

Modern gay life in Russia is in the process of increasing openness. Men who had been imprisoned began to be released.
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In 1993, a new Russian Criminal Code was signed, without Article 121. The fall of the USSR accelerated the progress of the gay movement in Russia. The Moscow Gay & Lesbian Alliance was headed by Yevgeniya Debryanskaya and Roman Kalinin, who became the editor of the first officially registered gay newspaper, Tema. Under Mikhail Gorbachev's administration, the first gay organization came into being. Among those imprisoned were the well-known film director Sergei Paradjanov and the poet Gennady Trifonov. Female homosexuals were sent to mental institutions.Īrticle 121 was often commonly used to extend prison sentences and to control dissidents. The new Article 121, which punished muzhelozhstvo with imprisonment for up to 5 years, saw raids and arrests. Under Joseph Stalin, the Soviet Union recriminalized homosexuality in a decree signed in late 1933. In the wake of the October Revolution, the Bolshevik regime decriminalized homosexuality.

Application of the laws was rare, and the turn of the century found a relaxation of these laws and a general growing of tolerance and visibility. Men lying with men was interpreted by courts as meaning anal sex. In 1832, the criminal code included Article 995, which stated that "muzhelozhstvo", or men lying with men, was a criminal act punishable by exile to Siberia for up to 5 years. The first laws against homosexuals in Russia came about in the 18th century, under the reign of Peter the Great, but only in military statutes for soldiers. Medieval Russia was apparently very tolerant of homosexuality, with foreign visitors to the country surprised by displays of affection between homosexuals. Gay show in Saint Petersburg, 1900s photo by Karl Bulla. For people here that would be a big step." They just want to be able to have their lives and not be bothered. Nobody is ever going to appear on television to talk about wanting to sleep with short men or tall women.

"In the West we would call that living a lie," he said.
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"What everyone here knows - gay or straight - is how to have a private life that is different from their public life," said David Tuller, an American journalist and author of Cracks in the Iron Closet: Travels in Gay and Lesbian Russia. The figures are shifting slightly, however: in 1994, 23 percent in a poll said homosexuals should be killed, 24 percent said they should be isolated, and 29 percent said they should be left alone. Only 12 percent said they should be left alone. In 1989, 31 percent of the Russian population said in polls that homosexuals should be executed, and 32 percent said they should be isolated. With more quickly growing acceptance, major cities like Moscow and St Petersburg now have LGBT clubs and venues. Gay life in Russia is less open than in Western countries. "It would be foolish to interpret some new freedoms as tolerance," said Igor Kon, a sociologist who is Russia's best-known expert on sexual practices, and author of The Sexual Revolution in Russia. Moscow International LGBT Pride Festival was first celebrated in 2006 and was the subject of the documentary Moscow Gay Pride '06.Īlthough life in modern Russia allows many more liberties for gay men and lesbians than it did before the Revolutions of 1989, unofficial discrimination and fear are still rampant.
