Two Stories from Russia
In the interview that accompanies this month’s gallery, Polari talks to Russian photographer Andrei Vishnyakov about the evolution of his photography. In the last week, two stories about what it means to be gay in Russia were featured on Pink News.
The first story was about how police detained a group believed to have been staging a gay pride parade.
“Ria Novosti reported yesterday that more than twenty right-wing joggers took to the streets of Sovetsk, a small town in the Baltic exclave, carrying Romanov flags of black, yellow and white emblazoned with the words ‘Russians choose sport.’
An anonymous phone tip-off apparently alerted police to an unsanctioned gay pride march.
The group was released when the nationalist organiser assured officers they were not rallying, but gathering for a sporting event.”
In the second story, it was reported that a gay air steward for the Russian carrier Aeroflot was forced to marry a woman in order to keep his job.
“GayRussia.eu reported that campaigners had filed notice of a demonstration after gay employee Maxim Kupreev suffered unusual kind of discrimination by his employer.
When Kupreev, 25, tried to found a gay support network at the airline, he was seemingly ordered to marry.
The gay steward tied the knot with his school friend Sofia Mikhailova so he could keep his job at the end of last year, reportedly to minimise publicity for his attempted LGBT network.”
Gay pride suspicion stops nationalist jog
Gay Aeroflot steward ‘forced to marry woman’
