MOSCOW – In an industrial block north-east of Moscow, on a recent Friday evening, the organizers of an LGBTQ arts festival were diligently checking identity documents.
Children under 18 are not allowed.
They were trying to comply with a 2013 Russian law that prohibits exposing minors to anything that could be considered “gay propaganda “.
The organizers had good reason to suspect:
life has been a challenge for Russian homosexuals since the law was passed, as the government has treated homosexual life as a western import which is detrimental to traditional Russian values and society.
Now the Russian parliament is ready to approve a legislative package that would ban everything “gay propaganda”, Indicating that an even more difficult period is ahead for a stigmatized segment of society.
The laws would prohibit the representation of LGBTQ relationships in any media – streaming services, social platforms, books, music, posters, billboards and films – and, activists fear, even in any public space.
This is a daunting prospect for queer people looking for community, validation, or audience.
“I’m afraid for my future, because with these kinds of developments, it’s not going to be as bright as I would like,” said a drag artist named Taylor.
Taylor’s performance on Friday in front of a small but enthusiastic crowd touched on issues of domestic violence, mental health and AIDS.
The bills are part of a growing effort by the president Vladimir Putin to present Russia as part of a civilizational struggle against the West, which it accuses of trying to export corrosive values.
The Kremlin is merging its crackdown on LGBTQ expression with its justification for the war in Ukraine, insisting that Russia is fighting not only Ukraine but against all of NATO, a Western alliance that poses a threat to the homeland.
Putin took that argument home in a speech last week, saying the West may have “dozens of gay pride genres and parades” but shouldn’t try to spread these “trends” elsewhere.
Aleksandr Khinstein, a deputy from the ruling United Russia party and the main author of the new anti-gay bills, was even more direct.
“A special military operation is underway not only on the battlefields,” he said, using the Kremlin-approved euphemism for war, “but also in people’s conscience, minds and souls. Today we fight so that in Russia instead of mom and dad there are no ‘father n. 1 ‘,’ father n. 2 ‘,’ father n. 3 ‘”.
He got nearly 400 of his 450 colleagues in the Duma, the lower house of Parliament, to sign as a co-sponsor, and approval is almost assured.
The bills will then be sent to the Federation Council and then to Putin for approval.
Critics of the Kremlin see the proposals as an attempt to create an internal enemy to divert attention from misfortunes on the battlefield and an unpopular draft of hundreds of thousands of soldiers.
“It’s the equivalent of saying, ‘Look, we have this special operation. If we lose, their children will be mistaken for gender, taken away, it will be the stuff of nightmares, ‘”said Dr Nikolai Lunchenkov, a doctor who focuses on LGBTQ health.
Lunchenkov said that in 2010, when he was in school, he felt he could freely express his gay identity among his classmates.
He compared it to 2018, when an LGBTQ-focused organization invited him to give a conference on sexual health in St. Petersburg.
The police showed up to check everyone’s papers.
He said the new laws could be used to shut down film and book festivals, prevent medical services, and more.
Violating the laws would entail severe penalties.
Any company that showed pictures of a family with two mothers or two fathers, for example, could be fined up to 5 million rubles, or about $ 81,400.
(People would face fines of up to 400,000 rubles, about $ 6,500.)
The distribution of films featuring homosexual people could be denied.
“This law proposing a total ban is very scary, because we work in night clubs, we do shows like this,” said Taylor, the drag artist.
“We live in Russia, there is already enormous pressure on us. And now we will be completely oppressed. “
Social networks like Instagram and Facebookwhere most artists advertise their shows, they are already stuck in Russia.
Many drag artists and festival organizers talk about having to remove their content from social media.
Taylor said the businesses would “go underground” and information about them would be relegated to word of mouth.
The proposed laws have led some LGBTQ Russians to question whether they can continue to live in an environment that is increasingly hostile to anyone who defies the Kremlin line, whether in war or in homosexual lives.
Russia has made it a crime to speak out against war.
On September 21, Putin announced the recruitment of some 300,000 soldiers, causing demonstrations in many cities and arrests of demonstrators.
A woman who asked to be identified only as Evgenia said she protested, but “it was then that I realized that I had no more hope in Russia.”
She and her roommates are preparing to emigrate next month, she said.
A clear impact of the 2013 law was to make school counselors and doctors wary of discussing same-sex relationships or queer identity with young people.
There are still resources online, but Yevgenia, 30, said she was concerned that, under the new laws, websites would be blocked and counseling groups would be closed, depriving LGBTQ teens of information and support.
In the past nine years, 123 violations of the 2013 law have reached Russian courts, according to an analysis by Maksim Olenichev, a lawyer specializing in LGBTQ rights.
“These are very few cases,” he said. The biggest impact of the law, she said, was how it changed Russians’ perception of what constitutes socially acceptable behavior.
“The government basically says these people don’t have the same rights as everyone else,” he said.
Discrimination
“‘LGBTQ people are not completely human.’ This is how people will justify the abuse of them. The aim is to make LGBTQ people invisible in Russia. “
Olenichev said that while the police do not track hate crimes against gay people, he and his colleagues have noticed an increase in clients who have experienced identity-based attacks since 2013.
The rhetoric behind anti-gay laws can have dangerous consequences for Russian gays, said Vladimir Komov, a lawyer for the LGBT + Delo group.
The 2013 law was passed to protect children, while the new ones “seek to ban gay propaganda as a danger to the state system,” calling it extremism, he said.
Lunchenkov said the proposed laws could leave gays “afraid to go to medical clinics for treatment or testing” for sexually transmitted diseases.
Of 1.5 million people in Russia they are living with HIV.
There will also be less visible consequences, he added.
“Institutional oppression definitely leads to worsening mental health,” he said.
“If you live under constant pressure and fear, this is definitely not good for your health.”
Some Russian gays doubt that the new laws will affect them much.
“I am more afraid of being drafted to fight in the war than of being arrested because I am gay,” said Andrei Melnikov, 19.
Lawmakers calling homosexuals a threat on par with war “is more fun than scary,” he added.
So far, Russian homosexuals and their allies have found expression despite restrictive laws.
A recent Halloween-themed dragon show at a popular Moscow club was packed.
Some attendees feared it might be one of the last big shows in Russia.
“Of course this is a mess, but this law won’t make us disappear,” said a 21-year-old artist whose stage name is Philbertina, who is from Krasnoyarsk in Siberia.
“A year ago there were 30, 50 people in these drag shows. Look how many there are nowhundreds!
“I will continue to find ways to express myself,” said Philbertina.
“This is my activism and I will continue to put everything into it.”
c.2022 The New York Times Company
Source: Clarin
