How long has the situation in Russia been on your radar?<\/b><\/p>\n
For a couple of years. Probably longer than it\u2019s 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\u00a0 in Russia.<\/p>\n
When did the idea for this particular project first come about?<\/b><\/p>\n
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\u2019s from Russia and lived outside the country for years and she\u2019d 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 \u2018OK, I\u2019ve gained a certain level of rights here, I\u2019m able to marry someone that I love, but conversely they are really going backwards in Russia.\u2019 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 \u2018Well I\u2019m not a great a talker but I\u2019m a better writer, so I can send you something and you can tell me what you think.\u2019 And she sent me what she\u2019d 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\u2019s 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\u2019s how it came it about.<\/p>\n
You put the book together in just two months. Why was it so important to have it come out during the Olympics?<\/b><\/p>\n
Public attention is fickle.\u00a0 This has been a big story for the last six months, but part of the reason that it\u2019s been a big story is that Russia is hosting the Olympics. But it\u2019s 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\u2019s press is looking at Russia.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s your hope for the book to achieve in Russia and around the world?<\/b><\/p>\n
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\u2019s actually a pretty big call. We have this little scheme where it can be downloaded for free in Russia. There\u2019s a special page where people can download the Russian version in PDF for free, and that went live last week and it\u2019s already been downloaded a couple thousand times. So we know there\u2019s appetite, there\u2019s 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.\u00a0 It\u2019s 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.<\/span><\/p>\n For people reading this book and people seeing what\u2019s going on, what can they do to help?<\/b><\/p>\n There\u2019s 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\u2019s something called the Russia Freedom Fund that\u2019s dedicated specifically to that. I think there\u2019s 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\u2019re not going to be able to stay. Because most people that we\u2019ve been talking to feel that things are going to get worse.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n RUSSIAN LOVE STORIES<\/b><\/p>\n Edited by MASHA GESSEN and JOSEPH HUFF-HANNON<\/p>\n Foreword by GARRY KASPAROV<\/p>\n Available now at OR Books<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"Gay](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/posturemag.com\/online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/shirt.jpg\")
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