Political asylum for gays in Europe: how persecution and violence force LGBT representatives to leave Russia. LGBTQ-news from Belarus, Ukraine, Russia, April 2017
Homosexuality as an actual plot in contemporary modern Belarusian literature. Contrary to the evidence provided be the media, the Russian authorities refuse the facts of arrests, torture and murder of gays in Chechnya. Positive social survey in Ukraine. LGBTQ-news, April 2017.Gaypress.eu, Volha Kashtsialian
Same-sex relationships penetrate modern Belarusian literature. A well-known Belarusian blogger and writer Eugenii Lipkovich published an erotic short novel about lesbian «Butterfly.» Waking up in the morning, the heroine of the story Tanya finds herself in bed with a girl. She tries to remember how she has got there…
According to the author of the story, he was inspired by life itself and his personal observations how the girls get obsessed with the other girls.
A «hard check» of the data on the mass persecution of homosexuals in the North Caucasus has not yet confirmed their truthfulness.
A thorough check of the information on the mass persecution of homosexuals in the North Caucasus has not yet confirmed their truth. This was stated by the Russian ombudsman Tatyana Moskalkova. Later she announced an media article about gay torture «a false denunciation.» The head of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov and the official Kremlin called «lies and libel» the reports of harassment of gays in Chechnya.
Meanwhile, the Russian LGBT Network confirmed that more than 60 residents of the North Caucasus applied for help, 30 of them were already prepared for evacuation to European countries. As soon as the victims of crime are safe they will seek justice with the help of lawyers.
It is to be recalled that on April 1, Russian media Novaya Gazeta published The Murder of Honor — an article revealing the detentions and possible killings of LGBT citizens in the North Caucasus, the maintains of secret prisons for gays. On April 4, Novaya Gazeta provided shocking evidence of homosexual torture.
The case of the violence towards LGBT in the North Caucasus became highly-publicized both in Russia and abroad.
- Single pickets in support of gays from the North Caucasus were held in Novosibirsk and Petersburg.
- Almost 300,000 people signed a petition demanding from Russian authorities to held detailed investigation of the reports by Novaya Gazeta, and the Russian LGBT Network regarding the persecution of homosexuals in the North Caucasus.
- Earlier representatives of the US, French, German, British, Canadian authorities, representatives of the UN and the European Union, as well as several other countries and international organizations made similar appeals.
A Russian journalist and public activist Ksenia Sobchak also voiced in support of LGBT victims. In a live television broadcast she called to the President of Russia Vladimir Putin:
«It seems to me that we need to make it clear that gays are not funny anymore, it’s the tragedy of people living in an extremely hostile environment. These people must be understood and accepted, while the state under no circumstances should poke it’s nose into its citizens’ underwear. «
«We hate Americans, British, Ukrainians, liberals, gays … in fact, we hate each other… We are far from Jesus love and humility, and until our attitude changes, you can paint all the eggs in the world — it will not get any lighter.»
Ukrainian media reported about LGBT representatives being tortured in the occupied territories of Donetsk and Lugansk regions. According to the refugees, the militants arrested gays, tortured them, used them as free labor, evicted them from their apartments and forced to quit the jobs.
In addition, the authorities of LNR and DNR tried to criminalize same-sex relationships, but they confined themselves to introducing ban for propaganda of homosexuality in a similar way to the Russian Federation.
Moscow welcomes the VI LGBT-film festival «Side by Side», whose motto this year is «It’s up to me to decide who I am!» A movie «Angry Indian Goddesses» — the first in the history of Indian cinema film in the genre of «buddy-movie» about women — opened the festival.
In total, the cinema program includes 6 fiction and documentary films and 2 collections of short movies.
A touching coming out story of the 23-year-old violinist Artyom Kolesov from Russia scored 60,000 views on Facebook. Artyom grew up in a Christian family with 5 brothers, his father and mother serve in the Pentecostal church. Just like his parents, for a long time, Artyom considered homosexuality a mortal sin and prayed to God for deliverance and even for death.
«For a long time I thought that my homosexuality is a curse, but I realized that all this is the greatest blessing I ever received,» — the young man confesses.
The majority of a survey responders in Lviv would vote for the gay mayor, since they consider sexual orientation a secondary issue. It is more important for them that the mayor is a decent person and copes well with his duties. These are the results of the survey conducted on the streets of the city.
In Kiev, the organizers of the third March of Equality, scheduled for June within the festival KievPride, plan to hold it on Khreshchatyk — the main street in the capital. It is expected that up to 5,000 people will take part in the event, which is twice as much as last year. Currently, all the details are negotiating with the National Police in order to prevent possible provocations.
