2013 saw a dark cloud descend over Russia. A champion of a dubious and violent Syrian regime, embroiled in an Olympic scandal to the tune of 25 billion missing dollars, and boasting an embarrassingly high journalistic body count. As viewed from the West it’s not going well. Add to the innumerable counts of corruption and state-funded foul play, a piece of de facto anti-gay legislation, and cries of draconian seem less than hyperbolic.
Considering the political schmooze fest that usually constitutes the Olympics (think Cameron, Putin and Judo) and perhaps the most telling sign of Russia’s internationally perceived fuckery is the absence of every Western leader from the Sochi games next week. If even the chance for a bit of quality Putin/dubious trade agreement time is being passed up, can anyone, let alone a gay person, be heading towards Russia? It seems at least one.
“I saw there were reports that people were starting to leave and I thought the best thing to do in these situations is the opposite of what everyone else is doing.”
This is Evgeny. We met in a cavernous Hungarian apartment he was babysitting over the summer. The Air B&B host for our three day stay, he failed his duties spectacularly for the first one and a half weeks as attempts were made to sleep off the effects of a week long celebration for Madonna’s birthday. Despite the pitch perfect night life of Budapest and the ominous threat of Federal law #436-FZ, Evgeny is one of a surprising number of openly gay men choosing to live in Russia. Sitting on the floor of a white walled apartment in Moscow, the activist and journalist described the true state of homophobia and homosexuality in his perhaps misunderstood, always impossibly complex homeland. He begins by explaining the controversial law.
“The act says do it in private. Putin admitted we have homosexuals in government and we do. Closeted, but in the gay community here everyone knows there are homosexuals in the government, parliament and high up in the police hierarchy.
“I think the best way to understand the law is through this metaphor. They say people have been smoking for all of history. In this country we do not want to ban smoking for people who are adults and choose to do it. But you shouldn’t smoke in front of children; you shouldn’t tell children it’s okay. You shouldn’t show smoking on TV or sell cigarettes in bright packages. Smoking should be restricted to certain areas and then it’s fine. We don’t have anything against smokers, we have something against the promotion of smoking. It seems like homosexuality is viewed in this way like a bad habit. Because of this, the main work of the activist over here is to explain to people that this is not what homosexuality is.”
This understanding of homosexuality as a bad habit – a bad habit one can choose – is sadly not a novel one. Although this particular strain of ignorance holds little credence in Britain, a quick jump onto mainland Europe or across the pond finds far more support, albeit mostly from fringe Christian groups, for the troublesome notion. It’s root cause in Russia may be a little different however.
“Usually people in the UK and the US, if they’re conservative right they are the whole package; anti-gay, anti-abortion, anti-immigrant. Here there is no such kind of dichotomy. The majority of Russians support liberal abortion laws, maybe half support the legalisation of prostitution. 77% support family planning in school. Alcoholism and drug taking are not looked upon too badly. Divorce rates are enormous. I wouldn’t say that this is a conservative Christian country as Putin is trying to make out. Most Russians are secularists or maybe go to Church once a year. The problem here is that most people don’t understand what gay is. If you have a pride march or wave a rainbow flag, people will just ask, “why are you proud of being gay?” When it emerged in America the pride idea made sense. But here it’s just taken from the West and people just don’t get it. Many activists fight in a very European way, which is fine, but it needs to be adjusted to local ways; explained in local terms.
“Of course all of this bullshit they show on TV has an effect, but I’m more interested in the societal aspects. Equally important as the communication breakdown is the macho culture specific to Russia. When the Soviet Union collapsed and the censorship was removed, there was suddenly this prison culture. Prison songs, prison language, prison jokes. Living according to unspoken prison rules. For example, when asking for a cigarette in prison you shouldn’t say “thank you” back, because cigarettes are bad for you. Through the now open media culture little things like this became popular. This, and the idea that homosexuals are at the bottom of the hierarchy; the idea that in prison the most humiliating thing you can do to someone is to rape. The man that is used by the others as a woman is the man who has lost his dignity. If you look at the Russian women, of course some are homophobic, but its not aggressive in the same way as with men. Sometimes if a man finds out you’re homosexual, he will change from a friend to enemy in a second; like they’re possessed by a demon. There are some deep psychological issues here. Within the macho Russian culture it is rare to meet a non-homophobic, straight man. It was like that long before the law. Long before Putin.”
If this is the case, Evgeny’s return to Russia seems even stranger. Political regimes can be overturned and laws changed, but the deeply imbedded, collective anger of the majority is perhaps immutable. Following the law’s passing, from the arguably sheltered outlook of liberal Britain, what joy a gay person can have in Russia is hard to comprehend.
“There is a woman called Masha Gessen who was publishing stories in the western press and is a very influential journalist here in Russia. In the NY Times she wrote an article about how we all wanted to leave and I thought, how does she know? She is an upper-middle class lady and she can leave. Most gay people here can’t leave. Most people want to stay here. It is their home and they want to change something. People like Masha speak on behalf of 5 or so million people here and she has no right. I try not to because I don’t know how they all live, what they all want. The gays here are very diverse. You have the people in power who don’t have to care about the LGBT cause, extremely racist gays who say homophobia will get worse as Muslims come. The gay community is really a reflection of society, and we have a lot of social diseases here.
“The thing is, you can actually protest here. There are a bunch of TV shows, even state TV shows, that still discuss homosexual issues. It’s in newspapers too. LGBT organisations are still functioning and growing. LGBT Network is still growing and has outlets even in Siberia and the far east. They hold seminars and movie screenings even though they are not allowed. It is more complicated now because any time you can be technically fined because children may read them. But these websites just put on an 18+ button and they get away with it. No organisations have been fined so far, and only two people have in the last half year.”
This raises the obvious question of why introduce the law? One might think it’s a vote winner, placating a vehemently homophobic public. But even if one takes the more than leading 2013 Pew Research poll at face value and accept that 74% of Russians think gays should not be accepted by society, this doesn’t really check out. There’s not an election on the horizon, the law isn’t being implemented and has alienated much of the western world.
“This is what we call a cultural broken phone. In the west the law is adopted in order to be implemented. In Russia, the law and the law enforcement are two completely different things. The law which bans hate speech is actually in the constitution, but this is very rarely applied. The same with this new law. The guy who introduced it in St Petersburg, Vitaly Milonov, this funny guy with glasses who tried to sue Madonna, said we wanted to make this law in order to create a new discourse, in order to signify the emergence of new values socially. He kind of achieved what he wanted, but in a way that helped to increase homophobia on the one hand but also the LGBT movement on the other. Those who were liberal but skeptical of the LGBT movement now understand it as a political issue and are more supportive. There’s now mainstream newspapers and radio stations who talk about LGBT issues the whole time, where before they didn’t. Overall, the law didn’t really go as planned.”
So homophobia is rife in Russia and ignorance abounds, but there is hope. A discourse has begun and for the next couple of weeks the world will be looking on. The power of external pressure can not be underestimated. Although the pro-boycotting sentiment of Nadezhd Tolokonnikova is one increasingly disregarded as wayward in its effect, her band’s early release from prison last month suggests Putin’s non-negotiable outlook may be loosening. As powerful as a perceived glare may be however, Evgeny suggests we can do better. “If you really want to help, don’t boycott, don’t get angry. Tweet or write to musicians and film-stars who are coming to Russia and tell them to say gay is okay. Madonna did it and people listened.”