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Reggie Yates talks LGBT life in Russia for BBC show Gay & Under Attack

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Reggie Yates talks LGBT life in Russia for BBC show Gay & Under Attack

“It started to become incredibly difficult to listen…”

Russia is currently home to nearly 150 million people, ranking it one of the top 10 countries in the world based on population size.

Vladimir Putin, now into his third term as President, is facing growing sanctions from the West following his outspoken and controversial laws and views on self-expression.
A year after the introduction of the controversial anti-propaganda law, presenter Reggie Yates heads to Russia to discuss their many differing views on homosexuality, their support or objections to the LGBT community and the harsh reality facing young gay people living in the country.
Ahead of the show airing on BBC Three tonight, we caught up with the presenter to discuss the difficult world of 2015 Russia…
What was it about this show that appealed to you so much?
For me, I’m really passionate about finding areas where young people are living in tough parts of the world, and learning about those lives. Plus, I wanted to show people in the UK how different their lives are and just how fortunate they really are. And if someone can learn something off the back of it, then I’ve done a good job.
So why Russia and why now?
I think it’s down to timing. There’s a lot happening in Russia related to this, so it was a great time to act now, and that’s why this series is so poignant in this moment. It’s stripping it back and looking at the country and what’s happening to its young people. It’s about young people and the reality of their lives and to maybe even give people an idea, and possibly their parents too, as to what lives are really like there.
Before heading to Russia for the series – what were your ideas on the levels of homophobia in the country beforehand?
I was aware there was levels of homophobia in Russia before, but I had no idea the real extent. But I was shocked! I wasn’t expecting it to be as hard for young people. I didn’t think they’d be quite so far behind us here in the UK.
Do the levels of homophobia in the country cover the majority or minority or its citizens?
I’d hate to make a massively sweeping judgement based on my time there, as I didn’t speak to everyone. But, what I can say is that not everybody has the beliefs based on the homophobic people that we spoke to. This programme is called Extreme Russia for a reason, as these really are people with extreme views and I’m certain they don’t represent everybody. Their views are scary and it does make you wonder just exactly how extreme these views are.
So who did you meet?
Without giving too much away before the show goes live, I met people that have been attacked, victimised and also people that are doing everything in their power to change the situation by educating, but also by running events.
But on the other side to that, we did also meet the people who are the homophobes and the people that do have ridiculously shocking attitudes towards the LGBT community – and my priority was to show both sides of the coin and not go in judging anybody, as I wanted to try and understand both sides where possible. I wanted to know why these men and women felt the way that they did.
One of the people you met during your time was Dayra. Give us a preview of her story…
What happened to her was just awful. She was stabbed for being gay. She wasn’t helped or aided by the police and was essentially treated disgustingly by everyone. She was really made to feel like an outcast and that was just disgusting what had happened to her. But for me, it was important to reflect her story and get it out there. If you’re in the LGBT community in Russia, you’re in a dangerous position if you live your life out in the open.
It’s an unbelievable thing really in 2015, with people not able to be who they want to be in public because of fear of their own safety. That was the thing that scared me most.
You also met a young male couple that are together yet one pretends to have a girlfriend….
Yes I did. Their fear came from them being open and their world crumbling around them if it became public knowledge. Their business may be taken away from them from this anti-propaganda law and their family may disown them because of their religious beliefs as well. These guys are an amazing young couple, with a local business and doing brilliant things, yet they have to operate under this cloud of secrecy.
Once this story is broadcast tonight – do either couple have a fear of officials in Russia hearing their story now they’ve spoken out?
Everybody involved is aware that this show may end up online and people may see it in Russia, but that wasn’t the important thing for many. They wanted people on the other side of the world to see their story and know about it, and see just how tough things are in their world. That was their important message.
In one part of the show, you also ended up in a sauna…
Yeah, that was bizarre. There was a traditionalist that I met who ended up actually beating me with a stick. It was a pretty crazy thing to end up happening but you can see why on the show.
And finally, you also met with pressure group God’s Will – whose message is to stone members of the LGBT community to death. Couldn’t have been an easy chat?
No – not at all! With me, I like to let people from both sides put their message across so it’s fair and almost hang their own selves with the message they’re portraying. But, this message was just so offensive with the words being said that I couldn’t listen to it for that long. Eventually, I ended up just walking away from the conversation. It started to become incredibly difficult to listen to that message.
Reggie Yates’ Extreme Russia: Gay & Under Attack airs on BBC Three tonight – 20 April – at 9pm.
More information can be found here.

