Russia, Europe

As of 2011, Russia has no criminal law directed at LGBT people and has refused to enact legislation to address discrimination or harassment on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. Public opinion about LGBT topics and people tends to be negative, although there is a visible LGBT community network, including nightclubs and political organizations. In 2010 anti-gay Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov was replaced by another homophobe Sergey Sobyanin who continues to refuse authorizating gay Pride events. As usual attempts to defy the ban and march in public (in 2011) degenerated into violent clashes with anti-gay protestors and as usual police failed to protect gay rights activists. Several were taken to jail but later released. Nevertheless GayRussia continues to resist against repression and inequality.

 

News & Reports:

 

Crimea attack: Gun attack at Kerch college kills 19

At least 19 people have been killed and dozens more wounded in a shooting at a college in Russian-annexed Crimea. An 18-year-old student ran through the Kerch technical college firing at fellow pupils before killing himself, Russian investigators say. Witnesses have also spoken of at least one blast caused by an unidentified explosive. The motive… Read more »

Fleeing Anti-Gay Persecution in Chechnya, Three Young Women Are Now Stuck in Place

It begins as the most ordinary of stories and ends with three women who are trapped in a small apartment in a country I can’t name. If they are found here, they will be in danger, but they have nowhere else to go. They are queer refugees from a Muslim country, which means that the… Read more »

Most Russians believe in a secret group which is destroying their values with ‘gay propaganda’

A large majority of Russians think an unnamed group is using ‘gay propaganda’ to eradicate their spiritual values, according to state-funded research. The study by the government-run Russian Public Opinion Research Centre shows that more than three in five – 63 percent – believe in the existence of such a shadowy organisation. The news comes… Read more »

Teenager becomes first minor prosecuted under Russia’s anti-gay ‘propaganda’ laws

  Maxim Neverov reportedly fined by authorities over images posted on social network VKontakte A schoolboy has become the first minor to be prosecuted under Russia’s strict “gay propaganda” laws. Maxim Neverov, a 16-year-old from the city of Biysk, was reportedly fined £50,000 rubles (£580) by a court, according to campaign group the Russian LGBT… Read more »

Police In Russia Detain 25 LGBT Activists

Police in St. Petersburg, Russia on Saturday detained 25 LGBT activists. According to the BBC, the unsanctioned demonstration attracted 60 protesters, who gathered at the city’s main square holding banners and rainbow flags. In 2012, St. Petersburg approved a law that outlaws “gay propaganda” in the city. The following year, a nationwide ban was imposed.… Read more »

Life as a trans woman in Russia: Meet Ksenya

“Transgender people are not very welcome and, most of the time, are forced to hide,” Ksenya tells PinkNews. Russian native Ksenya, who considers herself lucky for never having run into any kind of physical aggression and for having a supportive family, was forced to move to St. Petersburg, which she says is the most tolerant… Read more »

LGBTQ Russians Are Fleeing To NYC, But They Still Face Hostility

Following Russia’s 2013 anti-gay “propaganda” law, applications for U.S. asylum from Russia have increased every year. Anastasia Orlova and her wife, Anna Elvira Brodskaya, were asleep in their apartment in St. Petersburg, Russia, when bullets hit their window. Male neighbors were shooting at them, angry that the women had previously refused their advances. It was… Read more »

Tchaikovsky and the secret gay loves censors tried to hide

New volume includes once-hidden passages about the composer’s homosexuality The words are tender and passionate, describing in raw detail the powerful emotions felt by one of the world’s best-loved composers. But until now some of the letters of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, in which he tells of his sexual desires, have been hidden from the world… Read more »

Chechnya ‘gay purge’: Russia claims it can’t find any evidence of LGBT people or violence

Russia’s justice minister has claimed officials can’t find any LGBT people in Chechnya after it was alleged they were being kidnapped, tortured and beaten by security forces. Alexander Konovalov told United Nations representatives on Monday that Russia had undertaken an investigation after shocking allegations emerged last year. ? A report in Novaya Gazeta, a Russian… Read more »

Anti-Putin Protests Sweep Across Russia

Russian police on Saturday arrested dozens of protesters rallying against President Vladimir Putin ahead of his inauguration. At least 15 people including a journalist were detained in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, according to an independent monitoring group. “Detentions were conducted in a rough manner,” said the monitor OVD-Info. Read more: Alexei Navalny: ‘ …… Read more »

Russia tightens gay website crackdown and bans HIV health website

Russia’s media regulator is shutting down a HIV health website as it continues to target LGBT+ websites in a media censorship crackdown. The Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, known as Roskomnadzor, has ruled that LGBT+ portal and health website Parni PLUS (Guys Plus) can no longer run as it “promotes unconventional sexual relations.” ?… Read more »

Play about silenced 1920s gay poet rivets Moscow theatre audiences

Play tells story of poet Mikhail Kuzmin who disappeared into official obscurity during Soviet era A play about a largely forgotten gay poet from early 1900s Russia has emerged as the dark horse in this year’s Golden Mask awards, the Oscars of the Russian theatre world. The Trout Breaks the Ice is based on the… Read more »

