UK Guardian: Gay activists beaten and arrested in Russia

Tue May 29 18:56:34 UTC 2007

While this discussion is fascinating, I would also like to just interject
that it is very much off-topic for this listserve. 

For those who would like to continue this conversation, may I invite you
over to a wonderful discussion currently in progress involving educated (and
not so educated) Russians and Westerners in a very useful Internet forum.

http://www.redtape.ru/forum/showthread.php?t=2655

I'm currently there myself, taking part. 

Best, 

Josh Wilson
Asst. Director
The School of Russian and Asian Studies
Editor-in-Chief
Vestnik, The Journal of Russian and Asian Studies
www.sras.org
jwilson at sras.org

-----Original Message-----
From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list
[mailto:SEELANGS at BAMA.UA.EDU] On Behalf Of Dustin Hosseini
Sent: Tuesday, May 29, 2007 10:35 PM
To: SEELANGS at BAMA.UA.EDU
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] UK Guardian: Gay activists beaten and arrested in
Russia

I believe it is difficult to merit those public figures who say that they
are gay when most of them do nothing to advance the gay movement here. 
Entertainment figures have a reasonable "excuse" to be gay, but the average
Vova doesn't necessarily have that right or priveledge to be himself, gay or
bisexual, and be open about it without facing certain pressures.  However,
there is hope... according to one news source, the city of Ufa, the capital
of Bashkiriya, has given the green light to hold a parade in October 2007. 
 We'll see what happens. 

As far as the latest failed gay pride parade, those anti-parade protesters
not only included religious groups - i.e. the Russian Orthodox Church - but
also, according to one newsite, Caucasian people, skinheads, and
nationalists.  Doesn't this seem a bit strange?  Skinheads and Caucasian
people standing side by side, trying to defend Moscow from gay people? 
Luzhkov has gone a bit far by saying that as long as he's in office, he'll
never let there be a gay parade.  But to bring these thugs from afar to
counteract the gays' parade... I don't have the facts to back that comment
up, but I am sure if someone dug deep enough, they'd find the facts, and
then be thrown into that grave with them... 

What strikes me as strange is that these protesters, especially the
religious ones, find it perverse and satanic to have a gay parade and
"advertise" it.  But what about Russia's old issue with alcoholism?  Why
isn't it concidered perverse, satanic, and destructive to advertise beer,
sell beer and vodka in every store and nearly every kiosk, and even to sell
such items to underagers? 

My point?  I think Russia has a lot more problems and issues to attend to,
especially Moscow, than to focus its attention on the gays and their
demands.  While these people certainly deserve the same rights as anyone,
Luzhkov and Moscow shouldn't waste their time trying to terrorize these
people, thus stopping the parades.  Why can't Luzhkov focus on other
problems?  Why waste so many resources on such a small problem?  I suppose
time will only tell.  

http://www.gazeta.ru/2007/05/15/oa_239183.shtml
http://www.gazeta.ru/news/lastnews/2007/05/26/n_1073845.shtml
http://www.gazeta.ru/2007/05/28/oa_240226.shtml   

 =========== =========== =========== ===========

I believe a certain reservation is needed here.

What this Guardian article fails to take into account is that there is a
fundamental difference in Russia between being gay (and socialize as gay)
and having a gay pride parade in the center of Moscow. Just as the described
events took place in Moscow, in St. Petersburg there was a festival of
lesbian lyric poetry, widely advertised in popular magazines like "Time
Out", and there was not a single problem with it (of course, Guardian is not
going to report on that -- that does not support their idiosyncratic
doctrine of Russia as prison). A lot of Russian public figures, especially
in pop culture, are openly gay as well. What the violent anti-gay groups,
whom the Guardian for some reason likes to indiscriminately call neo-Nazis
(most of them were actually religious groups) object to is what they
consider public display of obscenity and propaganda of homosexuality, not
the fact of somebody being gay. One may consider that not quite enlightened
position from the point of view of the cultures that are prepared to
celebrate any identity as long as it is not really subversive, but it is
still a far cry from calling Russia a scary place for somebody who is gay. 

Which, of course, does not excuse the police.

Andrey Shcherbenok

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