ILGA – New report shows homosexual criminalizing countries dropping from 92 to 76 in last decade

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By John Mack Freeman
ilgaA new study from ILGA shows that the number of countires that criminalize homosexuality has dropped from 92 to 76 from 2005 to 2015. Some of the top sheet results include:

  • there are 117 countries (UN Members) where same sex sexual acts between adults in private are legal. Mozambique and Palau have decriminalised same-sex acts in 2014 and Lesotho in 2010.
  • there are 76 countries where same-sex sexual acts are still illegal. Chad introduced a new Penal Code in 2014, punishing anyone who has sex with persons of the same sex.
  • In relation to death penalty, eight States officially legislate for it, but only five (Mauritania, Sudan, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Yemen) actually implement it, but a sixth State, Iraq, although not in the civil code, clearly has judges and militias throughout the country that issue the death sentence for same-sex sexual behaviours. Further, some provinces in Nigeria and Somalia officially implement the death penalty. We are also aware that in the Daesh(ISIS/ISIL)-held areas the death penalty is implemented (although a non-State actor, it is listed in the report). Brunei Darussalam is due to activate the death penalty for same sex sexual acts in 2016, but it seems likely that like Pakistan, Afghanistan and Qatar although it is on the statute, it will not be implemented.
  • Regarding the recent legal practice, emerging from Russian provinces first in 2006, to criminalise the ‘propaganda of homosexuality’, it is with some relief that we note that in fact to date only four countries actually appear to have adopted this on their statute books: Algeria, Lithuania, Nigeria and Russia.
  • Discrimination in employment based on sexual orientation is now prohibited in 63 countries, including Chile (2012), Samoa (2013), Namibia (2004) and city of Buenos Aires in Argentina (2015).
  • A total of 7 countries have a constitutional prohibition to discrimination based on sexual orientation, including Mexico (2011) and Virgin Islands (2007) – associate of the United Kingdom
  • Hate crimes based on sexual orientation are considered an aggravating circumstance in 34 countries. Laws in this respect have been identified in several European countries, including Andorra (2005), parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina (2013), Iceland (2004), Kosovo (2013), Lithuania (2009), Montenegro (2010), Norway (1994), Serbia (2012), Slovakia (2013), Slovenia (2008).
  • Incitement of hatred based on sexual orientation is prohibited in 31 countries. Austria has introduced such law in 2011, Hungary in 2013, Montenegro in 2010 and Switzerland in 2015.
  • Marriage is open for same-sex couples in 18 countries, including in Luxembourg and Slovenia, both in 2015. The state of Coahuila in Mexico and 19 further states in the United States of America have passed same-sex marriage laws in 2014, bringing the total number of states legislating for marriage equality to 37 (plus the District of Columbia). Finland approved a marriage equality law in 2015 that will come into force in 2017, while Estonia approved a similar law in 2014, to come into force in 2016.
  • Joint adoption by same-sex couples is legal in 19 countries. It was legalised in Luxemburg and Malta in 2014, and in Austria , Ireland and Slovenia in 2015.

Sweden’s ‘Singing Sailor’ underwater defence system

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Republished from Gay Times –

Swedish peace group use gay sailor sign to thrust away Russian submarines

The Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society (SPAS) has employed a new underwater ‘defence system’ strategy, that has taken the form of a neon sign depicting a gay sailor, wearing nothing but a pair of briefs and his hat.

