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When the Duma passed draconian anti-gay laws last year, there was outrage in Russia, but also a disturbing amount of approval. Ahead of next month's winter Olympics in Sochi, photographer Isabella Moore travelled the country to hear from gay people – and also from those ranged against them

The new law has made Aleksey, 36, and Aleksey, 37, who work in the music business and IT respectively, think of leaving their homeland:
‘If there is going to be more aggression against gay people supported by the state, it is the only way to survive.’ Together for 11 years, they are disillusioned by the increasing homophobia of a Putin-led government: ‘We travel and we see that things are changing for gay people in many countries in a positive way. In Russia, because of President Putin, his KGB wing and the Orthodox church, things are likely to become more tragic for gay people.’
Andrey Bartenev, 48, is a famous Russian performance artist who first rose to prominence in 1990s Moscow by orchestrating elaborate costumed performances. He represented Russia in the 2007 Venice Biennale. ‘Historically Russia was already
a homophobic country, but after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 there was a new freedom where people could all live with “this gay and lesbian population”, and gay culture became a part of all culture,’ he says. Andrey’s reaction, when asked if he’d like to step outside for the portrait, is understandable given that Putin’s new law includes handing out hefty fines and imprisonment for homosexual propaganda. ‘I don’t want to spend any day of my life in prison, because I was not born for this,’ says Andrey. ‘I was born to show people lightness and fun, to exist.’
Irina Fedorishcheva, 28, and Svetlana Shompolova, 28, share a small apartment with Irina’s daughter Ekaterina, 7, and Svetlana’s son Alexey, 7. They are friends and have been renting the apartment they live in since July. They have both separated from their husbands - recently Svetlana’s husband accused her of being in a lesbian relationship with Irina so that he could take custody of their son through legal action. Svetlana’s own parents also tried to take him purely because they believe she is a lesbian. Local social services supported the move but, as the bill against gay parents was yet to pass, they had no legal grounds for removing the child; “There has been a 15 pages long psychological expertise presented in our court case based on Svetlana’s parents words that stated Svetlana, myself and our lawyer Anastasia were aggressive lesbians, crazy, that all gay people are horrible drunkards, having AIDS, obnoxious sluts and so on.”
Irina Zlobina (seated) and Olga Kochetkova, both 41, fell in love in 1991, when they were 19. Olga says: ‘Our inner homophobia wouldn’t let us live together back then. This is why we broke up.’ At that time it seemed nobody was openly gay in Russia. ‘Twenty years ago, Irina honestly thought that there were two gay people in the whole world: Sir Elton John and her,’ says Olga. They went on to have families and lives of their own but reunited seven years ago and now live together. ‘We don’t know what time will tell for us. The politics of Putin are criminal, almost fascist. Worst of all, young gays and gay families with children will suffer the consequences,’ says Irina.
Kirill Kalugin, 21, is a student at St Petersburg’s Polytechnic University. He became famous for holding a one-man protest at Palace Square during celebrations of Russian Airborne Troops Day on 2 August 2013, when he unfolded a rainbow banner reading: ‘This is promotion of tolerance’ and was attacked and arrested by uniformed veteran paratroopers within seconds. ‘The protests should make people think, reflect, and create discussions in our society,’ he says. ‘Protests that are seen
by no one are useless.’
Nikita Gurjanov, 17, born in Moscow, is at high school in the city’s centre. Nikita has been openly gay since he was sixteen years old, he is a member of Rainbow Association; a large organisation fighting for human rights for LGBT people, but also wants to create his own local-teen organisation in the future. Nikita hosts his own youtube channel, participates in street activism and actively helps teenage LGBT people like him with their problems, mostly to do with ‘coming out’ to their family and peers; “Sometimes young boys and girls write me messages about how they must go about telling their parents, how can they come out, what must they do, they are afraid of society and of showing themselves, I told them everything is normal, they must not be afraid, I even talk with them on Skype and on the mobile, and sometimes I even meet them in real life and help them, if they live in Russia.”
Sergey, 33, and Philippe, 39, have been together for nine years and have a Pacs – a pacte civil de solidarité – which they acquired in France in 2010. This is a legally recognised form of partnership similar to marriage. Sergey is a journalist and Philippe, who is French, works in advertising. Philippe believes that Russia’s anti-gay law has ‘obliged the masses to speak about the minorities. Even Putin has spoken about homosexuals for the first time in casual terms, so it might bring some awareness. The debates that have occurred might have helped some people understand that homosexuals are part of the human species – like left-handed people or the ginger-haired.’
Valery Solaseav, 30, is the co-founder of two community support groups, ‘Nunciare et Recreare’, a group for Christian LGBT people, founded in 2000. The Russian Orthodox Church expresses extreme hostility towards the group (and campaigned in 2011 to stop the first Christian LGBT forum in St Petersburg). Asked if there were any gay-friendly churches in Russia Valery says; “Officially not, we have one gay-friendly alternative Orthodox priest in Russia". His other project is called Lasky and works in HIV prevention among homosexual men, with outreach programs, seminars, support groups and psychological and legal counselling. In November during a weekly social event held for LGBT youth and heterosexual allies at Valery's office, the group were attacked by two assailants, one of whom shot a young man in the face with a pneumatic gun (the victim later lost his eye). A second victim, a young woman, was beaten with a baseball bat. The aggressors have not been found.
Vita Holkina, 17, fears that there will be no information or support when Russian youths struggle with their sexual identity. ‘When I was young and realised I was gay I didn’t have any problems accepting myself,’ she says. ‘Nowadays, from their early childhoods, our children will be under pressure by their parents and other adults who will be telling them that being gay is bad.’ Vita talks of a recent case after the bill was passed in which two girls committed suicide by jumping from a roof: ‘Our government took no blame. They said every day somebody commits suicide and it had nothing to do with the new law.’
Dmitry Tsarionov, 24, is a Russian Orthodox Christian and calls himself a ‘theocrat’. He believes that any person clothed in authority, be it a tsar, president or prime minister, must trust in the law of God. Dmitry believes that homosexuality is a choice or an illness, paired with a sin to God, and explains how this illness can be cured through Christian values: ‘If you read a magazine about homosexuals, if you look at it, you will understand this sexual experience can help you have a good job and a good career, and if all the idols for society are gays, it is normal that you would become it,’ Dmitry says. ‘But if the society says no, it is a sin, it is awful, I think that there will be very few people who do it.’ Another common belief, shared by Dmitry, Putin and the church, is the theory of the western world’s desire to depopulate Russia by propagating homosexuality. ‘Europeans are dying out,’ Dmitry says, ‘and gay marriages don’t produce children.’
Andrzej Kmicic, 28, is the co-owner of an advertising agency and a neo-Nazi. ‘I can’t recall the exact moment I became a skinhead and national socialist, at 16 or so,’ he says. At 18, Kmicic, along with fellow founders, invented Format18, a violent neo-Nazi group based in Moscow that was suspected of being involved in the murder of almost 600 immigrants in less than a year. Kmicic is part of a new hate initiative named Occupy Paedophilia, a self-proclaimed vigilante group that has so far enjoyed almost total impunity for its treatment of its victims. No one has been prosecuted and the group even appears to have unspoken official support. Occupy Paedophilia started months ago as a movement against paedophiles, luring potential sex offenders online and then filming and shaming them. But the group is now targeting young homosexuals. Group members say they see homosexuality and paedophilia as morally indistinguishable. ‘There’s nothing good I could think of about gay people.’

