WARNING: Gay Propaganda. 18+

 If you are a minor, shield your eyes. Or read Dostoevsky to your grandmother instead. She's lonely. 

A beautiful, ironic meme making reference to the newest laws passed in the Russian Federation and showing a picture of  Vitalii Milonov, the author of the initial 2012 law in St Petersburg, banning the "propaganda of homosexuality and paedophilia" among minors. The caption translates as "Atheists who smoke and have a non-traditional sexual orientation and download pirate music from torrents....aren't having the best time recently."

So, as many of you will already know, I am moving to Russia. And as many as you will also know, I am getting more stubborn with the years and I like to express my opinions. 

But no worries, I probably won't get deported. And if I do, there's always Ukraine. Or Kazakhstan. Or that tiny village with Russian elders in Alaska...

In any case, I have started volunteering as a translator for some organizations, including LGBT activists, something which is a hot topic at the moment, given the new law signed by President Putin, prohibiting the 'propaganda' of 'non-traditional sexualities' among minors. This is basically an excuse to prevent anyone from publicly talking about LGBT+ people and issues in a positive light, as this may expose the poor little children to gayness. And as we all know, gayness is highly contagious. Why I turned 16 people gay just last week. All I did was invite them to my home, where I exposed them to countless hours of gay cinema, fed them rainbow waffles, spanked them with fishing rods and told them the countless advantages of being discriminated on a daily basis, rejected by your family and possibly even beaten without police repercussions. They were pretty enthusiastic.  

The law is fairly ill-defined. Here is a section of an article by travelandescape.ca 

In a throwback to the country’s authoritarian ruling, Russian president Vladimir Putin has signed a controversial law that punishes people for “homosexual propaganda.” The law fines people—including tourists—up to 200,000 rubles ($6,240 CDN) for “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations.” For Canadians—where same-sex marriage is legal—it is unfathomable that Russia’s laws permit the government to arrest and detain gay, or pro-gay, foreigners for up to 14 days before they would then be expelled from the country.

So what is considered pro-gay? Anything from gay-affirmative speech to hand-holding; even displaying a rainbow flag alongside a maple leaf on your backpack is illegal. Recently in southern Russia, there were complaints that Elton John’s stage outfits fell under “gay propaganda.” While LGBT are being told they are unwelcome in Russia, with such vague definitions, one wonders if anyone who even looks like they might be gay could also be fined or deported from the country.

Beautifully enough, most people I have talked to seem to agree with this law. Often conflating homosexuality with paedophilia (yes, because two adults who mutually consent to love each other, which does not affect anybody but themselves, is obviously the same thing as an adult who abuses and lures a child, without their permission, and leaves them emotionally damaged...). Most people just don't like to think about homosexuality at all.  It seems just a bit too icky, for them. And anyway, many assert, it's against the bible! God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve! Jesus hates gays! But yes, I won't go into this. There are many beautiful sites, such as this or, if you prefer it in Russian, THIS. 

Here are some of the articles I have edited and translated within the first 2 days of volunteering.  The rate of hate crime seems to be quite high, and with the new laws, it doesn't look like many people will be able to speak freely of this kind of "propaganda" outside of internet forums without falling into the suspicion of Law Enforcement. I am not doing this as some sort of Jesus-like Westerner, thinking they will save Russia. They are more than capable of deciding how they want to live. I am doing this as a favour for friends, out of personal interest, and for language practice. I am therefore not an enemy of the state. In fact, I would like to drink schnapps with Milonov, maybeI should send him an e-mail? He's a cutie.

On 4 July 2013 at 14:00, a female client arrived ten minutes late for a pre-booked pedicure at Afromagic Salon in central St. Petersburg. The manager of the salon, Liliya, refused to serve the client in an extremely rude tone. The pedicurist, responding to the tense situation, tried to de-fuse the atmosphere and offered to do the client’s pedicure anyway, asking her to come into her studio. The manager then burst into the studio and ordered the client to leave. The manager’s speech soon became full of insults and bad language directed specifically at the customer. The woman offered her apologies and was promptly hit in the face. She was then pulled by her hair and beaten by the salon co-workers. Whilst the stylist, Nikita, and the manager, Liliya, abused the woman, the pedicurist stood quietly in the corner.

            As if this weren’t enough, when the woman finally regained consciousness and tried to call the police, the on-site security guards arrived and began to harass her. She was emotionally blackmailed and forcefully detained. They tried to take her telephone, stopped her from making calls and ripped her clothes.

            A simple trip to the salon had left her beaten, bruised and injured. Her nipples were badly damaged and her silicone breast implants were ruptured.  Her hair has been ripped out in places and she is suffering from acute emotional trauma. But now, instead of being given the time to recover, she is forced to make her way through a legal mess, on top of the necessary medical procedures. She is faced with an expensive operation (breast reconstruction surgery: mammoplasty) and extensive psychological treatment.

            The owner of the salon, Ekaterina Zaitseva, does not blame her staff, but claims it was the customer’s own fault: she should not have attended the salon, given that she was not born a woman, but is transgendered. She then stated that the staff were disgusted by the woman’s very presence.

THIS ODIOUS HATE CRIME TOOK PLACE IN THE VERY CENTRE OF SAINT PETERSBURG IN A RESPECTED ESTABLISHMENT. This could happen to any of us. Please SHARE TO RAISE AWARENESS OF THIS UNPUNISHED CRIME.

Owner: Ekaterina (Zaitseva) Seval’os

Art director: Kristina Tsoi

Manager: Liliya Brik

Stylist: Nikita Kavlakan (vk.com/london55rus)

RUSSIAN GAY RIGHTS ACTIVIST DETAINED AND HARASSED

A previous example of police resistance to Gleb Latnik’s activism.

The persecution of LGBT rights activist, Gleb Latnik, from Ekaterinburg, Russia, continues. Having declared that he would carry out a protest against the new law banning the “propaganda of non-traditional sexualities” during the international industrial exhibition ‘Innoprom’, Law Enforcement now refuse to leave him alone. Having interrogated Gleb’s mother and friends and forced the activist into hiding, he was tracked down whilst in a cafe. He was forcefully taken to a police detention centre in the Ekaterinburg region, where it became clear that he was being held by workers for the “Centre of Counter-extremism”. Having refused to state their identities or show their documents, the unidentified officials interrogated Gleb for several hours, trying to obtain the personal information and contact details of anyone who had planned to participate in the demonstration. They informed him that he was a threat to the Russian state. He has now been put under surveillance and will not be allowed to attend the exhibition.

Please share to raise awareness of police persecution of LGBT activists in Russia.