Young and gay in Putin's Russia.

                                                      A powerful new film has highlighted the increase in homophobic attacks in Russia ahead of the Sochi Winter Olympics following the passing of an anti-gay ‘propaganda’ law.
The film, ‘Young and Gay in Putin’s Russia’, from a VICE News film released in partnership with Stonewall, found that homophobia was ingrained in everyday people in the street, with one even comparing homosexuality to zoophilia.

In June, President Vladimir Putin signed into law a bill punishing people for homosexual ‘propaganda’.

The law imposed fines on those who disseminate information aimed at minors ‘directed and forming non-traditional sexual setup’, or which may cause a ‘distorted understanding’ that gay and heterosexual relationships are equal. Activists and celebrities have repeatedly called on Mr Putin to repeal the law but to no avail, while there have been calls to boycott Sochi.
Only on Friday, Mr Putin said that gay people would be welcome at the Olympics, but in a sign of the persecution the homosexual community is under in the country, he said: 'They must leave children in peace'.
Last week, the powerful Orthodox Church – of which approximately 64 per cent of Russians identify themselves as – demanded one step further, calling for a national referendum on criminalising homosexual relationships altogether, a return to a Soviet law enacted by Stalin.

‘The one reason the law was installed in the first place was to please the Orthodox majority,’ explained Milène Larsson, a UK-based journalist originally from Sweden.
‘He [Putin] is looking for enemies. In Russia, homosexuals and gay rights activists are labelled as foreign agents.
‘You have such a vast majority of people who are Orthodox who potentially feel this way, those are his voters, that he is not going to step back and say “actually gay people are ok”.'
The video highlights the abuse that homosexuals receive in the streets, with activists regularly attacked.
They have gone to extraordinary lengths to protect themselves from persecution – from both official channels and neo-Nazi vigilante groups. The gay community has their own taxi service, while there are LGBT self-defense classes. There are also videos on YouTube held by activists, such as NIkita Gurjyanov, who has teaches gay people how to protect themselves from such groups.

Ms Larsson, who filmed the documentary along with Olga Kravets, told MailOnline that she was particularly struck by the attitudes and reaction of everyday people in the street.
‘What I was particularly struck by was talking to a random person on the street, who in a very calm voice says they can’t be like Europe, “we have our own traditional conservative values, and at the moment in Europe, they’re legalising paedophilia, they’re legalising zoophilia, they have zoo brothels”, and this guy just looked like a regular professional on the street.

posted by Emanto Ngaloru  Jan 18, 2014.