LGBTQ+ Rsians fleeg Kreml’s anti-gay propaganda seek safe haven LA – Daily News

Contents:

• ANTI-GAY VIRAL VIO STIRS OUTRAGE AHEAD OF RSIAN REFERENDUM
• YOUTUBE TAK DOWN ANTI-GAY AD AFTER OUTRAGE RSIA
• RSIAN POLIL AD BASH GAY MARRIAGE
• ‘OUR MERE EXISTENCE IS ILLEGAL.’ AS MOSW TOUGHENS ANTI-GAY LAW, LGBTQ RSIANS FEAR FOR THE FUTURE
• WHY RSIA IS SO ANTI-GAY
• RSIAN LAWMAKERS MOVE TO TOUGHEN ‘GAY PROPAGANDA’ LAW, BANNG ALL ADULTS OM ‘PROMOTG’ SAME-SEX RELATNSHIPS
• WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT RSIA’S SO-CALLED ‘GAY PROPAGANDA’ BILL
• RSIA ENACTS ANTI-GAY ADOPTN BAN
• RSIA’S ‘ANTI-GAY’ LAW PH GAY MUNY TO SHADOWS
• PROTTS, BOYTT LLS AS ANGER GROWS OVER RSIA ANTI-GAY PROPAGANDA LAWS

ANTI-GAY VIRAL VIO STIRS OUTRAGE AHEAD OF RSIAN REFERENDUM

Nikolay Stolyarch, the head of Patrt Media Group, the parent pany of RIA FAN, acknowledged the ntroversy, but said the vio was le wh Rsian laws passed unr Put’s le that have outlawed so-lled “homosexual propaganda, ” measur that have drawn wispread ternatnal nmnatn. “I agree that the topic is ambiguo, but the pot of this vio is not mpaigng agast homosexuals, as some reprentativ of the opposn are tryg to pat . 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. 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. MILAN, June 3 (Thomson Rters Foundatn) - An onle vio suggtg Rsians back nstutnal reform or see gay upl w adoptn rights was taken down by YouTube on Wednday after LGBT+ groups said ced clip, posted onle this week, shows a boy gog om joy to heartbreak as he disvers his new parents are ad had created an onle furore that experts said uld help garner support for the reform vote, which uld let Print Vladimir Put extend his long plays on ep-seated anti-gay sentiment the untry, where activists say vlence agast gay people has been on the rise sce the adoptn of a 2013 law that banned the dissematn of “gay propaganda” among young heterosexual upl n adopt children Rsia.

YOUTUBE TAK DOWN ANTI-GAY AD AFTER OUTRAGE RSIA

Deci the future of the untry - vote for amendments to the nstutn, ” a voiceover says, suggtg a vote for Put protects tradnal is to hold a natnwi vote on nstutnal reforms that clu rettg Put’s printial term tally to zero, which uld extend his le until proposed amendment spells out that marriage means a unn between a man and a woman - and nothg two s power, Put has closely aligned himself wh the Orthodox Church and sought to distance Rsia om liberal Wtern valu, cludg attus toward homosexualy and genr vio drew a torrent of cricism. Patrt Media Group, the firm that produced the clip, said the vio was not “mpaigng agast homosexuals” but aimed to expla the ntent of the July vote.

Petersburg who left Rsia after his parents threatened to sue his therapist who backed him receivg hormone therapy; and Ivan, 18, who is gay, half Rsian and half Ukraian, and “didn’t want to kill people. “My parents are very nservative and they don’t believe gay people should exist, ” said Max, who didn’t disclose his last name for fear of retaliatn agast his parents who live St. Most of his iends are the closet or fled the untry — and many of them, he said, were vlently attacked by anti-gay groups before they left.

RSIAN POLIL AD BASH GAY MARRIAGE

A survey published 2020 by Mosw-based non-ernmental rearch anizatn the Levada Center, found that about 30% of Rsians wanted to isolate gay people om society. Although is not illegal to be an LGBTQ+ person Rsia, a ago the Kreml passed a so-lled “gay propaganda law” banng the distributn of rmatn about gay relatnships among mors.

Maksim and Dmrii say they n’t wa to marry and start a fay, somethg that they, as gay men, wouldn’t be able to experience back home. In other words, where Bud Light has buckled unr prsure as bigotry grows agast the LGBTQ+ muny, Gay Water’s creator Spencer Hodson wants his new boozy brand to be the anthis of that.

“The key issue that Bud Light tapped to was the fact that they didn’t unrstand their re dience and know enough about them,” Hodson, a gay man, told CNN about the ntroversy that began when the Anhser-Bch beer brand sent fluencer Dylan Mulvaney a n of beer. “Puttg a product wh the word gay the tle is reprentatn self,” which he hop reclaims the word om the negativy ’s sometim associated wh. The two chatted about the limed amount of gay people wh , and wh Hodson burnt out om his tradnal day job tech, started the nned cktail.

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

Hodson built up a strong social media followg on TikTok and Instagram durg Covid-19 and is g some of the money om that (as well as om iends and fay) to help fund Gay Water.

“Gay is an umbrella term and the ia behd the brand is to be as clive as possible, which means we want alli, we want straight people to be part of this muny we’re buildg.”.