Sweden hit headlines last year when it launched the most expensive military underwater operation in recent years, when it spotted a foreign submarine (widely thought to be Russian) in its waters.
The idea was developed to fend off vessels from Russia, a country that does not share the same accepting views on homosexuality, having introduced anti-‘gay propaganda’ laws in 2013.
The bright pink sign has earned the name, the “Singing Sailor,” and was developed as a ‘cheaper alternative’ to the 10.2 billion Kronor (£785 million) worth of strategies, that have already been spent on Sweden’s defences.
The gyrating sailor is surrounded by glowing hearts, as well as English and Russian captions that read “Welcome to Sweden. Gay since 1944,” referring to the year that homosexuality was legalised in the country. The message “this way if you are gay,” is also delivered through the water, in morse code.
Words Christopher McParlan, @chrismcparlan

Kyrgyz LGBT center victim of arson attack

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Kyrgyzstan1

Reprinted from GLBT News

By John Mack Freeman
The headquarters of LGBT group Labrys was attacked with explosives in Kyrgyzstan on April 10, 2015. The attack comes amid a climate that is rapidly becoming more hostile towards LGBT people. Kyrgyzstan is considering a “gay propaganda” law similar to the one on the books in Russia. The attacked organization has said they have seen an increase in anti-LGBT violence since the proposal of the law.
Via PinkNews:

Senior Policy director Richard Köhler said in a statement: “Space for civil society is shrinking in many states of the former Soviet Union. We watch this trend with growing concern, as authorities deliberately fail to protect minority groups.
“Debating homo- and transphobic laws creates the atmosphere to hunt trans and LGBTIQ people and put their lives at risk.”
Co-chair Alecks Recher says: “We expect the Kyrgyz government to clearly speak out against homo- and transphobic hatred, assert that LGBTIQ people equally belong to Kyrgyz society, and to withdraw the proposed law. The Council of Europe should do everything in its power to budge its democratic partner to ensure safety and human rights for different groups in Kyrgyz society, including LGBTIQ people.”

Russian situation in schools and for LGBT youth deteriorates

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Russian situation in schools and for LGBT youth deteriorates

So-called immoral behavior

The Russian situation of LGBT teenagers and of LGBT teachers has further been threatened in recent months. In December, a lesbian teacher was fired after accusations of so-called immoral action by a homophobic activist. In January, the founder of the LGBT youth website Children 404 was convicted of propaganda for non-traditional relations.
On Dec. 8, 2014, the director of School 565 in St. Petersburg fired the music teacher because she belongs to the LGBT group. He based the dismissal on information about her private life. This information was given by Timur Isayev Bulatov, an anti-gay activist who claims to have gotten 29 LGBT school teachers fired. He wrote a letter of complaint to the school saying, Its a crime to allow such teachers as around children. Communication with such teachers wont teach children good behavior, it wont give them a well-rounded view of the world, and it wont give them the ability to respect the family and Russian tradition. Isayev also showed the school photos of the teacher with her partner from her profile on a Russian social networking site. He provided the school with other evidence of her orientation, including the fact that she had liked Russian singer Zemfira. According to the Russian news site Meduza, Zemfira is believed to be a lesbian.
The Moscow Times reported that lawyers from the Russian LGBT advocacy group Way Out, filed a lawsuit the teachers behalf. They demanded that the teacher be reinstated and compensated for wages lost during her forced absence from the school. They also supported her claim by numerous teaching certificates and rewards she received.

So-called propaganda

On January 23, journalist Elena Klimova, the founder of the online LGBT youth support group Chrildren 404 (http://deti-404.com/) was convicted of propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations among minors. In 2013, Vitaly Milonov (the main author of the anti-LGBT law in St. Petersburg that became the basis for the national legislation) filed an official complaint against Children 404. However, that case was dismissed in February 2014. Despite this, Roskomnadzor (Russias state agency for media oversight) opened a new case against Klimova in November. Roskomnadzor charged that Children 404 could cause children to think that to be gay means to be a person who is brave, strong, confident, persistent, who has a sense of dignity and self-respect. Obviously the media institute meant that LGBT children are cowards, weak, insecure, lacks and without dignity but did not want to appear to be so abusive of children. Last month, Judge Lyudmila Pedan refused to postpone the January 23 hearing, even though Klimovas lawyer could not attend the hearing for medical reasons. The magistrates decision violated the Russian Constitution, which guarantees the basic right to qualified legal assistance. The judge declared Elena Klimova guilty of propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations among minors, and fined her 50,000 rubles (approximately $750 US). Klimova plans to appeal the sentence.