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Sat 11 Jan 2014 15.00 GMT

First published on Sat 11 Jan 2014 15.00 GMT

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  Ban on the promotion of homosexuality, bisexuality and transgenderism
  Ban on the promotion of homosexuality and bisexuality
  Ban on the promotion of homosexuality

^ De facto illegal in Chechnya ; [2] [3] death, life in prison, torture, vigilante execution, vigilante attacks, and internment as potential punishments [2] [3]

^ Jump up to: a b c The Federal Law On Acts of Civil Status (1997) provides for the possibility to rectify acts of civil status based on the document confirming sex transformation issued by a health institution (art.70). Also, transgender people can change their passport on the grounds of sex transformation. See the Administrative Legislation section of the Russian LGBT Network 2009 Report .

^ Jump up to: a b Adoption is regulated by the Civil Procedure Code of Russia ( Chapter 29 ); Family Code of Russia ( Chapter 19 ); Federal Law On Acts of Civil Status ( Chapter V ). None of these documents contain any direct restriction or ban for homosexual people to adopt, though unmarried couples are not allowed to adopt children (Article 127.2 of the Family Code of Russia ), and since same-sex marriage is not officially recognized, gay couples cannot adopt children together; nevertheless, single individuals can adopt (see also the Parent Relations section of the Russian LGBT Network 2009 Report ). The Court makes the decision to allow or deny adoption considering many documents and testimonies, so it is unclear whether LGBT affiliation of the candidate adopter can be in fact an issue for a judge to make a negative decision.

^ Bashkortostan is the only region where the law does not include any kind of administrative sanctions or fines.

^ Kaliningrad Oblast 's measure bans "propaganda of homosexualism" not only among minors, but among the population in general.

