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

Contents:

• GAY MAN RSIA FORCED TO HIDG OVER YOUTUBE TERVIEW
• 'WE'RE NOT HIDG': GAY AND LBIAN RSIANS SAY A CULTURAL SHIFT IS UNRWAY
• PUT’S PRI? SIX FAMO GAY SONS OF RSIA
• 'ANY DAY YOU N BE TAKEN': INSI WHAT 'S LIKE TO BE GAY CHECHNYA
• INSI THE IRON CLOSET: WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE GAY PUT'S RSIA
• CHECHNYA IS TRYG TO EXTERMATE GAY PEOPLE. OUR SILENCE ONLY EMBOLNS VLADIMIR PUT AND RAMZAN KADYROV.

GAY MAN RSIA FORCED TO HIDG OVER YOUTUBE TERVIEW

A gay Rsian man is hidg after Rsian thori opened a crimal se over a YouTube vio which he was terviewed by children, a se that has drawn attentn om human-rights activists.

Maxim Pankratov told CNN he was facg threats and a potentially lengthy prison sentence for appearg the vio discsg his life as an openly gay man Rsia.

The vio, origally posted on the Rsian-language “Real Talk” YouTube channel, featured four children terviewg Pankratov, 22, about his life and his inty as a gay man.

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

The format of the vio is simple: Pankratov and his terviewers face each other chairs agast a blue background, and the children ask simple qutns: “How did you know you were gay?

” The law – which prohibs public discsn of gay rights and relatnships anywhere children may be prent – has drawn wispread ternatnal nmnatn. In the Rsian republic of Chechnya, for stance, wns and victims me forward to make public allegatns of mass arrts and torture of gay men. “This se is a particularly disturbg example of thori g Rsia’s ‘gay propaganda’ law as a tool for discrimatn and timidatn, ” said Kyle Knight, senr LGBT rights rearcher at the advocy group Human Rights Watch.

PUT’S PRI? SIX FAMO GAY SONS OF RSIA

The route kidnappg and btal torture of gay men and women the republic has been heavily documented by rights groups and journalists, sce a so-lled "gay purge" 2017 ma global headl, when dozens of men were round up and tortured at police bas. Brish gay rights activist Peter Tatchell stag an anti-Put prott agast the mistreatment of LGBT people Rsia ont of a monument to Soviet Marshal Gey Zhov on Manezhnaya Square Mosw on June 14, Zmeyev/AFP via Getty Imag, FILEAn ABC News Nightle documentary 2019 documented the s of several gay men who were taken by police and tortured, beaten wh rods and electrocuted.

Chechen thori have dismissed the allegatns by tellg media repeatedly that homosexualy don't exist Chechnya or that people who are gay n't be Chechen. But the fear generated by the legislatn is already leadg to censorship: onle cemas have leted LGBT-themed films and TV seri and eded out gay scen.

In one episo of the highly-acclaimed HBO seri The Whe Lot, a Rsian streamg service changed the word "gay" to "man", eded a towel onto one male character's bare backsi and leted a gay sex scene, jt days after the law was ptn, The book Shattered, about the romance between two men, has been heavily redacted RsiaBooks, too, are beg censored. The text has been redacted by the publisher, wh whole sectns replaced wh black of the -thors of the law, an openly homophobic natnalist lled Valy Milonov, agre to speak to me via violk.

'ANY DAY YOU N BE TAKEN': INSI WHAT 'S LIKE TO BE GAY CHECHNYA

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. 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.

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.

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

Rsia's World Cup volunteers have warned they will hunt down gay England fans and report them to police if they see them kissg publicPublished: 9:00, 28 Jun 2018Updated: 9:02, 28 Jun 2018RUSSIA'S World Cup volunteers have warned they will hunt down gay England fans and report them to police if they see them kissg public.

LGBT rights groups say homophobic attacks have rocketed sce print Vladimir Put approved the ntroversial law outlawg the promotn of a gay liftyle to mors 2013.

CHECHNYA IS TRYG TO EXTERMATE GAY PEOPLE. OUR SILENCE ONLY EMBOLNS VLADIMIR PUT AND RAMZAN KADYROV.

Although sexual activy between gay people was crimalised 1993, homosexual upl are not eligible for the legal protectns offered to heterosexuals Rsia. Dpe beg slammed for the recent crease social discrimatn, crim and vlence agast homosexuals, big ci such as Mosw and Sat Petersburg are said to have thrivg LGBT muni.

In a report issued April 2012, a panel of five expert advisers to the Uned Natns Human rights Council nmned the wave of torture and killgs of gay men Chechnya. In January 2016, state Duma rejected a proposal by the munist Party to punish people who publicly show their homosexualy wh f and arrts.

Vladimir Put’s anti-gay propaganda laws have sought to stifle homosexual exprsn – but Sochi’s openg ceremony featured some of the most proment homosexuals ternatnal history.

The Sochi 2014 Wter Olympics openg ceremony referenced proment gay Rsians om the field of lerature, ballet, mic and film – cludg Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Vaslav Nijsky and Sergei Eisenste. The script for a film about Tchaikovsky’s life, which is beg ma wh Rsian ernment fundg, was reported to have been rewrten to exclu any suggtn that the poser was gay.

He was a ntroversial character Rsia who phed the boundari of what was permissible ballet, cludg referenc to homosexualy and masturbatn.

Diaghilev was openly gay, and was scribed by the poser Nilas Nabokov as “perhaps the first grand homosexual who asserted himself and was accepted as such by society”.

Battlhip Potemk director Sergei Eisenste, a pneer of the e of montage film, is believed to have been gay, though he was married to a woman until his ath 1948.