Campaign against dissenters labelled as foreign agents

The conviction of Children 404 and the hunt for LGBT teachers are part of the accelerating campaign by bot the government and fascist gangs against independent voices in Russia, in including nongovernmental organizations, journalists, social media, and teachers that do not fit the ultra/orthodox view. In 2012 the Duma adopted a law requiring NGOs that accept funding from abroad to register as foreign agents. In January the Duma approved the first reading of new legislation banning undesirable foreign organizations altogether.
Sergei Nikitin, who is Amnesty Internationals Moscow Office Director, commented: This law is another sobering sign of how the Russian authorities are quickly closing in on fundamental freedoms and the work of independent civil society groups in the country. Sadly, these freedoms can no longer be taken for granted in Russia.
 

Image result for complain to

Email address for Russian Consulate:  info@rusemb.org.uk

Sources: https://www.facebook.com/getshore/posts/803273563043745,https://meduza.io/en/feature/2015/01/30/is-my-sexual-orientation-immoral ,http://blog.amnestyusa.org/europe/russia-defending-lgbt-rights-is-not-propaganda/

Meet the Russian who would have bee Mary Whitehouse's bed-fellow

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Shades of Mary Whitehouse and her moral indignation come to mind when I read this article.
Constance Mary Whitehouse, CBE (née Hutcheson, 13 June 1910 – 23 November 2001) was an English social activist known for her strong opposition to social liberalism and the mainstream British media, both of which she accused of encouraging a more permissive society. She was the founder and first president of the National Viewers’ and Listeners’ Association, through which she led a longstanding campaign against the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). A staunch social conservative, she was disparagingly termed a reactionary by her socially liberal opponents. Her motivation derived from her traditional Christian beliefs, her aversion to the rapid social and political changes in British society of the 1960s and her work as a teacher of sex education.
 
Now ‘Meet the Russian who has had over 30 teachers fired for being gay’

 Pictures of teachers hugging loved ones is being sent to officials in order to have them fired for ‘immoral behavior’
| BY JOE MORGAN
Timur Isaev: Persecuting LGBTI teachers in Russia.

A music teacher who worked with disabled children in St Petersburg was fired for being gay this month, the latest in a long line of educators who have become victims of Russia’s ‘gay propaganda’ law.
Anastasia (not her real name) was called into the principal’s office on 8 December. She was told that pictures of her hugging her girlfriend had been forwarded to the school and a demand she be fired for ‘immoral behavior’.
The pictures and demand was also sent to local government officials.
‘You belong with gay people,’ the teacher was told. ‘You are not allowed to work with children.’
This was another ‘win’ for Timur Isaev, a man who boasts he has had over 30 teachers fired for being gay.
Among his other victims include Ilya Kolmanovsky, an award-winning biology teacher at a top public school, who was fired in January.
‘I have been fired from the school where I worked for seven years,’ he wrote on Facebook.
‘My opponents found about me and my school and sent complaints to the administration, and on Monday the principal told me he is firing me to save the school.’
‘I don’t blame the principal,’ he added. ‘He knows better who is dealing with.’
Isaev does not hide the fact he is helping teachers get fired. On his VK page, it reads: ‘Russia – It’s hell for gays, let them get used to it!’
‘If people are unhealthy and have psychiatric abnormalities such as being a lesbian, then it is clear the law states they are unacceptable for doing this type of work,’ he says.
‘Homosexuality is not normal,’ he told Meduza. ‘It is a disease that is treated with hormone therapy.’
He is now working to fire other teachers, making sure no other LGBTI person ‘influences’ a child.
The nationwide ‘gay propaganda’ law was enforced in Russia in June 2013.

