Gay rights Rsia and the former Soviet republics | Pew Rearch Center

Contents:

• RSIA'S GAY MEN STEP OUT OF SOVIET-ERA SHADOWS
• ESTONIA BE FIRST EX-SOVIET STATE TO LEGALIZE GAY MARRIAGE
• THE 5 BEST MOSW GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS MOSW
• RSIA TO GAYS: SHUT UP AND DISAPPEAR
• GAY RIGHTS RSIA AND THE FORMER SOVIET REPUBLICS

RSIA'S GAY MEN STEP OUT OF SOVIET-ERA SHADOWS

Ocsnally the digizatn procs troduc transcriptn errors or other problems; we are ntug to work to improve the archived s of endurg persecutn and timidatn the old Soviet Unn, homosexuals Rsia are emergg to the open for the first time, even though they say they ntue to feel mistreated and threatened by hostile public attus and by old laws that rema on the, gay groups are officially registered and gay newspapers are published unr municipal ernment laws. In addn, a handful of homosexuals anized a monstratn ont of the Uned Stat Embassy at the time of Print Clton's guratn last few homosexual activists are largely ignored by the mastream, however, and gay newspapers are only circulated is also no anized movement among homosexuals or their supporters to mand that laws banng homosexualy be repealed, but a few officials say there is a chance that the laws n be quietly hopg and some s prsg for legal chang, homosexual groups say that their problem is ls wh the law than wh social attus and ignorance.

ESTONIA BE FIRST EX-SOVIET STATE TO LEGALIZE GAY MARRIAGE

"In the fall, a proposed new crimal omted the language on the "crime of homosexualy, " but is nsired possible that uld be restated. Ukrae Law RepealedThe Mistry of Jtice uld not provi reliable statistics on the prent number of prisoners nvicted for homosexualy, but Mr.

The Parliament Ukrae, the most populo state outsi Rsia the Soviet Unn, crimalized homosexualy last year. A 31-year-old journalist at an pennt newspaper Kazan, Tatarstan, said that his home provce "very few people know I'm gay.

A 1964 Soviet sex manual stcts, for example: "Wh all the tricks at their disposal, homosexuals seek out and w the nfince of youngsters. To end reers, stroy reputatns, or blackmail artists and wrers to stayg wh the bounds of the party Paradzhanov, one of the Soviet Unn's greatt directors and a homosexual, was arrted unr Article 121 1974 and sentenced to five years a labor mp. In a 1991 public opn poll nducted Chelyabsk, an dtrial cy the Urals, 30 percent of the rponnts aged 16 to 30 years old felt that homosexuals should be "isolated om society, " 5 percent felt they should be "liquidated, " 60 percent had a "negative" attu toward gay people and 5 percent labeled their sexual orientatn "unfortunate.

THE 5 BEST MOSW GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS MOSW

" The police ed to nduct "raids plac where gays met to do document checks, " said Pavel Masalsky, a former prisoner nvicted for homosexualy and no other the checks, the Mistry of Internal Affairs piled lists of spected homosexuals.

RSIA TO GAYS: SHUT UP AND DISAPPEAR

Even today proof of actual sexual relatns is not Masalsky, 29, an electril technician, was a victim of the "gay list" as well as what he said was the medil profsn's ignorance. 'A Nightmare to Remember'After the arrt, he said, "I was first subjected to a physil durg which the doctor nclud I was gay.

"In the army, which until recently was obligatory for all young men, gay troops face nsequenc rangg om physil harassment by fellow recs to urt tolerance and visibily are improvg, however, slowly unrcuttg the stigma of homosexualy.

A Moveable DisAn openly gay distheque, fanced by Amerin gay bsmen, floats around Mosw every weekend. Sometim is moved across town at the last mute to avoid harassment om anti-gay thugs, known as "repairmen" Rsian Gardner, an Amerin who is head of the Mosw chapter of the Uned Stat-based Internatnal Gay and Lbian Human Rights Commissn, said that there are hundreds of gay anizatns throughout Mosw, there are a half dozen officially registered gay publitns such as Impulse and Risk, which ver topics om homosexual life abroad to AIDS issu. Petersburg, the gay anizatns Krylia (wgs) and the Tchaikovsky Foundatn (Tchaikovsky was homosexual) are registered wh the cy ernment.

GAY RIGHTS RSIA AND THE FORMER SOVIET REPUBLICS

" Many gay anizatns, tryg to circumvent the legal prohibn, publicly emphasize AIDS awarens over gay rights as a more acceptable agenda. Homosexuals say they fear that attus Rsia are so eply graed that they will probably never enjoy the eedoms found the Uned Stat.

"The law would forbid the adoptn and society is not ready to accept a permanent gay relatnship, " he said.

"A versn of this article appears prt on, Sectn A, Page 3 of the Natnal edn wh the headle: Rsia's Gay Men Step Out of Soviet-Era Shadows.