In 2013, gays and lesbians in Russia experienced an unprecedented wave of violence and discrimination. Andrey from the Moscow HIV project LaSky reports on the consequences of the homophobic laws and the situation in the gay community. The interview was conducted by Axel Schock.
New homophobic attacks have been reported from Russia over the past year. Neo-Nazis hunted down gays to torture them on camera and show them off on the internet. Violent attacks occurred time and again. In St. Petersburg, for example, a facility belonging to the HIV organisation LaSky was attacked by masked men and those present were seriously injured. The then 27-year-old activist Dima Chishevsky lost his left eye to a shot from a BB gun.
Andrey, how did Dima fare after the attack?
Dima Chishevsky saw no other option but to leave the country. He has now been granted asylum in the USA.
Have you had fewer visitors to your offices and cafés since the attacks by gangs of thugs?
No, our clients are not afraid and will continue to find their way to us. However, we have taken internal precautions to be prepared for such cases and to be able to react better. It is remarkable that people abroad are much better informed about these incidents than is the case in Russia. In our media, there is hardly any coverage at all. In a conversation with me in May of this year, UNAIDS Director Michel Sidibé apologised for the fact that his organisation was unable to react appropriately at the time.
What failure can UNAIDS be accused of?
I understood Sidibé's apology to mean that the position of UNAIDS in Russia is very weak and therefore there was no chance of exerting any influence.
There were already fierce protests in Western countries when the law against "homosexual propaganda" was being planned. Putin signed it anyway in June 2013 - apparently he even felt encouraged by these protests. Do demonstrations in front of Russian embassies and similar actions even make sense?
The problem here is again a lack of information. Only a handful of activists in Russia know what is happening in Western Europe. The general population, even the gay community and most politicians know nothing about it. But the politicians would hardly care what you do in Europe.
I believe that change can be achieved primarily at an informal level, for example by Western politicians raising the issue in meetings with Russian colleagues. It is by no means the case that all Russian politicians need to be brought to their senses: many know very well that the homophobia propagated by the state is wrong. But they would never dare to say so publicly or vote against it.
According to surveys and studies, homophobia is deeply rooted in Russian society. Can anything be done to change this?
I don't have a clear answer to that. And I've already thought about it a lot! But I hope that one day it will actually get better. But that will certainly take a long time. Many small drops will eventually become a mighty, torrential stream.
So what needs to happen?
This change has to take place in every single person. Neither my friends nor my mum, for example, know that I'm gay. I can call my mum homophobic with a clear conscience - she knows absolutely nothing about homosexuals. But I'm sure that if she knew I was gay, she would change her mind and also make sure that those around her change their minds. The only problem is that I'm not yet ready to come out publicly as gay. I think it's a bit easier for younger people. The more people find out about the homosexuality of their friends and family, the quicker they will shed their prejudices.
And how do gay politicians behave?
Although Moscow's gay scene is very large, we always have the same sex partners. Some have already spent the weekend with the right-wing populist politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky in his summer house. And he is by no means the only gay politician. The names of these people are no secret to the public. But none of them would show their colours in a vote like the one on the law against "homosexual propaganda" and vote against it.
Can you imagine gays in Moscow one day living as freely as they do in Berlin today, for example?
No, I think that's pretty much out of the question. This is partly due to the completely different mentality and partly due to the fundamental orientation of Russian politics, which is completely committed to the traditional family image - without ever defining exactly what this should look like.
The traditional model, which includes children, parents and grandparents, is very favourable for the government because the generations look after each other. This means that the state has little responsibility and therefore has to invest very little in pensions. This system must be maintained at all costs, because pension provision in Russia is simply catastrophic. Only very few people can actually live on their pension, so old people are dependent on the support of their children and grandchildren.
Like me, many gays and lesbians believe that nothing will improve any time soon. They are discouraged and no longer have any hope. Many have already left the country and even more are thinking about doing so. Projects and organisations like LaSky are also feeling the effects of this, because it is mainly politically committed people who are emigrating.
Will this have an impact on the health and sexual behaviour of gay men?
The consequences are already becoming apparent: people are withdrawing and becoming depressed. Mental illnesses will therefore increase even more. We are observing that people are taking less care of their health, especially their sexual health, and are therefore also taking greater risks of infection. The reasons for this are a lack of prospects and depression. The number of anonymous sexual contacts and one-night stands is increasing, while condom use is decreasing. Men are also no longer going for HIV and STI tests as often, and we are seeing an increasing rate of positive test results. Russia is now one of the few countries in the world where the number of new HIV infections continues to rise.
How should we react to this development?
It is important that projects like LaSky are preserved. Our task is to create an environment for gays that enables them to stay in Russia so that we can also work with them. It all looked pretty good at first, because some foreign foundations had promised us financial support. But then the war with Ukraine began.
Now the whole world is against Russia, and many international foundations and major donors are withdrawing from the country or have announced their intention to do so. But our prevention work is not possible without financial support from abroad, because we have nothing to expect from the Russian government.
