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The vile and sickening rise of homophobic hatred in Russia

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  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 21,936 CMod ✭✭✭✭Ten of Swords


    On Thursday (Aug 30th) 15 countries, including Ireland, invoked the rarely used Vienna Mechanism of the OSCE in an attempt to force Russia to answer questions regarding the LGBT purge in Chechnya.

    The OSCE have 2 human dimension mechanisms in place, the first being the Vienna Mechanism which allows participating states to raise questions and receive answers regarding human rights violations, the second is called the Moscow Mechanism which allows teams of independent specialists/experts to be deployed to the territory of any OSCE member state to assess the human rights situation first hand.

    Here is the statement in full as reported by the US mission to the OSCE. The signatories are Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States
    https://osce.usmission.gov/human-rights-abuses-in-chechnya-15-osce-countries-invoke-vienna-mechanism/

    Russia has 10 days to respond to the questions posed
    1. What steps have been taken by the federal authorities to ensure Chechen officials abide by the Russian Federation’s OSCE commitments?

    2. How have Russian federal authorities investigated allegations of violations and abuses reportedly committed against actual or perceived LGBTI persons, and how have they arrived at the conclusion (as repeated by Russian authorities) that no such violations or abuses have occurred and that no LGBTI persons exist in Chechnya?

    3. What steps have been taken by the federal authorities to ensure the ability of civil society and media actors to freely document and report, without reprisal, on human rights concerns in Chechnya, in particular the human rights organization, Memorial?

    4. How have Russian federal authorities investigated the fate of each of the 27 individuals who were reportedly extrajudicially executed by Chechen authorities in Grozny in January 2017?

    An explanation of the Vienna and Moscow Mechanisms
    https://www.osce.org/odihr/human-dimension-mechanisms


  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 21,936 CMod ✭✭✭✭Ten of Swords


    I was saddened to hear that Russian human rights activist Lyudmila Alexeyeva passed away at the weekend aged 91. I mentioned her previously in a post a number of years ago when she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

    She was outspoken about many human rights issues and was very critical of the anti-LGBT laws in Russia. She worked tirelessly for more than 50 years, at great personal cost, and was one of the last 'Soviet Dissidents' still active.


  • Registered Users Posts: 137 ✭✭AnSliabhCorcra


    I know this thread might be a little aged at this time but I thought I'd throw in my experiences of going school, college, living and working in Russia.

    Living now in Cork and looking at Russia from the outside in, the issue of being gay (I am gay myself) in Russia is progressively getting worse; Russians might see this as natural because the country has/had demographic issues (aging population, overpopulated by women and 'not enough men') and homosexuals are seen as a threat to procreation (and in turn, the survival of Russian society). For a westerner, that might sound like bile and you might presume that people wouldn't take that seriously, but in Russia, it is taken seriously because the government holds this stance also.

    Indeed, the terminology is also interesting. In Russian, the word for 'straight' is натурал (which means 'natural') and 'gay' is нетрадиционый (non-traditional).

    I had no gay friends living in Vladimirskaya Oblast' (region to the east of Moscow, about 300km) I remember in 2006 on my 17th birthday a group of 4 straight friends decided to surprise me on my birthday and take me to Moscow to a club called Tri Ob'yezany which was a massively famous gay club in Moscow. What they didn't realise is that it was not my scene but still, we had a great time. These 4 friends are all 'very' straight and in fact, when they found out I was gay - we didn't speak or communicate for about a year because of it. Any way, we took the late night train into Moscow's Yaroslavski train station and from there, we took a taxi to the club; there was no problem asking a taxi driver to take us to a gay club, there was no yobs waiting outside the club, it wasn't underground and hidden; in fact there were 3 or 4 floors in the club and it was absolutely packed full. Now, in 2019 - I would not DARE take a taxi to such a place and I would be very aware of the fact that the risk of being attacked in the vicinity of the club would be very high. I've just googled it and it seems it has since been closed down. You can do a google search for "три обезьяны клуб" for videos on youtube or pictures of what it once was.

    I then went to university in Tver' (North West between Moscow and St. Petersburg) and again - I encountered no sexuality related problems. Infact, I even met an openly trans girl one night at a drunken karaoke bar. Of course, never in my life living in Russia would I have been openly gay or outwardly so but at university, I did have gay friends at the university and even some who were open to their parents etc. It was 'fine'. In the case of my friends, their families were not happy about it, but they were not happy because of how society would make my friends live their lives. In deed, one good friend of mine actually married a lesbian girl just so that their internal passport stated that they were married. My friend was under a lot of pressure at work and even by officials for not being married. This, back then, was deemed 'strange' by society.

    When I was finishing up university, I began working in a school as a classroom assistant. Now in Russia of 2019, this would not be allowed as I would pose a risk of propagandating towards minors due to my sexuality.

    It is an absolute mess.

    I am sorry I have rambled on! If you want any more stories or adventures, I'll happily oblige. :)


  • Registered Users Posts: 137 ✭✭AnSliabhCorcra


    By the way, in the event that any of you are interested.

    Back in the 90s and early 2000s, one of Russia's biggest bands Ruki Vverkh had a top hit song about a relationship with a trans/cross-dresser person. (song name: A on tebya tseluyet - And he's kissing you) Every Russian teenager of the 90s and early 2000s listened to Ruki Vverkh and they're still going today. The video to the song is quite good if you are interested:

    I can't imagine such a video coming out in modern day Russia.



  • Registered Users Posts: 137 ✭✭AnSliabhCorcra


    Or if you are ready for a real Russian experience. Prepare yourselves.

    1989's Pink Evening by Yuriy Shatunov (who had concert in Dublin just 2 years ago!).



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  • Registered Users Posts: 8,242 ✭✭✭AllForIt


    I don't think general society, in this case Russian society, has as much of a problem with gender dysphoria as they do with homosexuality. That might change if the trans activists force the issue which is highly unlikely to happen in Russia anytime soon.


  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 21,936 CMod ✭✭✭✭Ten of Swords


    David France's documentary Welcome to Chechnya was very well received at Sundance earlier this week.

    HBO have purchased the rights to it and are due to show it later this year, I really want to see it

    Here is the Q&A with the crew after the screening at Sundance



    https://www.welcometochechnya.com


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