– See more at: http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/meet-russian-who-has-had-over-30-teachers-fired-being-gay261214#sthash.9eithlYN.dpuf

How hard is it to come out as a gay sportsman / sportswomen / person?

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With a small amount of research I have discovered that since 1900, one hundred and fourteen years in total, there have only been 24 (twenty-four) sports people in the British Isles who have been our or come out as gay.
Document:    Sports people who have come out in the British Isles
So why don’t sportsmen and sportswomen ‘come out’ if they are gay?  Of course there is no reason why someone has to announce they are gay, there is no law, no contract (indeed there may even be contracts preventing it); but, with so few sportsmen and sportswomen visible who are gay, then those growing up don’t have positive role models to aspire to.  It also enables the continuing stigmatisation of the LGBT community.
John Amaechi, the British basketballer said ‘…people have a misconception that time will automatically bring progress and that homophobia is in the decline … if you’re associated with a word that has so many pejorative connotations – ‘gay’ regularly used to mean bad, weak, wrong, sinful – it’s going to affect you’
History has shown that gay women in sports are more routinely accepted than men; but even they have been the target of bullying on and off the field, in society and in the media.
Gay men in sports are stigmatised more because being a sportsman means you are rough, tough and a ladiesman.  If you are gay you can’t be a great sportsman.
Secondly, all spo0rtsmen and sportswomen depend on sponsorship, and the sponsors have not necessarily bee supportive of equality and freedom for LGBT athletes.
 
As I referred to at the start of this article, there are 24 noted sportsmen and sportswomen:

  • 4 in the 1990s
  • 5 in the 2000s

And

  • 6 so far in the 2010s

Hopefully the tide is turning and society is more accepting, also the establishment which controls the laws and the purse strings of so much sponsorship.
What will be even more interesting is to watch and review the Winter Games in Sochi, Russia during and after the event in relationship to both the athletes who are LGBT and who go there and perform, and also for the local LGBT groups and individuals who are suffering persecution through the new laws and trumped charges and arrests.
Premier Putin’s homophobia has been shown up repeatedly, and the Mayor of Sochi (Anatoly Pakhomov) would seem to be equally homophobic ( or is he just securing his political position?) – his latest speech stating that there are no gays living in Sochi only further highlight’s Russia’s perilous states for LGBT people.

Support Russian LGBT Rights

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Boys Town Studios, Gay Porn Company, To Donate Profits To LGBT Charities

 
First published in the The Huffington Post  |  By  Posted: 08/16/2013 12:05 pm EDT  |  Updated: 08/16/2013 12:10 pm EDT
 
boys town studios gay porn
 
Boys Town Studios, an all-male porn company with a charity-based philosophy, will launch this fall as a branch of Monarchy Distribution. All of the profits made from projects by this studio will go to support the advancement of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights.
“100 percent of the profits from all these movies, including DVD sales, video-on-demand, cable and broadcast will be donated to our newly-created non-profit,” said Mike Kulich, owner of Monarchy Distribution, in a statement sent to the Huffington Post.
“Anyone will be able to write Boys Town Studios and tell their stories about how bigotry and homophobia has affected their lives, and we will step into help those victims as much as we can.”
Kulich also highlighted that the profits from the studio’s first film will go towards helping gay Russian refugees, in an effort to subsidize the cost of their relocation as they seek asylum in other countries in the wake of the country’s extreme anti-LGBT violence and legislation.
The studio plans to release two films per month, with the first film, titled “Deep In The Dark,” slated to premiere this October.

