Gessen Masha - Gay propaganda: Russian love stories: edited by Masha Gessen and Joseph Huff-Hannon = Propaganda gomoseksualizma v Rossii

This book comes at a really important time. Theres nothing like putting a human face on the struggle for acceptance and equality. Love conquers all.

Greg Louganis, quadruple Olympic gold medalist

The most potent weapon in the fight against anti-LGBT prejudice is the reality of who we are instead of the caricatures presented by our opponents. The bigots who seek to censor our reality by banning gay propaganda understand this. So do Masha Gessen and Joseph Huff-Hannon. Projects like theirs are the most potent weapon in the fight against anti-LGBT prejudice.

Barney Frank, one of the first openly gay Congressmen in the U.S., retired

By shining a much-needed light on the common humanity of those brave gay men and lesbians seeking to go about their daily lives in Russia, or those who have made the difficult choice to leave, this book puts the lie to the malicious stereotypes currently being spewed by the Russian government.

Roberta Kaplan, lead counsel in United States v. Windsor, the Supreme Court case which overturned the Defense of Marriage Act

Hundreds of straight athletes from around the world have joined the effort to advance LGBT respect and equality. Every one of them will appreciate the importance of this project. This book is much needed and couldnt come at a better time.

Hudson Taylor and Lia Parifax, founders, Athlete Ally

MASHA GESSEN is an award-winning journalist and author of many books, most recently Words Will Break Cement: The Passion of Pussy Riot (Riverhead, January 2014). She is a lesbian mother who has left Russia because of the anti-gay laws.

JOSEPH HUFF-HANNON is a celebrated campaigner and writer who has been published in The New York Times, The Guardian, Salon , and elsewhere. He works with the international advocacy group Avaaz.org. He is one of the founding campaigners of global LGBT rights group, All Out.

Gay Propaganda brings together original stories, interviews and testimonials to capture the lives and loves of LGBT Russians living both in Russia and in exile today. It is an intentionally provocative riposte to Russias recently passed and ill-defined ban on homosexual propaganda.

As part of a strategy to consolidate political control in Russia following massive pro-democracy protests that shook the government, President Vladimir Putin decided it needed an enemy to unite the country. The Kremlin opted to demonize gays and lesbians. In June 2013 Putin signed a bill banning the propaganda of so-called non-traditional relationships. Predictably, in the months that followed, anti-gay attacks spread across Russia.

The stories gathered in Gay Propaganda offer a timely and intimate window into the hardships faced by Russians on the receiving end of state-sanctioned homophobia, as well as the the humor, passion, and resilience people show in the face of adversity. Here are stories of men and women in long-term committed relationships as well as those still looking for love; of those raising kids or negotiating difficult family dynamics; of those facing the challenges of continuing to live in Russia or joining a rapidly growing exodus.

2014 Masha Gessen and Joseph Huff-Hannon

Published by OR Books, New York and London

Visit our website at www.orbooks.com

First printing 2014

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher, except brief passages for review purposes.

Cataloging-in-Publication data is available from the Library of Congress.

A catalog record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978-1-939293-35-0 paperback

ISBN 978-1-939293-36-7 e-book

This book is set in the typeface Minion.

Text design by Bathcat Ltd. Typeset by Lapiz Digital, Chennai, India.

Printed by BookMobile in the United States and CPI Books Ltd in the United Kingdom.

* Names marked with an asterisk have been changed by request of those interviewed

Russia has been sliding steadily into dictatorship since Vladimir Putin first came to power in 2000. Along with the crackdown at home, Putins Russia has become an active force for corruption and despotism well beyond its borders. But when it comes to standing up to Putin, leaders and pundits of the West alternate between indifference and feigned helplessnessso its a rare moment when an issue cuts through this cycle.

To paraphrase Tolstoys opening line in Anna Karenina : all dictatorships are unhappy in their own way. Putins Russia is not the USSR, but the fact that Russians are free to leave doesnt mean they are free. Putin is no Hitler, but even though no one can be compared to the Nazi monster of World War II, there are important lessons to learn from how Hitler was enabled by his own people and the world when he was merely an esteemed leader in the 1930s. Perhaps such lessons are just too painful.

Dictatorships also have many things in common, and patterns are repeated from place to place and era to era, as each generation of autocrats seeks to abolish individual freedom and hold on to power at all costs. These regimes become less effective as they run out of positive agenda items and so must pursue purely negative ones. This isnt merely a matter of power corrupting, or the rare tyrant with benevolent intentions failing to fulfill the needs and desires of his subjects. The problem is, simply put, a lack of communication with the people. An authoritarian administration may competently enact an initial plan or resolve an existing crisis, but without the feedback loop of democracy, moral and intellectual stagnation is inevitable. In Putins Russia this point was passed long ago, with the instability and violence of the Yeltsin years used as a pretext to crack down on every sort of political and personal freedom.

Another shared characteristic of authoritarian regimes is how they respond to that lack of a positive agenda by creating enemies against which they can bravely protect the citizenry. These enemies, internal and external, are also inevitably to blame for many of the nations ills, but scapegoating is not an essential element. Fear mongering and hatred are good enough to start, and when backed by a massive propaganda campaign, they can be effective in distracting people from the real problems of the economy, security, and lack of a voice in the face of oppression.

The best enemies are those against whom historical conflicts can be resuscitated. For a KGB man like Putin and his clique, its been most natural to drum up anti-Americanism, preying on old Cold War memories. Another popular target are those members of society who cannot effectively fight back, the outsiders and minorities who are already under great pressure due to the decay of civil society. Here Putin has again followed the old playbook by attacking Russias fragile gay community, both officially with discriminatory laws, and unofficially by failing to protect them from harassment and violence.

In a curious twist of fate, one of Putins grandiose pet projects has brought this pathetic assault into the global spotlight. The 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games, a festival of corruption and cronyism intended to highlight Putins power and wealth, has instead drawn attention to this institutionalized bigotry, and the attack on free speech promulgated by Russias anti-gay-propaganda laws. Its a delicious irony that two practices historically beloved by dictatorshosting big international events and persecuting minoritieshave again collided in this fashion. The 1936 Berlin Games served as a showcase for Nazi power, and their unchallenged success boosted Hitlers confidence in his ambitious plans. Though Jesse Owens refuted Nazi racial theory in the heart of Germany at the 1936 Olympics, Owens personal heroics werent matched by the many world leaders who fawned over Hitler and his well-orchestrated spectacle.