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

Contents:

• ‘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
• MY HARROWG JOURNEY THROUGH GAY CONVERSN THERAPY RSIA
• MEET THE GAY RSIAN TEENAGER USG TWTER TO COMBAT HOMOPHOBIA
• AN INTERVIEW WH A GAY, RSIAN NEO-NAZI
• HOW TO SAY YOU ARE GAY RSIAN
• ON HOLDG HANDS AND FAKE MARRIAGE: STORI OF BEG GAY RSIA
• HOMOPHOBIC RSIAN POLICIAN PRENTS ‘GUS WHO’S GAY’ REALY SHOW: ‘THIS IS SICK’
• 'SORRY MUM, I’M STILL GAY': RSIAN CLUB HELPS PARENTS ACCEPT SEXUAL PREFERENCE
• A RSIAN REALY TV SHOW LLED 'I'M NOT GAY' MAK 8 NTTANTS GUS WHICH IS GAY — AND 'S HOSTED BY A RIGHT-WG POLICIAN
• INSI THE IRON CLOSET: WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE GAY PUT'S RSIA

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

”The anizers had good reason to be wary: Life has been challengg for gay Rsians sce the law passed, as the ernment has treated gay life as a Wtern import that is harmful to tradnal Rsian valu and Rsia’s Parliament is set to pass a legislative package that would ban all “gay propaganda, ” signalg an even more difficult perd ahead for a stigmatized segment of laws would prohib reprentatn of L. Exprsn wh s ratnale for the war Ukrae, sistg that Rsia is fightg not jt Ukrae but all of NATO, a Wtern alliance that reprents a threat to the Put drove home that argument a speech last week, sayg that the Wt n have “dozens of genrs and gay pri paras, ” but that should not try to spread the “trends” elsewhere. Olenichev said that though the police do not track hate crim agast queer people, he and his lleagu have noticed an crease clients who have suffered inty-based attacks sce rhetoric behd anti-gay laws may have dangero nsequenc for gay Rsians, said Vladimir Komov, a lawyer wh the group Delo 2013 law was promoted as protectg children, while the new on “seek to prohib gay propaganda as a danger to the state system, ” fg as extremism, he Lunchenkov said the proposed laws uld leave gay people “aaid to go to medil clics to get treatment or ttg” for sexually transmted diseas.

Lawmakers llg gays a danger on a par wh war “is more funny than sry, ” he now, gay Rsians and their alli have found exprsn spe rtrictive laws.

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

A versn of this article appears prt on, Sectn A, Page 7 of the New York edn wh the headle: Life for Gay Rsians Is About to Get Worse.

MY HARROWG JOURNEY THROUGH GAY CONVERSN THERAPY RSIA

Rsian gays and lbians tackle daily dangers which leave ltle time to take pri their, as the Rsian ernment puts , “non-tradnal liftyle. The simple fact is that many gays and lbians lead double liv as they hi their te clatns om those clost to I lead my double life, I’m begng to dwell upon what implitns this will have on my aspiratns to the prithood. Apparently, I had breached Sectn 3 of Rsia’s now famo “gay propaganda bill” which prohibs “The spreadg of rmatn givg a distorted perceptn about the social equaly between tradnal and non-tradnal sexual relatns to mors.

MEET THE GAY RSIAN TEENAGER USG TWTER TO COMBAT HOMOPHOBIA

He asked me qutns about gay Amerin life rapid-fire succsn, and sadly I had to bear his look of rejectn when I told him that I legally uld say nothg.

I soon published an article about Zhdanov, which my news se labeled for rears aged 18 and over—the standard age lim imposed on all stori about gays published Rsia sce the summer of 2013, when Vladimir Put signed a law banng the distributn of so-lled “gay propaganda” among mors.

Petersburg, and other major Rsian ci, members of the Dobrоta gang (whose name, a sister twist, means “Kdns”) were seekg out gays on Grdr and Hor, then gog to their hom to beat and extort them. If both rovg gangs and the regime self were tryg to purge Rsia of gays, did gays ever feel pelled to try to alter their sexualy themselv?

AN INTERVIEW WH A GAY, RSIAN NEO-NAZI

When yet another attempt was ma to hold a gay para Mosw, I bbed my hands together and thought: “Three, two, one… and here e the police wh their batons.

HOW TO SAY YOU ARE GAY RSIAN

” In my school years the worst possible sult was to be lled a “peth” or “rooster”—prison slang for a passive homosexual who is routely raped by other men. I remember a state TV host clarg that hearts om gay an donors were unsuable for transplants, suggtg they stead be burned and buried. And Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Rsian Orthodox Church—the church to which I was baptized—asserted that homosexualy was a “loss of moraly.

”In this homophobic society, was far easier for me to hate gay people than to face what I’d been avoidg sce my childhood: That I myself was gay. All I had to go on were acunts of the Wtern experience of nversn therapy, like Sad to Be Gay, a 2005 BBC documentary that follows a reporter at a Christian nversn therapy clic Tennsee. As wh my creatn of Ala, I still felt that I need a disguise—to adm that I was gay would have seemed like a one-way ticket to a new life that I wasn’t prepared turned out, Tr was fertile ground for my rearch.

