Insideafrik
NEWS, RUSSIA
MOSCOW (AP) — Kissing his boyfriend during a protest in front of
Russia's parliament earned Pavel Samburov 30 hours of detention and the
equivalent of a $16 fine on a charge of "hooliganism." But if a bill
that comes up for a first vote later this month becomes law, such a
public kiss could be defined as illegal "homosexual propaganda" and
bring a fine of up to $16,000.
The legislation being pushed by the Kremlin and the Russian
Orthodox Church would make it illegal nationwide to provide minors with
information that is defined as "propaganda of sodomy, lesbianism,
bisexuality and transgenderism." It includes a ban on holding public
events that promote gay rights. St. Petersburg and a number of other
Russian cities already have similar laws on their books.
The bill is part of an effort to promote traditional Russian values
as opposed to Western liberalism, which the Kremlin and church see as
corrupting Russian youth and by extension contributing to a wave of
protest against President Vladimir Putin's rule.
Samburov describes the anti-gay bill as part of a Kremlin crackdown
on minorities of any kind — political and religious as well as sexual —
designed to divert public attention from growing discontent with Putin's
rule.
The lanky and longhaired Samburov is the founder of the Rainbow
Association, which unites gay activists throughout Russia. The gay
rights group has joined anti-Putin marches in Moscow over the past year,
its rainbow flag waving along with those of other opposition groups.
Other laws that the Kremlin says are intended to protect young
Russians have been hastily adopted in recent months, including some that
allow banning and blocking web content and print publications that are
deemed "extremist" or unfit for young audiences.
Denis Volkov, a sociologist with the Levada Center, an independent
pollster, says the anti-gay bill fits the "general logic" of a
government intent on limiting various rights.
But in this case, the move has been met mostly with either
indifference or open enthusiasm by average Russians. Levada polls
conducted last year show that almost two thirds of Russians find
homosexuality "morally unacceptable and worth condemning." About half
are against gay rallies and same-sex marriage; almost a third think
homosexuality is the result of "a sickness or a psychological trauma,"
the Levada surveys show.
Russia's widespread hostility to homosexuality is shared by the political and religious elite.
Lawmakers have accused gays of decreasing Russia's already low birth
rates and said they should be barred from government jobs, undergo
forced medical treatment or be exiled. Orthodox activists criticized
U.S. company PepsiCo for using a "gay" rainbow on cartons of its dairy
products. An executive with a government-run television network said in a
nationally televised talk show that gays should be prohibited from
donating blood, sperm and organs for transplants, while after death
their hearts should be burned or buried.
The anti-gay sentiment was seen Sunday in Voronezh, a city south of
Moscow, where a handful of gay activists protesting against the
parliament bill were attacked by a much larger group of anti-gay
activists who hit them with snowballs.
The gay rights protest that won Samburov a fine took place in
December. Seconds after Samburov and his boyfriend kissed, militant
activists with the Orthodox Church pelted them with eggs. Police
intervened, rounding up the gay activists and keeping them for 30 hours
first in a frozen van and then in an unheated detention center. The
Orthodox activists were also rounded up, but were released much earlier.
Those behind the bill say minors need to be protected from
"homosexual propaganda" because they are unable to evaluate the
information critically. "This propaganda goes through the mass media and
public events that propagate homosexuality as normal behavior," the
bill reads.
Cities started adopting anti-gay laws in 2006. Only one person has
been prosecuted so far under a law specifically targeted at gays:
Nikolai Alexeyev, a gay rights campaigner, was fined the equivalent of
$160 after a one-man protest last summer in St. Petersburg.
In November, a St. Petersburg court dismissed a lawsuit filed by the
Trade Union of Russian Citizens, a small group of Orthodox conservatives
and Putin loyalists, against pop star Madonna. The group sought $10.7
million in damages for what it says was "propaganda of perversion" when
Madonna spoke up for gay rights during a show three months earlier.
The federal bill's expected adoption comes 20 years after a
Stalinist-era law punishing homosexuality with up to five years in
prison was removed from Russia's penal code as part of the democratic
reforms that followed the Soviet Union's collapse.
Most of the other former Soviet republics also decriminalized
homosexuality, and attitudes toward gays have become a litmus test of
democratic freedoms. While gay pride parades are held in the three
former Soviet Baltic states, all today members of the European Union,
same-sex love remains a crime in authoritarian Turkmenistan and
Uzbekistan.
In Russia, gays have been whipsawed by official pressure and
persistent homophobia. There are no reliable estimates of how many gays
and lesbians live in Russia, and only a few big cities such as Moscow
and St. Petersburg have gay nightclubs and gyms. Even there, gays do not
feel secure.
When a dozen masked men entered a Moscow night club during a "coming
out party" that campaigner Samburov organized in October, he thought
they were part of the show. But then one of the masked men yelled, "Have
you ordered up a fight? Here you go!" The men overturned tables,
smashed dishes and beat, kicked and sprayed mace at the five dozen men
and women who had gathered at the gay-friendly Freedays club, Samburov
and the club's administration said.
Four club patrons were injured, including a young woman who got
broken glass in her eye, police said. Although a police station was
nearby, Samburov said, it took police officers half an hour to arrive.
The attackers remain unidentified.
On the next day, an Orthodox priest said he regretted that his religious role had not allowed him to participate in the beating.
"Until this scum gets off of Russian land, I fully share the views of
those who are trying to purge our motherland of it," Rev. Sergiy Rybko
was quoted as saying by the Orthodoxy and World online magazine. "We
either become a tolerant Western state where everything is allowed — and
lose our Christianity and moral foundations — or we will be a Christian
people who live in our God-protected land in purity and godliness."
In other parts of Russia, gays feel even less secure. Bagaudin
Abduljalilov moved to Moscow from Dagestan, a predominantly Muslim
region in southern Russia where he says some gays have been beaten and
had their hands cut off, sometimes by their own relatives, for bringing
shame on their families.
"You don't have any human rights down there," he said. "Anything can be done to you with impunity."
Shortly before moving to Moscow, Abduljalilov left Islam to become a
Protestant Christian, but was expelled from a seminary after telling the
dean he was gay. He also has had trouble finding a job as a television
journalist because of discrimination against people from Dagestan.
"I love Russia, but I want another Russia," said Abduljalilov, 30,
who now works as a clerk. "It's a pity I can't spend my life on creative
projects instead of banging my head against the wall and repeating,
'I'm normal, I'm normal.' "
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