WHY RSIA IS SO ANTI-GAY

For now, Gay Water is sold largely onle (wh a few retailers) and four sugar-ee flavors — watermelon, lime, peach and grapeu — at lnch. Gay Water might not have the ep pockets pared to s petors, like Whe Claw, but “even at small sle, pani of many siz are havg succs makg spir-based seltzers and premixed cktails,” Bryan Roth, an analyst for Feel Goods Company and edor of the alhol beverage newsletter, Sightl+, told CNN. “There’s lots of space the spir-based seltzer tegory which Gay Water n play, pecially if the brand n offer a cultural or emotnal nnectn that will feel more excg than the prospect of another peapple-flavored vodka seltzer om natnal or ternatnal rporatns,” Roth said.

Of urse, other drks e the word “gay,” too, cludg Gay Beer and So Gay Rosé, Hodson noted, which are also tryg to reach the queer muny and offer them an alternative the straight-domated space. A vio backg nstutnal reforms that Print Vladimir Put is puttg to a natnal vote next month sparked wispread cricism Tuday for s anti-gay msage. Patrt's head Nikolai Stolyarch said a statement on Tuday that the vio was "not mpaigng agast homosexuals" but "fendg the stute of fay as a unn of a man and a woman, " while addg he disapprov of adoptn by gay upl.

RSIAN LAWMAKERS MOVE TO TOUGHEN ‘GAY PROPAGANDA’ LAW, BANNG ALL ADULTS OM ‘PROMOTG’ SAME-SEX RELATNSHIPS

Sce returng to the Kreml 2012, Put has brought legislatn banng "gay propaganda" to mors that has been ed to silence activists and shut down gay pri events. This latt vio is remiscent of another clip released 2018 urgg Rsians to re-elect Put or live a "nightmare" future which they are forced to -habate wh gay men. As the Kreml prepared to falize the expansn of the 2013 discrimatory anti-gay law, members of the LGBTQ muny Rsia told CNN they feared the uncerta future ahead.

The measur clu g private acunts on social media, havg accs to a work of tsted people, sendg their son to a private krgarten where the fact a kid has two moms is ls likely to spark a homophobic reactn, and g a private hospal where they n ls risk of a doctor llg child protectn thori to make quiri about their fay set-up, they said. Sce the first law on “gay propaganda” passed 2013, Rsia has seen repeated crackdowns on the gay muny, most notably 2017 and aga 2019 the southern regn of Chechnya, where activists reported dozens of men and women were taed and some tortured and killed for their sexual orientatn, and no proper vtigatn followed.

“This is not only an anti-gay law, this is also explicly an anti-trans law, ” said Vanya Solovey, an advocy and program officer for Eastern Europe and Central Asia at the trans rights group Transgenr Europe, referencg the part of the package that forbids the promotn of rmatn that uld e people to want to change their genr assigned at birth. Nearly three-quarters of Rsians believe that homosexually is morally unacceptable, more than disapprove of other hot-button issu such as extramaral affairs, gamblg and numbers e om newly released data om the Pew Rearch Center, which surveyed Rsians on their moral attus sprg 2013.

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

Jt eight months before the gam, Rsia's ernmental body, the Duma, passed a law makg illegal to distribute homosexual "propaganda" to mors, which clus stagg gay pri events and advotg for gay law also bans foreign same-sex upl om adoptg Rsian the openg day of the Olympics (Feb.

[5 Myths About Gay People Debunked]History of anti-gay attusUnrstandg Rsia's wispread gay sentiment requir a look back, said Tatiana Mikhailova, a senr stctor of Rsian Studi at the Universy of Colorado, Boulr.

RSIA ENACTS ANTI-GAY ADOPTN BAN

Tradnal genr rol fell to revolutnary iology, and the fay stcture was seen as outdated, she the revolutn, Czarist Rsia was hardly iendly to gays.

RSIA’S ‘ANTI-GAY’ LAW PH GAY MUNY TO SHADOWS

In 1716, homosexualy among ary men was ma punishable by floggg, rape and forced labor, acrdg to Dan Healy, a profsor of Rsian history at Oxford Universy. In 1835, Czar Nicholas I extend the ban on male same-sex relatnships to revolutnari threw out the Czarist legal and drew up their own, which did not crimalize homosexualy. Joseph Stal, who nsolidated power over the 1920s, and his secret police appotee, Genrikh Yagoda, drafted a new law penalizg homosexuals, whom they portrayed as spi and sundrels.

[Unrstandg the 10 Most Dtctive Human Behavrs]Wh rape and homosexualy equated, 's easy for lears to sult gay people unapologetilly.

"Where gays are allowed, pedophilia will soon flourish, " says Rsian Orthodox prit Sergei Rybko a new BBC documentary, "Hunted, " released this month, that explor vlence toward Rsian Rsian Orthodox Church is a major driver of anti-gay public opn, Mikhailova said, but there is a paradox at most untri, religsy is lked to anti-gay attus. Among Amerins, 74 percent of nonrelig people approve of gay marriage, pared wh only 23 percent of whe evangelil Prottants, acrdg to a Pew survey.

PROTTS, BOYTT LLS AS ANGER GROWS OVER RSIA ANTI-GAY PROPAGANDA LAWS

Few Rsians say relign is central to their liv; the untry sr on par wh many Wtern European untri terms of lack of religsy, but only 9 percent of Rsians say homosexualy is acceptable the new survey. Another 9 percent say homosexualy is not a moral issue, and 72 percent say beg gay is parison, 69 percent of Rsians say extramaral affairs are unacceptable, 62 percent disapprove of gamblg, and 44 percent say abortn is immoral. [6 Thgs Rsians Thk Are More Acceptable Than Beg Gay]While the average Rsian may not attend church equently or pray fervently, the Orthodox Church still holds sway over public opn, Mikhailova said.