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Contents:

• FAR FROM RSIA'S BIGGT CI, BEG GAY MEANS BEG ALWAYS UNR THREAT
• THE FEAR OF BEG GAY RSIA
• INSI THE IRON CLOSET: WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE GAY PUT'S RSIA
• EXPLORE GAY ROOMS & RENTALS
• CRAZY FOR ZOE KAZAN: ‘THE BIG SICK’ ACTRS ON HER NEW LGBT-RONANT ROM-COM, SHG A SPOTLIGHT ON GAY ACTORS & THAT PL DANO-DANIEL RADCLIFFE KISS
• IN RSIAN POP CULTURE, IT'S 50 SHAS OF GAY
• OY VEY! MY SON IS GAY!!
• IS LAIE KAZAN GAY?
• GAY RSIA
• EXPLORE GAY ROOMS & RENTALS
• OY VEY! MY SON IS GAY!!

FAR FROM RSIA'S BIGGT CI, BEG GAY MEANS BEG ALWAYS UNR THREAT

TOLYATTI, Rsia — The last two years have been btal for Konstant Golava, a 22-year-old environmental activist and the only publicly out gay person this grty dtrial cy known for r factori, chemil plants, and nothg early 2012, as soon as Golava started dissematg news ems related to LGBT issu through his social media acunts, mors about his sexual orientatn began to spread. Life Tolyatti is stiflg and reprsive, said Vyachlav, another gay man who, like Golava, grew up here. If people spect you're gay, he said, n be dangero.

Bee he would often return home late after beg at a gay club or gatherg, his parents worried that his nocturnal schle meant he was alg dgs. In early December, the new feral law was ced fg Rsian LGBT activists Nikolai Alekseyev and Yaroslav Yevthenko 4, 000 bl (about $120) each for holdg a banner readg "Gay propaganda don't exist. People don't bee gay, people are born gay" near a library the far northern cy of Arkhangelsk.

THE FEAR OF BEG GAY RSIA

Beyond the legal mefield, however, the anti-gay mpaign appears to have provid sanctn for unfettered exprsns of anger and hatred toward the LGBT muny, whout fear of nsequenc. There are equent reports om around the untry about people beg fired for their sexual orientatn, beg beaten up by anti-gay gangs, or otherwise sufferg mistreatment and discrimatn. "She started wh that phrase all homophob e, 'I am of urse a very tolerant person myself, but...

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

Golava has received moral and legal support om gays and lbians nearby Samara, a historic Volga River port and the regnal pal that unts more than 1 ln rints. A key ally has been Mikhail Tumasov, a longtime Samara rint who two years ago anized an advocy group to ph back agast the anti-gay momentum. In 2011, the magaze Spletnik, which translat as "The Gossip, " cg such cints as a recent effort by a lol right-wg party to strip LGBT people of work rights, clared that "the Samara regn is among the most homophobic the untry.

He cid he need to speak out, and sought support om other Samara gays and lbians through VKontakte, a Rsian social work. 1, World AIDS Day; public gathergs durg an annual "week agast homophobia, " which LGBT groups across the untry have anized each sprg for several years; and surveys of people public venu that have revealed an crease negative attus toward LGBT people as the regnal and feral ernment mpaigns have progrsed. At the end of December, Avers released an open letter offerg profe thanks to three anti-gay public figur: a polician and two journalists.

EXPLORE GAY ROOMS & RENTALS

"No one livg Samara even knew what gays and lbians were, and only thanks to the fight for moraly…the Samara regn has learned that there are fact gays, and lbians, and bisexuals, and even transgenr people here. "I read an article that said each gay person eats 300 kilos of sh a year, " he said. But if the polics keeps gettg more and more homophobic an effort to stroy the LGBT muny, we'll be forced to leave.

Mosw’s first gay pri para was held May 2006, thirteen years after homosexualy was crimalized Rsia.

CRAZY FOR ZOE KAZAN: ‘THE BIG SICK’ ACTRS ON HER NEW LGBT-RONANT ROM-COM, SHG A SPOTLIGHT ON GAY ACTORS & THAT PL DANO-DANIEL RADCLIFFE KISS

Only a few months later, Rsia saw s first regnal anti-gay law passed Ryazan, 200 east of Mosw. In most of the Wt, gay rights has seen startlg breakthroughs the last .

On the lol and natnal level, a seri of so-lled anti-gay propaganda laws were passed that ma illegal to discs LGBT them wh mors or to distribute such rmatn to them, even if alt wh health issu. A muny that was jt begng to anize found self unr asslt, the target of a ep-seated Rsian homophobia that had now been embedd law. And for Chizhevsky, although he thought about stayg his native land, the price of beg gay Rsia was ultimately jt too high.

Like more and more gays and lbians over the last two years, Chizhevsky had had enough of Rsia, a place where his sexual orientatn alone seemed to make him an enemy of the state. He was one of many Rsian gays and lbians to make that trek. Rsia’s post-Soviet, top-down homophobia began earnt several years ago, jt as the nascent LGBT muny beme publicly visible.

IN RSIAN POP CULTURE, IT'S 50 SHAS OF GAY

The shootg of Chizhevsky is one of dozens of attacks that have occurred Rsia the last few years, and pecially sce Print Vladimir Put signed the feral anti-gay propaganda law 2013.

Out of 78 victims of homophobic and transphobic vlence terviewed the vtigatn, 22 were aaid to report the attack to thori.

“Official homophobia began as a reactn to the gay pri movement” that started Mosw 2006, Baev says. Soon, anti-gay laws began proliferatg across the untry.

OY VEY! MY SON IS GAY!!

The aln the Whe Sea port cy argued publicly that 99 percent of homosexualy was the rult of propaganda, acrdg to the Rsian daily Moskovskie Novosti. Variatns of the propaganda law were passed throughout Rsia, om Sat Petersburg to Samara, until the feral anti-gay propaganda law was enacted 2013.

Harassment and persecutn of lbians and gays were not the only nsequenc.

IS LAIE KAZAN GAY?

On New Year’s Day, LaSky, cg a lack of fundg and the laws targetg NGOs and the LGBT muny, closed s doors after providg public health support for margalized people, pecially gay men, for more than a .

GAY RSIA

As part of his own revery two s ago, he says, he me out as a gay man. Kosk believ that the stigma attached to beg gay Rsia and the threats to anizatns that serve this muny are partly to blame for the surge fectns, both om sexual partners (straight and gay) as well as om traveno dg e. “Rsian policians offer monstrative, but irrelevant measur such as a ban on homosexuals [donatg] blood and fgerprtg of patients wh HIV fectn.

EXPLORE GAY ROOMS & RENTALS

Yet human rights activists such as Baev says Rsia’s Mistry of Health unrplays the urgency of the epimic and s prence across populatns, cludg gay men urban areas, heterosexuals, and mors.

She lls her se Deti 404, a reference to the Inter error ‘404 page not found, ’ to highlight the feelg of visibily shared by much of Rsia’s gay muny.

OY VEY! MY SON IS GAY!!

Deti 404 has 47, 000 subscribers on the Rsian social media work Vkontakte, most of whom say they are gay, lbian or transgenr teens. Feral charg were brought agast Klimova December unr Rsia’s natnal gay propaganda law, which ma illegal to promote or distribute any rmatn about gay life, sex or health to dividuals unr the age of 18. Thkg back, “I thought Sat Petersburg, we would stop this [homophobia], ” Chizhevsky says.