Author| Oscar Lopez
As the eyes of the world turn to Russia it is not the grace of its skaters or the strength of its skiers that has focused the global gaze. Rather, it is the controversial ‘Gay Propaganda’ bill signed into law by President Vladimir Putin that has drawn our focus. The bill banning the “propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations” among minors, has become the basis for nationwide discrimination and violence directed at the country’s LGBT community. Now a new book has been released that seeks to defy this laws and grant a voice to those that have been silenced by the discriminatory legislation. Titled “Gay Proganda: Russian Love Stories,” the book presents intimate interviews and first person accounts of everyday Russians who speak not only of the difficulties of living in Russia as an LGBT person, but also of the triumphs of love in the face of oppression. Posture’s writer Oscar Lopez sat down with the book’s co-editor, award-winning journalist Joseph Huff-Hannon, to gain further insight.
How long has the situation in Russia been on your radar?
For a couple of years. Probably longer than it’s been for most people. I used to work for an organization called All Out which is a global campaign community for LGBT rights, and we had started getting involved back in 2011 and 2012 when laws were being passed on a regional level in Russia. We started working with groups, in particular in St. Petersburg, because that was where there was a first push to pass this law in a major city. And we campaigned around that, and I made some relationships with people and saw it for what it was, which is really a way to attack free speech and shut down campaigning not just for LGBT rights but human rights more broadly. So I would say at least a couple of years. And then the whole thing got a lot more attention this summer when the law was passed in Russia.
When did the idea for this particular project first come about?
That was late summer last year when I was getting to know some people who were part of this emerging community in New York, this network of Russian activists. I would hang out with them, and I thought about maybe writing a magazine piece or a feature article. This one woman told me that she had never been an activist and this was her first time getting involved in the issue. She’s from Russia and lived outside the country for years and she’d recently been married this summer to her partner after the DOMA case was overruled in the Supreme Court. And she just felt very sorry that ‘OK, I’ve gained a certain level of rights here, I’m able to marry someone that I love, but conversely they are really going backwards in Russia.’ And I thought that was interesting not just her motivation but also the story of how she and her wife got together and also just the idea that it could be illegal to tell that story in Russia. So I asked her if we could get together some other time to do a longer interview and she said ‘Well I’m not a great a talker but I’m a better writer, so I can send you something and you can tell me what you think.’ And she sent me what she’d written, which was really descriptive and very touching and raw, really good but needed editing off the cuff. And I thought, how cool would it be to put a book together with a ton of stories like this. From there I reached out to a Russian publisher and reached out to my co-editor [Masha Gessen]. We had figured out in first couple weeks, A) if we could do it in time for the Sochi Olympics and B) what’s the format, are we going to just do interviews or ask people to write. And we quickly realized that a lot of the people we wanted to talk to were not necessarily great writers – these were everyday Russians. And so we thought it would be better to have professional journalists, including Masha and myself, to interview them, and that’s how it came it about.
You put the book together in just two months. Why was it so important to have it come out during the Olympics?
Public attention is fickle. This has been a big story for the last six months, but part of the reason that it’s been a big story is that Russia is hosting the Olympics. But it’s a little bit unpredictable to know what kind of audience there will be towards this issue after the fact, after the Olympics have come and gone and the media cycle changes. Now I feel like, and I think Masha agrees, that it will still be a big story and there will be a lot of nasty stuff that will happen after the Olympics. A continued crack down. And a lot of civil rights groups have gotten behind it. But we wanted to capture some of the energy and the attention from the Olympics when the world’s press is looking at Russia.
What’s your hope for the book to achieve in Russia and around the world?
We want people to read it. I mean, again, the fact that it would be illegal to distribute the work in any official channel in Russia, that’s actually a pretty big call. We have this little scheme where it can be downloaded for free in Russia. There’s a special page where people can download the Russian version in PDF for free, and that went live last week and it’s already been downloaded a couple thousand times. So we know there’s appetite, there’s an audience. I think also to have something out there, stories that feature everyday life, more sort of universal representations of people and their families. It’s a bit of a counterpoint to a lot of the victim narratives that have come up, which is natural I think, but I think it needs to have something there as well, just first person testimonials of people telling their own stories, not just having it told by Anderson Cooper.
For people reading this book and people seeing what’s going on, what can they do to help?
There’s a couple of things. People can continue to pay attention even after the media packs up and leaves the country after the Olympics. I think people can give money, there are some funds that are actually giving directly to LGBT rights groups in Russia. There’s something called the Russia Freedom Fund that’s dedicated specifically to that. I think there’s going to be a ton of people, maybe even thousands of people, moving to the US as refugees, as asylum seekers because they are going to realize that they’re not going to be able to stay. Because most people that we’ve been talking to feel that things are going to get worse. Very likely will pass a law to take away kids from gay families in Russia, right after the Olympics. So anyone who has kids will have to start thinking pretty seriously about getting out. So I think trying to find organizations that are supporting new arrivals, helping them integrate, to file asylum cases. I think those are all really great ways to help.
RUSSIAN LOVE STORIES
Edited by MASHA GESSEN and JOSEPH HUFF-HANNON
Foreword by GARRY KASPAROV
Available now at OR Books.
You can see more of Joseph’s work here.
