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

Contents:

• RSIA: EXPAND 'GAY PROPAGANDA' BAN PROGRS TOWARD LAW
• RSIA TELLS UN THERE ARE NO GAYS CHECHNYA
• GAYS RSIA FD NO HAVEN, DPE SUPPORT FROM THE WT
• RSIA TO GAYS: SHUT UP AND DISAPPEAR
• WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT RSIA’S SO-CALLED ‘GAY PROPAGANDA’ BILL
• ‘I’M AAID FOR MY FUTURE’: PROPOSED LAWS THREATEN GAY LIFE RSIA
• 'WE'RE NOT HIDG': GAY AND LBIAN RSIANS SAY A CULTURAL SHIFT IS UNRWAY

RSIA: EXPAND 'GAY PROPAGANDA' BAN PROGRS TOWARD LAW

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.

Homosexualy was crimalized Rsia 1993, but homophobia and discrimatn is still rife. 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. The proposals prohib sharg posive and even ntral rmatn about lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr (LGBT) people, and publicly displayg non-heterosexual orientatns, wh hefty f for nonpliance.

The origal “gay propaganda” ban, troduced 2013, purported to protect children om “propaganda, ” broadly fed to mean any posive or ntral pictn or discsn of non-heterosexual relatns. The draft legislatn classifi displays of non-heterosexual relatns or orientatn as “rmatn harmful to children’s health and velopment” and provis that webs and other onle sourc hostg rmatn about lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr (LGBT) people n be blocked.

RSIA TELLS UN THERE ARE NO GAYS CHECHNYA

“The 2013 ‘gay propaganda’ law was an unabashed example of polil homophobia, and the new draft legislatn amplifi that broar and harsher ways, ” said Tanya Loksha, associate Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. The 2013 “gay propaganda, ” law has been extensively ed by the ernment to stifle pro-LGBT events and to shutdown anizatns and onle media.

“The proposed legislatn and the origal ‘gay propaganda’ ban have no place any society and belong the trash. In December 2022, Rsia expand s existg “gay propaganda” law to exert ntrol over public discsns and narrativ surroundg non-heterosexual relatnships and inti. (Mosw) – A draft bill before Rsia’s parliament would signifintly affect the rights of lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr (LGBT) people, Human Rights Watch said today.

Rsia’s notor anti-gay “propaganda” law has been ed creasgly recent years as a tool for outright discrimatn. It has been ed to jtify a crimal vtigatn of social workers who allowed a gay uple, married abroad, to adopt children, forcg the fay to flee to the Uned Stat. Rsian Print Vladimir Put has said his untry is tolerant of the homosexual, bisexual and trans muni but drew a le at children intifyg wh several genr rol.

GAYS RSIA FD NO HAVEN, DPE SUPPORT FROM THE WT

"I am not tryg to sult anyone bee we have been nmned for our alleged homophobia. Beg gay isn't a crime Rsia, but no specific laws protect non-heterosexuals om discrimatn eher.

The Internatnal Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Associatn ranked Rsia at 46 among European natns, above only Armenia, Turkey and Azerbaijan. As part of s annual Gay Travel Inx, the Spartac Internatnal Gay Gui gave Rsia a dismal rankg of 159 out of 197 untri and separately sred the untry's regn of Chechnya last, below even Iran, Sdi Arabia and Chechen Republic has been lled out by var ternatnal watchdogs for allegedly vlently reprsg members of the LGBTQ muny. A 2017 Human Rights Watch tailed arbrary tament, torture and even executn affectg those emed to have homosexual tennci.

RSIA TO GAYS: SHUT UP AND DISAPPEAR

A poll published last year by the Levada Center found that some 83 percent of Rsians, general, felt gay sex was "always reprehensible" or "almost always reprehensible. " While Rsia crimalized homosexualy after the fall of the Soviet Unn, has never put to place any protectns agast discrimatg agast the LGBTQ fact, Mosw's parliament passed a bill 2013 "for the Purpose of Protectg Children om Informatn Advotg for a Denial of Tradnal Fay Valu" that banned the distributn of "propaganda of non-tradnal sexual relatnships" among mors. The Spartac Internatnal Gay Gui ranked the U.

At 47, notg that both there and Brazil "right-wg nservative ernments have troduced iativ to revoke LGBT rights achieved the past, " leadg "to an crease homophobic and transphobic vlence.

An official at Rsia’s Jtice Mistry has said at the Uned Natns that the rights of the LGBT muny were not vlated Chechnya bee there were no gays sentiment was first exprsed by Chechen strongman lear Ramzan Kadyrov who, faced wh media reports that gay Chechens were allegedly taed and tortured, mataed that “we don’t have any gays. ” Last year, the vtigative Novaya Gazeta reported that more than 100 men had been starved, beaten, and tortured wh electric shocks a ernment-backed crackdown on lol gays. 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.

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

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.

‘I’M AAID FOR MY FUTURE’: PROPOSED LAWS THREATEN GAY LIFE RSIA

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.

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

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”? 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.