^ With life in prison, torture, vigilante execution, vigilante attacks, and forced labor camp internment are also being enforced in Chechnya.

^ The age of consent for homosexual acts was never specifically mentioned in the old Criminal Code of RSFSR , which was replaced with the new Criminal Code of Russia in 1996, and this new Code mentions the age of consent regardless of sexual orientation (although harsher penalties applies in case of an illicit same-sexual intercourse with a person younger than 16) in Article 134. [146]

^ Jump up to: a b c "Russia: Update to RUS13194 of 16 February 1993 on the treatment of homosexuals" . Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada. 29 February 2000 . Retrieved 21 May 2009 .

^ Jump up to: a b c d Milashina, Elena (1 April 2017). "Murder of honor: the ambitions of a well-known LGBT activist awake a terrible ancient custom in Chechnya" . Retrieved 14 April 2017 . "Novaya Gazeta" became aware of mass detentions of residents of Chechnya in connection with their unconventional sexual orientation - or suspicion of such. At the moment, more than a hundred men have been informed of the detention. "Novaya Gazeta" knows the names of the three dead, but our sources say that there are many more victims.

^ Jump up to: a b c Kramer, Andrew E. (1 April 2017). "Chechen Authorities Arresting and Killing Gay Men, Russian Paper Says" . The New York Times . Retrieved 15 April 2017 .

^ Jump up to: a b "Gays are not Willingly Accepted in the Russian Army" . english.pravda.ru . 1 December 2003 . Retrieved 26 January 2014 .

^ Jump up to: a b "New Soldiers Face Gay Tattoo Check" . The Moscow Times . Retrieved 26 January 2014 .

^ "Trans Rights Europe Map 2018" (PDF) . Transgender Europe . May 2018 . Retrieved 23 May 2022 .

^ "Gay in Putin's Moscow: why the city is pinker than you think" . The Guardian . 13 June 2015.

^ "Inside the gay club scene in St Petersburg, Russia" . Daily Xtra . 31 May 2014.

^ Jump up to: a b Paul Gallagher; Vanessa Thorpe (2 February 2014). "Shocking footage of anti-gay groups" . Irish Independent . Retrieved 12 February 2014 .

^ Jump up to: a b c d e f Elder, Miriam (11 June 2013). "Russia passes law banning gay 'propaganda' " . The Guardian .

^ "Dismantling LGBT+ rights as a means of control in Russia" . Freedom House . Retrieved 13 August 2021 .

^ Sewell Chan, U.N. Experts Condemn Killing and Torture of Gay Men in Chechnya , New York Times (13 April 2017).

^ End abuse and detention of gay men in Chechnya, UN human rights experts tell Russia , Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (April 13, 2017).

^ Jump up to: a b "Russia's Putin signs law limiting adoption by gays" . USA Today . The Associated Press. 3 July 2013.

^ Kseniya A.Kirichenko , p. 4. sfn error: no target: CITEREFKseniya_A.Kirichenko ( help )

^ Московская Хельсинкская группа, Российская ЛГБТ-сеть 2009 , p. 77. sfn error: no target: CITEREFМосковская_Хельсинкская_группа,_Российская_ЛГБТ-сеть2009 ( help )

^ Российская ЛГБТ-сеть 2012 , p. 4. sfn error: no target: CITEREFРоссийская_ЛГБТ-сеть2012 ( help )

^ Global Rights, ILGA-Europe, Российская ЛГБТ-сеть, Группа «FtM-Феникс», Российский Фонд «Трансгендер» 2009 , p. 2. sfn error: no target: CITEREFGlobal_Rights,_ILGA-Europe,_Российская_ЛГБТ-сеть,_Группа_«FtM-Феникс»,_Российский_Фонд_«Трансгендер»2009 ( help )

^ Global Rights, ILGA-Europe, Российская ЛГБТ-сеть, Группа «FtM-Феникс», Российский Фонд «Трансгендер» 2009 , p. 18. sfn error: no target: CITEREFGlobal_Rights,_ILGA-Europe,_Российская_ЛГБТ-сеть,_Группа_«FtM-Феникс»,_Российский_Фонд_«Трансгендер»2009 ( help )

^ Кочетков 2011 , p. 191. sfn error: no target: CITEREFКочетков2011 ( help )

^ Совет Европы 2011 , p. 98. sfn error: no target: CITEREFСовет_Европы2011 ( help )

^ Morello, Carol (4 June 2013). "Acceptance of gays in society varies widely" . Washington Post .

^ "The global divide on homosexuality: greater acceptance in more secular and affluent countries" . Pew Research G
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