BACK IN THE U. S. S. R. – an article from March 1991

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([Edited] out-take from upstart Vol 3, No. 1., March ’91)
 
(Whether this demonstrated arrogance or naivety – or is just journalism of interest to our readership (all three of them) – in a sub-provincial publication is up to the reader…)
Over the years from Gorbachev’s taking office in the USSR the official policy of glasnost or ‘openness’ has led to a situation where Gay people have come out in a quite unprecedented way.  Even in the 1920s and ’30s Gay people were fairly cautious about proclaiming their sexuality in the Soviet Republic.
Today the situation is different, there are open groups in Leningrad [(now St. Petersburg – though the authorities hedged their bets by allowing the surrounding area, (it’s the size of Ireland), to remain ‘Leningrad’).  The citizens of ‘St Petersburg’ want it to return to the name Leningrad.  A demonstration by elders in the early 1990s, objecting to the name change, carried banners pointing out that they had defended ‘Leningrad’ during one of world-history’s greatest sieges.  Citizens of Tsaritsyn, (formerly the drearily named ‘Volgograd’), have taken much the same line – they fought, starved and died defending ‘Stalingrad’. – upstart 2013] and Moscow.  Moscow has a magazine called Tema.  There was conference on homosexuality in Tallin, Estonia during summer 1990.  There are probably other manifestations of “out” behaviour of which we are not aware.
Tema‘s editor Roman Kalinin who is also the founder of the Moscow Gay and Lesbian Union, and ten other people were summoned to a police barracks on December 17.  They were accused of engaging in anal sex, which means a five year sentence in a prison camp.  They were also accused of using — gasp — drugs.
The dear old RUC (Royal Ulster Constabulary [now PSNI (Police Service of Northern Ireland) – upstart 2013]) used this excuse to arrest Gay people in 1977.  The police-crater’s mind is a wonderful thing to behold.  These charges have been dropped because Kalinin demanded to know how the police were going to prove them.  Roman Kalinin was interviewed in a big circulation magazine about AIDS and HIV, apparently an “unbelievable” number of letters came in after this.  Ordinary Soviet citizens are very worried about The Plague.  Kalinin is now homeless because his landlord found out he was Gay and an activist – no doubt the KGB noised the latter fact abroad.
In Leningrad things are somewhat worse.  Olga Zhuk, founded the Tchaikovsky Foundation for Cultural Initiatives and Defence of Sexual Minorities.  Named after the composer, it thereby, in itself, exposes some myth making by the Russian Soviet Establishment.  The Foundation and Olga have been harassed over the past few months, the KGB have now arrested Olga.
She has been arrested under Article 121.1 of the criminal law Code.  This Article deals only with sexual acts between men.
Olga Zhuk was also accused of “gathering groups of criminals”.  This harass-ment and arrest were the result of a meeting with the City Council, which refused to recognise the Foundation.
 
Murder
A Moscovite activist, Alexander Lukeshev, editor of the independent journal New Life, has been murdered.  Possibly the KGB, but the racist group Pamyat, one of whose intellectuals Valentin Rasputin was seen on C4’s The Media Show last month (February 1991 – upstart 2013) describing Gays as “less that vermin”, would seem to be likely candidates too.  Anyone who has been a guest of Her Majesty, or of The Nation must realise that keeping contacts with the outside world is very important.  Isolated prisoners can be harassed and even killed in large prisons.  So far as Gay women and men are concerned the USSR is a giant prison.  That society appears to be falling apart means that isolated communities like the Gay community, which is only just emerging, are in danger of their liberties and even their lives.
[There followed a number of names and addresses of Soviet nomenclatura, which is no longer relevant.  No doubt many of them found cosy billets in the States which seceded from the Union – all 16 of them – the largest being Russia – the ‘Russian Federation’.  The RF is what was the RSFSR (Russian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic).  The ‘Federation’ is due to the fact that a number of ‘ethnic’ Republics operate within the territory. Some Republics are more independent than others, the Buddhist Komi Republic, has embraced capitalism with eye-watering vigour, while Tataristan hasn’t given up on Soviet values.  Tataristan is Muslim in culture.  The most famous citizen of Tataristan (the erstwhile Tatar Autonomous Soviet Republic) is [was – upstart 2013] Rudolf (his Mam was a fan of Valentino) Nurey[ev].  He was a great ballet performer.  Whether he was as unambiguously a boon to ballet in ‘the West’ is despite excitable (non-dance) journalists’ scribblings a matter for debate.  (This is not to say that he wasn’t a great performer, who excited audiences, even ones anæsthetised by the effect of television in telly’s ‘goldfish bowl’ days).]