We must get justice for gay and bisexual men murdered in Chechnya

State-sponsored violence in Chechnya against men perceived to be homosexual will not be forgotten, writes Matt Beard of All Out, and those responsible will be held to account One year ago this week, news broke of a wave of terrifying, state-sponsored violence in Chechnya against men perceived to be gay or bisexual. In scenes that… Read more »

Gay Chechens flee threats, beatings and exorcism

Family pressure has fuelled a sense of persecution felt by gay people in Chechnya, a mainly Muslim region in southern Russia. Dozens have fled and some have been granted asylum abroad, amid reports of kidnap and torture by Chechen security forces targeting gay or allegedly gay people. Chechen officials deny the reported abuses. Olga Prosvirova… Read more »

‘At least I know I won’t be killed’: how one gay man fled from Russia to Belarus

Peter* had set up a Skype account just to speak to PinkNews. Even though it has been six months since he left Russia to embark upon a new life in Belarus, he has to be cautious, and won’t tell me his real name. ? Since Russia’s gay propaganda law came into action in 2013, a… Read more »

Researching Queer Archives from the Former Eastern Bloc

Karol Radziszewski began his art publication DIK Fagazine in 2005, and has since delved into the little-known queer archives of former Soviet Union countries. In 2005, Karol Radziszewski, a young graduate from Warsaw’s Academy of Fine Arts, began DIK Fagazine. In Radziszewski’s words, the fanzine is “the first art magazine from Eastern Europe devoted entirely… Read more »

More Focused Prevention Measures, Improved Access To Treatment Critical To Curb Growing HIV Epidemic In Russian Federation

PLOS Medicine: The expanding epidemic of HIV-1 in the Russian Federation Chris Beyrer, professor at the Center for Public Health and Human Rights in the Department of Epidemiology at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and colleagues “…The continuous growth of the Russian HIV epidemic is a failure of public policy and practice. The… Read more »

Gay fans warned holding hands at Russia World Cup will be dangerous

• Equality campaigner Fare will produce cautionary guide for LGBT fans • Piara Powar: ‘Gay people have a place in Russia which is quite underground’ LGBT fans will be warned about holding hands in public and other outward displays of affection when in Russia for the World Cup next summer. A cautionary guide will be… Read more »

Russia’s ‘gay propaganda’ law has led to a huge rise in anti-LGBT attacks

Hate crimes against LGBT people have doubled since Russia created a law banning gay “propaganda”. The 2013 legislation, which prohibits “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relationships” towards minors, has been condemned by the European Court of Human Rights. ? The European judges found that the law “reinforced stigma and prejudice and encouraged homophobia”. The law also… Read more »

Six injured as ‘spy’ attacks Russian LGBT activists

Six LGBT activists have been injured during an alleged ‘acid’ attack in Moscow. The activists had been attending the Fourth LGBTIQ+ Family Conference, a conference for LGBT+ people and academic specialists in the field. The group of activists were leaving the conference when a man threw a liquid at the group and knocked several of… Read more »

1917 Russian Revolution: The gay community’s brief window of freedom

In January 1921 Russian Baltic Fleet sailor Afanasy Shaur organised an extraordinary gay wedding in Petrograd. The guests included 95 former army officers along with members of the lower ranks of both the army and navy, and one woman, dressed in a man’s suit. The city had never seen anything like it. Shaur pulled out… Read more »

Pop star ‘feared dead’ in Chechnya’s anti-gay crackdown, human rights group warns

Members of the LGBT community suggest Zelimkhan Bakayev, who went missing in August, was abducted by authorities A leading Russian human rights group said it has “serious fears” a gay Chechen pop star has been killed in a crackdown on the homosexual community. Zelimkhan Bakayev has not been seen since 8 August when he left… Read more »

LGBT People Under Attack: Raids in Belarus, Murder in Chechnya, Registration of Gays in Central Asia

Singer and Entertainer Zelim Bakaev Apparently Murdered by the Security Services of Chechnyan President’s Security Services The LGBTQI community is under assault in Eastern Europe as well as Central Asia. The most recent crackdown in the region was this past weekend’s raids of nightclubs popular with the LGBT community in Belarus, during which two clubs… Read more »

A man tortured in Chechnya for being gay dares to go public with his story

Moscow — For the first time since gruesome accounts of the systematic detention and torture of gay men began leaking out of Russia’s republic of Chechnya, a young man has gone public with his story. Maxim Lapunov, 30, told reporters on Monday that he was demanding justice from the Russian government for the 12 days… Read more »

Azerbaijan Detains Dozens of Gay and Transgender People

Moscow — More than 50 gay and transgender people in Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku, were detained and abused in a series of raids over the past week, lawyers and rights activists said. The Azerbaijani government said the raids were prompted by multiple complaints from local residents, who had urged the police to crack down on the… Read more »

For many gay men in conservative Chechnya, living in fear for their lives is commonplace

They call themselves survivors. Two Chechen men who agreed to share their story say they have been forced into hiding and their lives are in danger simply because they are gay. They say they are so afraid, even with a place in a secret safe house outside of Moscow, that they asked ABC News’ “Nightline”… Read more »

