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

Contents:

• KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH A US MEN’S PROFSNAL SPORTS LEAGUE TO PUBLICLY E OUT AS GAY
• JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS ASSISTANT STRENGTH ACH KEV MAXEN OUT PUBLICLY AS GAY
• GAY TIKTOK UPLE ARRTED RSIA
• JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS KEV MAXEN BE FIRST PROFSNAL MALE ACH TO E OUT AS GAY
• DIPLOMATIC TENSN REPORTEDLY RISG BETWEEN UNED STAT AND JAMAI OVER GAY AMERIN DIPLOMAT
• GAY FURRY HACKERS ARE TARGETG US STAT FOR PASSG ANTI-TRANS LEGISLATN
• ‘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
• 'YOU CAN BE GAY RSIA – SECRET. WE WANTED A NORMAL LIFE, SO WE MOVED TO ISRAEL'
• RSIA NOT ONLY COUNTRY WH ANTI-GAY LAWS
• RSIAN NSTUTN CHANGE ENDS HOP FOR GAY MARRIAGE

KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH A US MEN’S PROFSNAL SPORTS LEAGUE TO PUBLICLY E OUT AS GAY

In December 2022, Rsia expand s existg “gay propaganda” law to exert ntrol over public discsns and narrativ surroundg non-heterosexual relatnships and inti. 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.

JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS ASSISTANT STRENGTH ACH KEV MAXEN OUT PUBLICLY AS GAY

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.

As a gay man a untry that ma anti-gay iology a foundatn of s anti-Ukrae propaganda, he feared for his life every day.

GAY TIKTOK UPLE ARRTED RSIA

In his seven years as a gay activist, Maysky has never seen Rsian-speakg LGBTQ+ immigrants g to California such great numbers. 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.

JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS KEV MAXEN BE FIRST PROFSNAL MALE ACH TO E OUT AS GAY

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. 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. 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.

But what are the laws regardg homosexualy Rsia - and n same sex upl actually be prosecuted for beg openly affectnate?

DIPLOMATIC TENSN REPORTEDLY RISG BETWEEN UNED STAT AND JAMAI OVER GAY AMERIN DIPLOMAT

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.

GAY FURRY HACKERS ARE TARGETG US STAT FOR PASSG ANTI-TRANS LEGISLATN

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 2018, two gay men whose marriage was registered by Rsian officials fled the untry after receivg ath threats. Stotsko said he had exploed a loophole the gay marriage law, cg another law that means Rsia regnis marriag registered abroad. In January 2016, state Duma rejected a proposal by the munist Party to punish people who publicly show their homosexualy wh f and arrts.

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

Per Outsports, as of September 2022, there have only ever been 16 players NFL history to publicly e out as gay or bisexual. Per Outsports, Maxen is the “first publicly out male ach a major Amerin men’s pro sports league, ” wh WNBA ach Curt Miller, who publicly me out to the media as gay 2015, also a publicly out male ach an Amerin profsnal sports league. Jacksonville Jaguars assistant strength and ndng ach Kev Maxen cid on Thursday to e out publicly as gay hop of livg his life whout fear and to spire others.

Before jog Jacksonville’s achg staff, he was a strength ach for the football teams at Baylor and Febary 2022, Maxen reached out to NFL player Carl Nassib, who me out as gay 2021, to seek advice. And particularly where that base of support is close to relig views, there is a lot of crossover there that works for polil opportunists who are g official forms of homophobia to fe their polil That is Dan Healey, profsor of Rsian history at the Universy of Oxford. 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. The nned cktail is named after a lloquialism given to the popular mixed drk (vodka and soda) orred at bars by the gay muny.

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

“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. 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.”.

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.

'YOU CAN BE GAY RSIA – SECRET. WE WANTED A NORMAL LIFE, SO WE MOVED TO ISRAEL'

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.

The young woman who only intified herself to Dimrov by the name Elena said that sce the latt passage of laws cludg expansn of the Rsia’s “gay propaganda” law to clu adults last December, upled wh the crackdown by the Rsian Feral Service for Supervisn of Communitns, Informatn Technology and Mass Media, abbreviated as Roskomnadzor, on any webs and on popular phone apps that ter to LGBTQ people, she has now begun efforts earnt to leave the untry. In addn, “we mt not fet that by changg the sex of one of the partners, a homosexual uple gets the right to adopt a child.

Her discharge om the ary over her homosexualy had turned her to an Tob/The New York Public LibraryPublished July 19, 2023Updated July 23, 2023Lilli Vcenz, who beme a gay rights activist the hhed, reprsive era before the Stonewall rebelln of 1969, when such a ncept srcely existed, makg a mark as a newspaper edor, documentary filmmaker and psychotherapist voted to L. She was ath, at a re facily, was nfirmed by a niece, Julia Bo, who did not specify a Vcenz’s journey to promence the nascent gay rights movement of the mid-1960s began after a personal llisn wh tolerance. In 1963, she was servg the Women’s Army Corps when a roommate outed her as gay, leadg to her discharge after only ne months took that rejectn as an opportuny to beg a fight agast jtice that would gui her for s.

RSIA NOT ONLY COUNTRY WH ANTI-GAY LAWS

Vicenz beme, by most acunts, the first lbian to picket the Whe Hoe support of equal rights for gay people as a member of the Mattache Society of Washgton, an early gay rights prott — the first of s kd, acrdg to the Library of Congrs — and others that followed were small but brought visibily to a movement s fancy. “Be wh gay people, help the movement, help unmask the li beg told about , rrect the notn of homosexualy as a sickns and prent as is, a betiful way to love. In 1969, she and another activist, Nancy Tucker, spun off a newspaper of their own, The Gay Bla, which beme the Washgton Bla, the untry’s olst L.

RSIAN NSTUTN CHANGE ENDS HOP FOR GAY MARRIAGE

Vcenz beme the first out lbian to appear on the ver of a natnal gay magaze, The Ladr, a publitn produced by the untry’s first lbian-rights group, the Dghters of Bilis, acrdg to a retrospective on her life and reer by Lillian Farman, a historian of lbian and gay her scbbed, all-Amerin looks, Dr. Vcenz looked like “every mother’s dream dghter, ” as Barbara Gtgs, The Ladr’s edor, put Vcenz also ntributed to the e on the other si of a mera, makg two 16-limeter films that were later hailed as signifint artifacts of the early gay rights first, tled “The Send-Largt Mory, ” documents a Mattache Society prott ont of Inpennce Hall Philalphia on July 4, morn ey, the black-and-whe film, roughly seven mut, seems anythg but seismic. “The whole notn of gay people publicly exprsg their sentiments that fashn was beyond nceptualizatn until we started dog , ” the Mattache Society’s -founr, Frankl E.

”Her send film, “Gay and Proud, ” documented the Christopher Street Liberatn Day Para 1970, a memoratn of the first anniversary of the Stonewall uprisg Manhattan.