Contents:
- 'SORRY MUM, I’M STILL GAY': RSIAN CLUB HELPS PARENTS ACCEPT SEXUAL PREFERENCE
- 'THERE WILL BE DAD AND MUM': PUT L OUT RSIA LEGALIZG GAY MARRIAGE
- UR MOM GAY
'SORRY MUM, I’M STILL GAY': RSIAN CLUB HELPS PARENTS ACCEPT SEXUAL PREFERENCE
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. “At least she didn’t yell at me, like before: ‘Stop that, [you] gay, get away om me, don’t touch my thgs! 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.
There, the word ‘gay’ is horrific, you n be grabbed on the street and killed for , ” he said. 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.
'THERE WILL BE DAD AND MUM': PUT L OUT RSIA LEGALIZG GAY MARRIAGE
She expected her son to lead her to a basement where “gays live”, she says, and “when I saw that no one was dancg tights, jt cent people stg around, I was que surprised, ” she adds.
UR MOM GAY
”The mothers om the club believe that the problems wh acceptance lie not wh them, but wh Rsian society as a whole: if gay people are nstantly beg abed on televisn, why should someone sudnly believe a handful of people who take a different view? Mara: ‘The shock lasted 10 days’“After the g out blows your md, the world as was cmbl away, together wh your plans for your child’s future, ” says Mara Melnik, the founr of parents’ club: her son Roman told her he was gay six years ago. That’s when she went through the last stage, acceptance, followed by her own g out of sorts: “I was sred to tell the people around me [that my son was gay], ” she remembers.
” Photograph: Sergei Chernov/MzaIgor: ‘No one talked about gay people’Igor fally managed to brg his mother to the club two years after g out.