Mosw, also found that 32 percent of rponnts wanted to “isolate” gay men and lbians om society, pared to 9 percent who wanted to “assist” them.

Unr the legislatn, also known as the “gay propaganda law, ” any act or event that thori em to promote homosexualy to children is punishable by a fe. Over the past several years, there have also been a number of disturbg reports of state-sponsored tentn, vlence and torture agast gay and bisexual men Chechnya, a semitonomo Rsian regn“The state giv the signal that LGBT people are not real people, that they are send- or even third-class cizens, ” Zakharova said. ”Dpe reports of creased vlence and the enactment of the “gay propaganda law, ” Kocherga said the suatn has improved over the past three s, when the Soviet Man project first started.

“Thgs om a polil pot of view have bee worse, but still somehow Rsian nscns tri to be better, ” she said, notg that 1989, the survey’s first year, 35 percent of those polled wanted to “elimate” gays and lbians, pared to 18 percent the latt fdgs. “It’s nice to see that actually the willgns to see homosexuals, to accept them, is actually risg, ” Kocherga poted to a separate survey released by the Levada Center last year that found Rsian attus toward LGBTQ people — while still predomantly negative — have improved, pecially among young, ted women.

RSIA’S ‘GAY PROPAGANDA’ LAWS ARE ILLEGAL, EUROPEAN COURT RUL

Twenty percent of last year’s participants said they pletely agree that gay men and lbians should have equal rights Rsia, pared to jt 7 percent 2013 when the “gay propaganda law” was passed. The 2019 data also found that those wh gay and lbian acquatanc have more posive attus toward sexual Zakharova said the suatn for the untry’s lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer muny is ed dire, the Rsian people are “not as homophobic as thori or feral mass media try to portray them.

Image source, Getty ImagImage ptn, Chechen lear Ramzan Kadyrov has prevly claimed the reports were "ma up"Activists Rsia say there has been a new crackdown agast LGBT people Rsian LGBT Network believ about 40 people have been imprisoned sce December - two of whom they say have died unr group has been monorg alleged ab the maly Mlim Rsian republic sce 2017 when dozens of gay people were reportedly taed. Homophobia is wispread the highly nservative and predomantly Mlim Rsian Kadyrov and other ernment figur have repeatedly claimed Chechnya has no gay populatn at all.

Media ptn, 'Rlan', a gay man who says he fled: "It's the extermatn of gay men""They have a special black box and they attach wir to your hands or ears. "In my fay, " Kolov says his vio, "I often heard that all gays should be stroyed, that they should be bombed, and that if anyone our fay turns out to be gay, my fay should kill them wh their bare hands.

RSIANS PROTTG ABE OF GAY MEN CHECHNYA ARE DETAED

He has received many posive msag om iends and strangers alike, but he said that he is aaid of beg arrted if he returns to Rsia, unr enforcement of a vaguely word but broad "anti-gay propaganda" law. Earlier this month, there were reports that more than 100 gay men Chechnya were arrted and tortured, wh some of them reportedly killed by police.

CHECHNYA IS TRYG TO EXTERMATE GAY PEOPLE. OUR SILENCE ONLY EMBOLNS VLADIMIR PUT AND RAMZAN KADYROV.

A gay Rsian man is hidg after Rsian thori opened a crimal se over a YouTube vio which he was terviewed by children, a se that has drawn attentn om human-rights activists. Maxim Pankratov told CNN he was facg threats and a potentially lengthy prison sentence for appearg the vio discsg his life as an openly gay man Rsia. The vio, origally posted on the Rsian-language “Real Talk” YouTube channel, featured four children terviewg Pankratov, 22, about his life and his inty as a gay man.

The format of the vio is simple: Pankratov and his terviewers face each other chairs agast a blue background, and the children ask simple qutns: “How did you know you were gay? “This se is a particularly disturbg example of thori g Rsia’s ‘gay propaganda’ law as a tool for discrimatn and timidatn, ” said Kyle Knight, senr LGBT rights rearcher at the advocy group Human Rights Watch.