He said that Goland ed a three-stage nversn procs: Durg the first stage, wh the help of hypnosis, patients are plunged to what Goland lled a “sexual-psychologil vacuum, ” a void between sexual orientatns where homosexuals are no longer terted men but not yet terted women. ” (Acrdg to Andrey, Goland once remend to Agarkov that patients also be given high dos of ffee and apomorphe, a dg ed to duce nsea and vomg, while the psychiatrist turns on gay erotic vios.

ON HOLDG HANDS AND FAKE MARRIAGE: STORI OF BEG GAY RSIA

They were nothg pared to the feelg of ner pury I would have if I uld actually make the transn to beg rrponnce wh Andrey led me to the webse of the clic Nizhny Novgorod, where I read about dozens of “cured” homosexuals. “On Leonov’s iative, ” Goland told me when I vised his clic 2016, “a Center for the Psychotherapy of Homosexualy and Sexual Perversns was to be opened our cy, but the smont’s requt was nied by the Mistry of Health of the USSR.

One month after I returned om Nizhny Novgorod, I me out to my iends, but they jt shgged: “We knew you were gay when we first saw you, ” one of them told me. “I don’t want them to feel ashamed, ” Yegor, 34, wrote rponse to an vatn to rears of The New York Tim to share their experienc of what is like to be gay Rsia. One victim lost an eye when two masked men stormed the office and began firg guns that shoot high-velocy bber better unrstand what is like to intify as lbian, gay, bisexual or transgenr a untry that officially disurag openns, The Tim asked rears to share their stori.

“Though my hair is short and I don’t look gay, I am always sred, ” wrote Mikhail, 30, om exprsed self-loathg; others a fierce sire to leave the untry. T., meang lbian, gay, bisexual or transgenr, though some said they were now nervo to go onle bee of reports of the Web’s beg ed by “hunters” to fd targets for vlence. It’s impossible to live there peacefully as a gay person, and the more people found out about our relatnship, the more worried we beme.

HOMOPHOBIC RSIAN POLICIAN PRENTS ‘GUS WHO’S GAY’ REALY SHOW: ‘THIS IS SICK’

What hurt most was that the girl I fell love wh was the first one to bully through this, I started to wonr, what will happen if I tell my old iends, the on that have always loved me, that I am gay. In sence, I me out on my social work profile page for everyone to see — my mother’s iends, acquatanc I’ve overheard makg homophobic remarks.

'SORRY MUM, I’M STILL GAY': RSIAN CLUB HELPS PARENTS ACCEPT SEXUAL PREFERENCE

As a Foreigner, I Am Already an AlienRsia is an easy place to be gay sofar as the lack of exposure to openly gay people mak the Rsian public almost illy unaware of the (stereo)typil behavr that homosexuals actually exhib. Unls your public statements and actns explicly reveal your homosexualy to someone on the street here, then no one will ever assume you are gay.

Our behavr (jt as that of heterosexual Wterners) is often seen by the lols as neher gay nor straight, but merely men almost exclively meet on s like GayRomeo or the ubiquo hookup apps Grdr and Scff.

” Willg sex partners are never short supply, but the challenge li fdg the rare gay Rsian who don’t live wh his wife or parents. Beyond this, the chief challenge for me Mosw li matag tert a gay scene that remas, for a cy of 12 ln people, pletely hidn, spectacularly one-dimensnal and md-numbgly provcial.

A RSIAN REALY TV SHOW LLED 'I'M NOT GAY' MAK 8 NTTANTS GUS WHICH IS GAY — AND 'S HOSTED BY A RIGHT-WG POLICIAN

When the doctor at the clic asked why I haven’t had kids yet, I didn’t try to make somethg up, I simply said that I’m part of a homosexual fay. If there’s a ban on gay people’s beg portrayed posively the media, then the child might get a poor image of his own were ightened nversatns happeng the L. Valy Milonov prents the Rsian realy show I’m Not Gay (Picture: YouTube)Homophobic Rsian MP Valy Milonov is prentg a realy show where nttants have to gus which person is gay orr to w a sh prize.

The Tim reports that the first episo, which has been shared on YouTube, Milonov tells the nttants: ‘I hope that you will quickly figure out the gay. In the BBC documentary Reggie Yat’ Extreme, Rsia – Gay and Unr Attack, when asked if he thought homosexuals were dangero, he rpond by sayg: ‘A piece of sh*t is not dangero, but ’s que unpleasant to see on the streets.

INSI THE IRON CLOSET: WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE GAY PUT'S RSIA

The parents’ club has a few l: you n only speak if you’re holdg the navy dragon, a soft toy that has grown shabby the club’s four-year existence; no terptg is allowed; and phon mt be swched an unassumg buildg the centre of St Petersburg, fai of Rsian gay men and women gather each month, hopg for unrstandg and renciliatn. Although the group is ostensibly for parents, they are far outnumbered by sons and dghters who have faced the difficulti of g out a homophobic untry.

She believ that, whatever the circumstanc, talkg helps: “You have to expla to [your parents] that homosexuals are not the people they [are ma out to be] on televisn.

Homosexualy was crimalised 1993 after the fall of the Soviet Unn, but rights groups say the suatn for Rsia’s gay populatn has bee more 2014 Human Rights Watch released a report documentg a rise homophobic rhetoric and vlence Rsia. She sensed stantly that he was troubled, but put down to the difficulti of adaptg to life back Dmry began his g out talk wh the words “I want you to listen to me but this might ighten you”, she says the possibily that her son might be gay had never occurred to her.