In quest for freedom, gay man leaves Russia for new life in Philly

[Jefferson23]

If sanctions are not applied the Russian government will not change.


The Winter Olympics in Sochi have put a spotlight on some of Russia's more controversial domestic policies. The Russian law banning "propaganda" supporting nontraditional sexual relationships has come into particular focus.

Passed in June, the measure limiting public discussion of LGBT issues has been broadly enforced.

One of the first gay Russians to flee the country and be granted asylum in the U.S. since the law passed has landed in a new life in Pennsylvania. To get there, he journeyed from Russia to Cuba then on to Mexico, where he found his own way to the spot he'd identified on Google Maps to cross the Rio Grande.

He walked into the U.S. about 2 o'clock in the afternoon. Spotting a mounted camera, he walked directly toward it and found a patrol car.

"I went over there and I asked them, 'Is this American territory?' They said yes, this is America. So at that point I said I'm here to seek political asylum," recalled the man who asked that his real name not be used in this story.

http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/local/item/64906-in-quest-for-freedom-gay-man-leaves-russia-for-new-life-in-philly?linktype=hp_topstory

[blkmusclmachine]

1. The US/UN won't do squat, because they don't want to upset the apple cart!

[Jefferson23]

2. The political will is not there, true..not yet. The most egregious law has not been

passed. If the Russian government proceeds successfully to remove children from their
parents who are gay, this will cross the line. It would be such a massive abuse of
human rights. For one, I am hoping it does not pass, for the children will be traumatized
and there will be chaos over their parents trying to get them the hell out of Russia.

Russian government will not care, imo, who condemns them, they have a corrupt
government who controls the texts used in their school system which pushes all the
bigoted stereotypes which equate homosexuality with pedophiles. But they will care
if their trade agreements become threatened, they will care a great deal.

When I am critical of Russia, for me it begins with their governments corruption, who
gets elected and how...citizens and their supporters, such as Pussy Riot are very brave
and have been successful at keeping the focus on that corruption. Unfortunately there
needs to be more in order for Russia to hear the world say, you have crossed the line
with your state sanctioned bigotry. Sanctions are the ticket, and more pressure
should come as a result of the focus on the Olympic games. I realize many do not
support Russia having them, but I disagree. If they had not, there would be much
less world focus on such laws. There will be a G8 in Sochi in June...time to place
as much pressure on the issue as possible by stories such as this one.

Many gay Russians are trying to leave, seeking asylum, this will continue because
they are literally afraid for their lives and for their children. Those stories must
be highlighted in the press..world wide. The Russian LGBT community has a long
road ahead, as you know they need world support before this situation becomes
much worse. Without sanctions, I am afraid for them.

[Jefferson23]

3. Inside the Iron Closet: What It's Like to Be Gay in Putin's Russia

Strangers at the Gate

Sunday nights in St. Petersburg are Rainbow Tea Party time. If you're young and queer and hopeful, it's the happiest way to end a weekend. An actual tea party. There are also cookies and—at LaSky, the HIV-awareness center that often hosts the event—more brightly colored giant beanbags than chairs, plus a lot of posters of hunky bare-chested men with floppy hair. There are many, many rainbows, on stickers and pins and brochures, and a rainbow curtain covering a strange little door in the corner.

The door leads to a club called Bunker, which is really a maze, twisting through the rest of the building's vast basement. It's dark; you have to feel your way through. The men who go to Bunker—many or maybe most of them "straight" men, married men, says the bartender—are looking for bodies, not faces. They don't want to see or be seen, only to touch and to be touched in a place where nobody knows them.

Those are the choices: light or dark, tea or poppers, a well-lit game of charades or a grope in the dungeon. Sweet or sordid, it doesn't matter: In Russia now—in the throes of a fever stoked by the Kremlin—both must be hidden. They are not hidden well enough.

One evening in November—the city center like a bowl of pastel candies, Orthodox onion-domes rising above it like spun sugar—two strangers found their way to LaSky. They walked down a long street between a busy road and a canal until they came to an arch in a building. They went through the arch and down a dark alley before they arrived at an unlit empty parking lot, blacktop crumbling. Here they may have stopped to put on their masks. They crossed the lot toward a stand of scrub trees and weeds and took a left down a narrow path, then down an even darker set of uneven stairs to an unmarked steel door. The strangers stood at the threshold.

It was Rainbow Tea Party night. A woman named Anna asked who was there. "We're looking for our friend!" replied one of the strangers. They shoved past her. In the hall, a man named Dmitry Chizhevsky was looking for his jacket. Behind him was a girl I'll call Rose, a few weeks shy of her eighteenth birthday. Rose glanced toward the door: two men wearing ski masks. "Then," she says, "they started shooting." Chizhevsky: "The first bullet came into my eye. The first, the very first." Rose: "I had a thought in my head—maybe I should do something, maybe I should scream." Chizhevsky: "I can remember more closely what was audio." Pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, he recalls hearing. Five, he thinks. He says he remembers the sound of the bullet hitting his eye.

in full: http://www.gq.com/news-politics/big-issues/201402/being-gay-in-russia

[Jefferson23]

4. Human Rights Watch:

The Facts

Forced evictions
The Russian government is resettling some 2,000 families to make way for Olympic venues and infrastructure. But not all of those evicted received fair compensation for their properties and in some cases, homeowners were forced out with no compensation at all. Many resettled residents lost a portion of their livelihoods because they depended on agriculture or income from seasonal rentals in their seaside homes.

Migrant worker abuses
The transformation of Sochi from a small resort town to international Olympic host has been made possible by more than 70,000 workers, including tens of thousands of migrant workers from outside of Russia. Many of these migrant workers face exploitation – with employers failing to pay their wages, confiscating workers’ passports, and forcing them to toil up to 12 hours a day with only one day off each month – all in violation of Russian law.

Press and civil society crackdown

http://www.hrw.org/russias-olympian-abuses