in Russia, the LGBT community lives in fear

Yan Dvorkin’s life changed on November 30, 2023. When the Russian Supreme Court classified the international LGBT movement as “extremist”. No one knows what this movement is, but Yan Dvorkin, director of Center T in Moscow, an association helping transgender people, understood that if a judge decided that he was part of this movement, he risked ten years in prison so he fled Russia. “I understood immediately, as soon as I read the news”he says.

“On television, he cited the work of Center T as an extremist organization. My husband and I left, literally after the announcement, without waiting for the court, because I had the feeling of a threat. “

Yan Dvorkin, director of the T Center in Moscow

at franceinfo

For years in Russia, the LGBT community has regularly been stigmatized and suffered repression from those in power, but things have gotten particularly worse recently. The Russian government advocates a return to traditional values ​​in its opposition to a West considered decadent. Since the start of the war in Ukraine, laws have been piling up, such as the ban on LGBT propaganda in November 2022 or the ban on gender transitions in July 2023.

“I’m afraid to wear certain clothes”

The Supreme Court’s decision has definitively opened the floodgates of repression. Now the entire community is targeted, even in its private circles, as shown in a report by the NTV television channel broadcast in February: “In the Leningrad region, officers broke up a provocative party in a country housesays the presenter. Inside, they found several dozen young people who could not immediately state their gender.” Hooded and armed police officers burst into the middle of a birthday party and shout “hands in the air”.

The results of the operation led to the seizure of some medicines and a rainbow flag, symbol of the LGBT movement which is banned in Russia. It is unclear whether there have been any criminal charges, but the signal is clear to the entire community. Jenia, a young transgender man from Moscow, admits that he is afraid when he goes out. “I’m afraid to wear certain clotheshe says. When you know that a girl was sentenced to prison for rainbow earrings, you’re like, ‘Oh my God! Now it can happen to me too!’ You have to be careful when talking to strangers because someone may seem friendly to you and then boom, something happens and in this case you will be less protected because of these laws.”

“Don’t you agree? Go abroad”

A climate of fear maintained by denunciation practiced at the highest levels. In April, Duma deputy Alexander Khinstein publicly named the education minister of his Samara region, who he claims is in a homosexual relationship with an aide, by publishing photos of the two men on vacation. “The gay lobby in the Samara region has put its rainbow paws on children and it’s scarydeclares Alexandre Khinstein. Such people should not come near our children. People who raise our children should promote traditional Russian values. You do not agree ? Go abroad.”

The minister denied being gay, but resigned. This “departure abroad” advocated by Khinstein, this is the choice that many members of the LGBT community have made. Vlad participates in drag queen shows. An increasingly risky activity in Moscow. He was once attacked leaving a show. “I don’t see the future in Russia as bright and happy”confides Vlad.

“What I want to do in life, what I really love, I can’t do normally. I can’t write on social networks either. So I can’t imagine myself in Russia in the future with current laws.”

Since his exile abroad, Yan Dvorkin of Center T continues his psychologist consultations remotely. He says that his patients are doing badly, some are attempting suicide. The future of the Russian LGBT community seems completely blocked and everyone is wondering what the government’s next invention will be to increase repression.