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

MEET THE GAY RSIAN TEENAGER USG TWTER TO COMBAT HOMOPHOBIA

* young russian gay *

Malaysia’s ernment halted a mic ftival the pal Kuala Lumpur on Saturday, a day after the ontman of Brish pop rock band The 1975 kissed a male bandmate onstage and cricised the untry’s anti-LGBTQ laws.“There will be no promise agast any party that challeng, disparag and vlat Malaysian laws,” Communitns Mister Fahmi Fadzil said a Twter post after meetg the anizers of the Good Vib Ftival, a three-day event set to n until Sunday.The 1975 have also been banned om performg Malaysia, said a ernment mtee that overse filmg and performanc by foreigners.Homosexualy is a crime Mlim-majory Malaysia. Rights groups have warned of growg tolerance agast lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr people.In vios posted on social media late on Friday, Healy was seen kissg bassist Ross MacDonald after cricizg Malaysia’s stance agast homosexualy a profany-lan speech to the ftival dience.“I ma a mistake. Not as easy as looks”.Healy was cricised for kissg a male fan at a 2019 ncert the Uned Arab Emirat, which also has laws agast homosexual acts, media reported.Ftival anizer Future Sound Asia (FSA) apologized for the ncellatn of the show followg Healy’s “ntroversial nduct and remarks”.

REUTERS/Sebastian Castaneda/File PhotoLIMA, July 21 (Rters) - A Pevian high urt has orred same-sex unns to be legally registered public rerds, markg a victory for the LGBTQ muny a untry that has been reluctant to regnize gay upl.The lg, published on Friday, followed a se brought by a gay Pevian cizen who sued the registratn office for refg to rerd her 2019 marriage overseas, sayg her nstutnal rights were vlated.Reprentativ of the office were not immediately available for ment.Pe is one of the few untri Lat Ameri that has not regnized same-sex marriage, though is not illegal to be gay.A 2021 survey by Ipsos found that 68% of people Pe were favor of same-sex marriage or other legal regnn. However, 61% disapproved of gay people public office.The Lima urt orred the rerds office to "proceed wh the registratn" of the woman's marriage, the Superr Court of Jtice of Lima said on Twter.The urt clared "applible" an article of the Pevian Civil Co of 1984 on the fay, which refers to marriage as the voluntary unn between man and woman.It is likely that an appeal agast the lg will be lodged.In 2020, a gay uple took Pe to the Inter-Amerin Court of Human Rights after they lost a bid for regnn of their Mexin marriage certifite.At the time, the nstutnal urt led that the civil registry of Pe only regniz the marriage between a man and a woman.Other untri South Ameri, cludg Argenta, Uguay, Brazil and Colombia, have legalized gay marriage recent years.Reportg by Mar Aquo; wrg by Isabel Woodford; edg by Robert BirselOur Standards: The Thomson Rters Tst Prcipl. As Rsia ntu to flounr Ukrae, wh attempts to pture the small town of Bakhmut turng to a grisly reenactment of the Battle of Verdun, and Kreml propagandists lurchg back and forth between hysteril swagger and the five stag of grief, the Rsian polil tablishment has cid to tackle what’s really important: a natnal “Don’t Say Gay” law.

YOUNG AND GAY PUT'S RSIA

A bill that outlaws “LGBT propaganda”—fed so broadly as to ver not only gay or transgenr rights advocy but potentially all public exprsns of “nontradnal” sexualy or genr inty—passed the State Duma on November 24 and was approved by the upper hoe of Rsia’s fake legislature, the Council of Feratns, last Wednday. ” (Thk of as the Really Don’t Say Gay Law. ) But do rell Soviet-era censorship unr which any mentn of Tchaikovsky’s homosexualy was scbbed om books and films about the great poser’s life, while bgraphil prefac to Soviet edns of Osr Wil cloaked the reason for his imprisonment such phemisms as “transgrsns agast moraly.

” Ocsnally, foreign books wh gay characters, such as Iris Murdoch’s 1973 novel The Black Prce, slipped past the censor’s vigilant eye. But there uld have been no qutn, for stance, of publishg Jam Baldw’s gay-themed masterpiece Gvanni’s Room, even though Baldw was acclaimed the official Soviet media as a fighter agast Amerin racism; the novel had to wa until 2007 for s first Rsian edn. This is not the first time Put-era Rsian legislatn has gone after “gay propaganda”: A more limed 2013 law add “propaganda of non-tradnal sexual relatns” to a broar law that banned the distributn of “harmful” material to mors.

RSIA TO GAYS: SHUT UP AND DISAPPEAR

The Duma voted down an amendment that would have exempted “universally regnized cultural products” such as lerature and art om the ban; theory, this means, for example, that Rsian translatns of Vladimir Nabokov’s novel Pale Fire, whose prcipal narrator Charl Kbote is nspicuoly gay, uld fall unr the ax. Jt last month, the premiere of a play lled The Prcs and the Ogre at a children’s theater Novosibirsk was nceled—or at least layed, sce will apparently open this month after vettg by the Mistry of Culture—bee of an anonymo plat om someone who found too gay.

Many Rsian mentators, such as journalist and activist Renat Davletgilyev, believe the new law is a transparent attempt by the Put regime to shore up flaggg support among the Rsian public by appealg to homophobia, stg gays as the menacg “other, ” and monizg not only the Wt but Rsian antiwar liberals as “sexual viants. A report by journalist Sasha Belaya on the Khodorkovsky Live YouTube channel noted that the Duma’s discsn and passage of the legislatn had been acpanied by an anti-gay mpaign the Rsian state media that explicly targeted liberals and dissints.

Fellow TV host Vladimir Solovyov livered his mentary on “this filth, this abomatn, this foulns, and nasts” a bizarre sgsong apparently tend to mimic “gay” mannerisms. In a particularly ironic twist, some propagandists such as Olga Skabeyeva exprsed ncern that the ban on “LGBT propaganda” uld accintally brg the hammer down on homophobic propaganda, bee was unclear what kd of pictns of “nontradnal sexual relatns” were prohibed: Could her own show be slapped wh a fe for showg the Zygar/Shcherbak kiss, albe “wh undisguised revulsn, ” as an exposé of “the liberal public” and of “the Wt and s valu”?

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

The gay-bashg for domtic nsumptn uld achieve at least some sire effect a untry where nearly 70 percent of the populatn believ that nsensual same-sex relatns between adults should be illegal and half say they feel personal hostily toward LGBT people.

But is que likely that the current Rsian anti-gay mpaign, cludg the anti–“LGBT propaganda” law, is tend at least part for a Wtern dience—a specific part of , that is.

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