Sometimes the absurd details are what stand out the most when Russians describe the effects of the new and ill-defined anti-gay "propaganda" law on everyday life.


One gay couple I spoke with, newly arrived
in the U.S., recently posted photos to
Facebook of their wedding day at New York
City Hall. Their parents back in Russia sent
them congratulations, and so did the elder
sister of one of the grooms, but she had to
wait until evening to look at the pictures
online, after her children had gone to sleep.
"After all, it's illegal in Russia: You can't
show the kids," her brother told me.

Another Russian, a journalist who was
recently fired from his job after he came
out, described the rhetorical gymnastics that
his former network had to engage in to
report on the Cannes Film Festival earlier
this year without mentioning that the
winner of the Palme d'Or, Blue Is the
Warmest Color , is a steamy lesbian romance.

Thus is the work of trying to make LGBT
people in Russia invisible, carried out by
President Vladimir Putin's ruling party. The
new law banning "homosexual propaganda,"
passed in June, has only been applied a
handful of times to date, but that's enough:
Individuals and institutions change their
behavior accordingly so as not to run afoul
of it. But like most heavy-handed attempts
at prohibition, the law is also triggering a
powerful backlash, uniting the Russian LGBT
community in new ways, out of necessity
and solidarity, and making outspoken
activists out of people who previously lived
their lives quietly and under the radar.

For some other LGBT Russians, it's pushing
them to speak out in a different, more
intimate way -- sharing the details of their
love lives, the ups and downs of their
relationships, memories of their first kiss --
making public the parts of their lives that
are, under current Russian law, now illegal
in the telling. These are the stories that I
and a colleague, Russian journalist Masha
Gessen, are chasing down right now: love
stories from LGBT Russians living in Moscow
and smaller cities all over the country, and
from Russian émigrés around the world, who
make up an increasing flood. We're
collecting them in a book, Gay Propaganda,
which will be published in both English and
Russian on the eve of the controversial 2014
Olympic Winter Games in Sochi.

We know that Russian publishers won't
touch it, and Russian bookstores won't sell it
for fear of fines or worse, but we're going to
try to get it passed around and distributed
as widely as possible in Russia, including via
a free e-book download. It's ironic: In the
same way that the upcoming Winter
Olympics are likely to be the gayest
Olympics ever thanks to all the controversy
surrounding the "propaganda" law, it's also
inspiring an outpouring of Russian LGBT love
stories.

This also happens to be a very personal
project for both Masha and me. Masha is
making plans to move her family out of
Russia by the end of the year, for fear of a
proposed new law designed to take kids
away from their parents if the parents are
gay, something she's written about recently.

My boyfriend was born in Moscow, and
though he's lived most of his life in the U.S.,
we've talked about going to visit sometime,
but circumstances being what they are, it
increasingly doesn't feel like a very desirable
option. You get used to certain things being
out and open, to being able to book a hotel
room together without needing to use some
cover story, to not having to lie to friends or
family or new acquaintances about who your
partner is or what they mean to you, to
holding hands occasionally in bars and cafés.
Cynical politicians are trying to erase the
reality of millions of Russians, but they're
also learning that reality is slippery, and
that like Princess Leia says in Star Wars ,
"The more you tighten your grip..., the more
star systems will slip through your fingers."
One Russian woman whom I interviewed for
this project told me that she thinks that 25
or 30 years from now, when we look back at
this moment in Russian history, it'll be seen
as the moment that the fight really began. I
certainly hope she's right. In the meantime,
may a thousand LGBT Russian love stories
bloom. Long live gay propaganda.


If you're Russian, either living in Russia now
or living abroad at least in part to live out
and openly, and have a great love story to
tell, I'd love to hear from you. Email me at
joseph.huffhannon@gmail.com with a bit
about yourself.

Ishilove: King darling, are you gay?

GSKing:

Yes, Lesbian.

I sincerely hope it doesn't change anything.

Ishilove:
You're female??

GSKing:
Yeah I guessed right. You thought otherwise!

Ishilove:
Wow!! How long have you being gay? Do your family know?

GSKing:
you want to derail my first thread shey? okay...

#as long as I've lived

Ishilove:
Wow...

GSKing:

wasn't expecting "wow"...
already took a sit, waiting for your bible passages

Ishilove:
Nah. I leave that to the Holy Spirit

GSKing:

okay! you sound like my parents!