Russian government defends ‘gay propaganda’ law after human rights ruling

The Russian government has vowed to appeal against a European Court of Human Rights ruling over its gay ‘propaganda’ law. In a ruling this week, the European court condemned Russia’s 2013 law which bans “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relationships” towards minors. The law also bans people sharing “distorted ideas about the equal social value of traditional and non-traditional sexual… Read more »

Russian ‘gay propaganda law’ discriminatory, European court rules

(CNN) – A European court has ruled that Russia’s so-called “gay propaganda law” is discriminatory, promotes homophobia and violates the European Convention on Human Rights. The law bans “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations around minors” and was justified by Russia’s Duma as a necessary measure to protect children from homosexual influence. On Tuesday the European… Read more »

Russia’s ‘Gay Propaganda’ Laws Are Illegal, European Court Rules

London — Russia’s prohibition of what it considers the promotion of homosexuality is discriminatory and violates freedom of expression, Europe’s top human rights court ruled on Tuesday, in a strong rejection of laws that rights groups say have been routinely used as cover for abuse and violence. Homosexuality was decriminalized in Russia shortly after the… Read more »

Germany welcomes gay man who fled Chechnya’s homophobic purge

Germany has welcomed a gay man who fled the purge of LGBT people in Chechnya. In April, Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta reported on the campaign of homophobic persecution that had been launched in the region, which has autonomy from Russia. The journalists who uncovered the story had been forced into hiding after ‘Jihad’ was declared… Read more »

After Fleeing Bias at Home, Gay Russians Say It Persists in Brooklyn

For many years, Denis Kruglenko treated life as if it were a delicately calibrated performance. A gay man living in Belgorod, Russia, he knew that even appearing to be homosexual could be perilous. He did what he could to conceal his sexual orientation but it never seemed to be enough. Once, he was beaten up… Read more »

Russian Activists Say They’ve Been Told US Visas Are Out Of Reach For Gay Chechens

Around 40 survivors of the crackdown in Chechnya are in hiding in other parts of Russia, but can’t find a safe country to take them in. A Russian LGBT advocacy group says conversations with the US embassy have led it to believe that visas to the United States are out of reach for gay Chechens… Read more »

Hundreds of gay couples are kissing at the Kremlin to protest the gay purge in Chechnya

A kissing campaign for LGBT rights in Chechnya has attracted support from all over the world. Hundreds of gay couples have uploaded photos of themselves kissing and geo-tag themselves as being at the Kremlin in Moscow. Brazilian social justice project [SSEX BBOX] – an abbreviation of ‘Sexuality Outside The Box’ – started the movement on… Read more »

Russian LGBT Network Steps Up Efforts To Get Gay Men Out Of Chechnya

Heard on Morning Edition Police in Chechnya have been reportedly cracking down on gay men. Some have been imprisoned and tortured. David Greene talks to a representative of the Russian LGBT Network, which is helping the men. David Greene, Host: More than a hundred gay men have been rounded up by the police in the… Read more »

Gay teen in Chechnya pushed from 9th floor balcony and killed by his family

The 17-year-old boy was murdered by his uncle after learning of his homosexuality. Russian magazine Snob has reported that a 17-year-old Chechen boy has been pushed from a 9th floor balcony and killed by his uncle, after families are being encouraged to “wash the shame” away from gay relatives. Snob was approached by a gay… Read more »

Chechnya gay rights: Putin backs inquiry into hate crimes

Russian President Vladimir Putin has backed an inquiry into a reported crackdown on gay people in the republic of Chechnya, in the North Caucasus. He said he would personally ask the prosecutor general and the interior minister to check the reports. German Chancellor Angela Merkel this week urged the Russian authorities to help protect gay… Read more »

Chechnya’s police are telling parents to kill their gay sons – or they’ll do it themselves

A horrific new account about the ongoing persecution of gay men in Chechnya has revealed that authorities are asking parents to kill their own gay children. According to one survivor who managed to escape the gay torture camps the country has set up, police are telling parents of gay men to “sort it out” or… Read more »

Russian police round up LGBT activists demonstrating against persecution of gay men in Chechnya

Officers in riot gear forcibly arrest protesters on day of worldwide action against autocratic governmet, poor pay and conditions for workers, and austerity Russian police have detained LGBT activists attempting to raise awareness about the persecution of gay men in Chechnya. The demonstration was held during a May Day march in St Petersburg, with a… Read more »

Russian reporter who exposed Chechen ‘detention and torture of gay men’ goes into hiding as allegations widen

Novaya Gazeta says at least six prisons used in brutal campaign as reporters receive threats One of the Russian reporters who exposed the detention and torture of gay men in Chechnya has gone into hiding amid fears of retribution as the scope of alleged abuse widens. Both the Kremlin and Chechen government have dismissed “provocative”… Read more »

Four more prisons for gay men have been found in Chechnya

Journalists investigating the abuse of gay men in Chechnya have made a gruesome discovery. Respected newspaper Novaya Gazeta originally reported that gay men were being held in two concentration camp style prisons in the region. Reports initially centred on two jails in the villages of Argun and Tsotsi-Yurt. However journalists from the area now say… Read more »