But the chain later pulled the ad after being attacked by conservative activists, some of whom cited the "gay propaganda" law. In July, a health-food chain called VkusVill produced a commercial featuring an LGBT couple. Some Russian businesses that have embraced marketing using progressive messages - for example, showing multiracial groups of people or even same-sex families - have come under withering abuse from nationalist and conservative groups in recent months. "When this didn't work, they canceled the whole festival." "Orthodox 'activists' and the siloviki tried to expel my friend, the writer Oksana Vasyakina, from the Tula literary festival simply because she is a lesbian," Serenko wrote on Instagram. However, Daria Serenko, a local feminist activist, said the event was canceled due to the fact Vasyakina was due to take part, and she blamed in part local security officials, known informally as "siloviki."
The organizer of the event, the Tula History and Architectural Museum, said on its website that it was cancelling the event "due to the epidemiological situation with the coronavirus." The museum did not explain what it meant. The incident in Yaroslavl came two days before a literary festival in the Tula region, south of Moscow, was canceled because of numerous complaints about the participation of a lesbian writer, Oksana Vasyakina. "And this was happening on the stage while underage children were present," said Sidorin, the local head of an organization for veterans who served in the North Caucasus.
Igor Sidorin, who witnessed the display, said in a Facebook post that he was so shocked that he filed a police report. It wasn't preplanned or agreed upon because they knew we wouldn't allow it," Derbin said.
Their trick was a surprise for all of us. "Initially, the event was to be upbeat and positive. In contrast to Palachev, the director of the Dobrynin Palace of Culture, Igor Derbin, said he and other leaders of the theater were " outraged" by the performance. Russian Rights Group Warns That Detained Gay Men Face 'Mortal Danger' In Chechnya In Chechnya, a mainly Muslim region in the North Caucasus, the situation is particularly dire, say LGBT activists, who accuse Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov of targeting sexual minorities, including the use of abductions, torture, and extrajudicial killings. Since then, LGBT-rights campaigners and hate-crime researchers have reported a notable uptick in violence and harassment against gays and lesbians, often from conservative activists or those espousing Orthodox Christian beliefs. Rights defenders say bias has been encouraged by a law targeting "gay propaganda," which President Vladimir Putin signed in 2013. Homosexuality was decriminalized in Russia in the 1990s, but LGBT people have faced varying degrees of discrimination over the years. The performance in Yaroslavl is just the latest example of rising homophobia and intolerance toward minority groups in Russia, a trend that appears to be worsening in part because of seeming official indifference to such displays. "What's the problem? They just don't like" gay people, Andrei Palachev later was quoted as telling reporters, using an offensive slur for gays. Not the head of the paratrooper club, who, judging by his remarks afterward, saw nothing wrong with the homophobic display. Many in the crowd were shocked by the display during the August 29 performance in the city of Yaroslavl. Teenagers garbed in camouflage fatigues and military cadet attire took to the stage at a local theater northeast of Moscow, showing off their martial skills as part of an anniversary celebration for a local patriotic military club.Īs an unsuspecting audience looked on, the men hoisted a shirtless colleague above their heads, placed a concrete block on his stomach that suggested gay people should be killed, and proceeded to smash the symbolic object with what appeared to be a sledgehammer.