In wartime, focus on “traditional values” Imperils Russia LGBTQ Community | LGBTQ NEWS

In his early 20s, Michael* (not his real name), gay from the city of Ufa in Russia, did what he loved: Drag performances.

“I went on tour, to competitions; I met new artists and planned that the dragging would be the grandfather in my life, “he told Al Jazeera.

At that moment, said Michael, he lived his life openly and did not experience very clear hostility from the everyday audience. But over the last few years, things have started to change.

“There have been concerns in the club industry,” he said. “The restrictions were placed on the number of Ukrainian performers, a ban on mentioning topics related to LGBT was placed. There was just eternal anxiety in everyday life. “

The last straw came when the police headed for the place in which Michael was working to attack.

“I had been in the attacks more than once, but my last raid was the largest and most terrible,” he recalled.

“Then there were two interrogations, lasting eight or nine hours each, applying psychological pressure on me non -stop. Then I was forced to leave the country to keep my freedom. “

Russia not only waged war against Ukraine, but also for what it sees as enemies inside. The pursuit of LGBTQ individuals, organizations and communities has intensified over the last few years as the Kremlin has been striving to maintain “traditional values”.

The coordinator of the Russian LGBTQ Monitoring Program Sphere, which asked to remain anonymous, told Al Jazeera that before 2022, the bigger part of the abuses directed at LGBTQ individuals “affected daily and institutional discrimination, not direct repression.”

Since changes to the ban on “Gay propaganda“In 2022, followed by the ban on gender transition and the definition of the International LGBT Movement as an” extremist organization “in 2023, now at least two -thirds of the abuses are happening in the hands of the authorities.

The previous USSR was one of the first countries in the world to decriminalize homosexuality in 1917, repealing the laws of the era of the tsarists, which in themselves barely applied. But by the 30s of the last century, Joseph Stalin Homosexuality became regarded as a threat to the tissue of Soviet society and in 1934 Sodomy was punishable by three to five years imprisonment.

Later, she became considered as a mental illness, and both gays and lesbians were forcibly limited to asylum. It was not until 1993, after the collapse of communism, was it a ban to be raised again.

In 2010, a new wave of persecution began with laws to prevent gay propaganda seemingly to protect children.

The government of President Vladimir Putin presented the LGBTQ rights movement as a foreign program to undermine Russia's traditional family values.

“The Russian authorities do not distinguish pedophilia and” unconventional “orientations, which is clearly evident from the published statistics of the Department of Judicial Department of the Russian Federation for 2023, where the statistics on the three articles of 6.21 are represented in a row,” Noel Shaida.

At the end of 2023, the Supreme Court of Russia ruled the International LGBT Movement as an “extremist organization”. Of course, there is no such official entity, but this ambiguity creates a very wide range of goals.

“Employees of any organization (LGBTQ support) are at risk of being charged with participating or organizing an extremist activity, which implies unfair politically motivated prosecution, potentially with two-digit prison terms as a result,” said Sphere's monitoring coordinator.

“For this reason, many initiatives have announced the termination of work in the country. Some organizations have taken out employees from Russia to continue working. There are not many strange initiatives left in the country that are not forced to work underground. “

Last November, police in Moscow attacked a series of bars and establishments throughout the city, which is thought to have taken care of a strange clientele.

“According to our data, there were at least 43 of them across the country from November 2023 to January 2025,” said a sphere.

“The results vary: from the prosecution of the owners of establishments for” organizing and participating in an extremist organization “to the same protocols and fines for propaganda. Often the attacks do not formally lead to a more prosecution, but the establishments in which they are conducted quickly change their form of work and actively demonstrate loyalty to government policies or are simply closing. “

The monitor of the sphere added that sometimes attendees call on military registration service, which means that they can be attracted to fight in Ukraine.

“The published footage often shows that visitors to the establishments are forced to lie naked on the cold floor during the attack, which usually lasts for several hours,” they continued.

“Violence can be used, among other things, to convince the insoluble visitors to comply with the illegal demands of the police: to give access to the content of a mobile phone or to answer questions that are of interest to the police. For example, in one of the establishments, people were forced to squat until their friend gave the password to the police on their phone. In this case, we are talking about torture. “

In addition, law enforcement agencies regularly invade gay parties and engage persons using dating applications, arresting them on accusations such as drugs or “gay propaganda”, which may mean displaying gay pride symbols or speaking positively about same -sex relationships.

Repression is aimed at strange activity in the public sphere and private life.

In December, Andrei Kotov, director of the Men's Tourism Agency, was arrested on charges of organizing “extremist activities”, and later found dead in his cell in what the authorities considered “suicide”.

The independent Russian news site Medusa, which now works in exile from Latvia, recently reported Authorities seem to compile data collected from the raids of gay parties – such as fingerprints and DNA samples – as well as medical records of transgender persons to create a database from LGBTQ individuals.

The purpose of such a database is unclear, but Russian police already have such a database from drug addicts, which is claimed to be used to identify targets for gripping or planting evidence when corrupt employees need to reach their quotas.

“The data collected can be used to initiate a major criminal case on charges of extremism against the non -existent” LGBT international movement “, in which there are cells in dozens of regions of Russia,” says Irina, head of the intercession of the sphere.

“It can also be used as a tool for intimidation, creating an atmosphere of constant fear among strange people; a pursuit tool; and dialing LGBT+ people as “voluntary” informants, offering them the removal of the database in exchange for cooperation. “

Due to continued pressure, many are trying to escape from Russia.

“In order to be an unconventional family or orientation in Russia, this can be dangerous for freedom and life as a whole,” says Anastasia Burakova, a human rights lawyer and founder of an ark (Arc), an organization that helps Russian emigrants.

“We have temporary emergencies in countries such as Serbia, Turkey, and sometimes we are asked to provide this emergency accommodation for LGBTQ people. So far, we see that there are many requests for such people who are pursuing. “

Nevertheless, the sphere is optimistic for the future.

“Despite all the obstacles that the state sets before us, we sincerely believe that there is a future for the LGBT+ Community in Russia, as a minimum, and with a maximum, there will be acceptance, without discrimination, etc.,” said Noel Shaida.

“After all, political regimes are not eternal, employees are not immortal. And even if it seems that the future is hopeless, we believe and try to demonstrate with all our activities, that no state prohibition can cancel us. “

But Michael is more dark, at least in the short term.

“People will not be able to express themselves, they will try to monitor their behavior in order to combine themselves with the norms that the state is now dictating,” he noted.

“As sad as it may be, I think suicide statistics will increase.”