영어번역사시험 준비 Russia to Gays: Get Back into the Closet(09.05.19)
Being gay is not supposed to be a crime in Russia. Homosexuality wasdecriminalized in 1993; six years later, the law that sent gays andlesbians to psychiatric wards was annulled. But Russia would stillrather have its homosexual citizenry invisible — and silent. NikolaiAlexeyev knows that very well. He's just been released from jail fortrying to organize a gay-rights demonstration in Moscow.
Alexeyev, 31, had decided to stage a gay-pride march to takeadvantage of the spotlight Moscow was enjoying for playing host to the Eurovision finalsover the weekend. "We want equal rights. We don't want to bediscriminated against," the director of Gayrussia.ru said a couple ofdays before the parade. "Many Eurovision fans are gay, and they will bewatching what happens to us." Wary of the government of Moscow's openlyhomophobic mayor Yuri Luzhkov (a similar march two years ago hadsomehow ended in violence as neo-Nazis and religious groups attackeddemonstrators), Alexeyev used guerrilla tactics and, at the lastminute, moved the parade from Moscow's center, farther north to SparrowHills. (Read about the results of the 2009 Eurovision finals.)
At the same time, an anti-gay demonstration sanctioned by Moscow'sgovernment was taking place near a metro station in the central part ofthe Russian capital. Protesters held up signs saying, "Moscow is notSodom." Vladimir Terechenko, a refrigerator repairman, said he tellshis sons repeatedly that if they come out as homosexuals he will killthem. "Homosexuality is the end of civilization. They are pale, theyare sickly, and they smell," he said. He echoes the opinions ofLuzhkov, who has said homosexuality is a disease that needs to betreated, has called gays satanic and has vowed that there will never bea gay parade in Moscow. Despite the violent beliefs and the hatefulmessages of the anti-gay protesters, they were left untouched byRussian riot police, who sat meekly in their vans during thedemonstration. (See pictures of Russia celebrating its military might.)
Not so at Alexeyev's march. There, an estimated 30 protestersunwrapped rainbow banners and chanted for less than half a minutebefore Moscow riot police rounded up and arrested everyone involved.Alexeyev, who came to the parade accompanied by a man in a bride'sdress, was swiftly carried off by riot police. One woman, who wassurrounded by cameras, was grabbed by riot police as she was givinginterviews, her shirt torn on the way to the police bus. PeterTatchell, a British gay-rights activist, flew to Moscow for the event.He was speaking to reporters before he too was arrested. "This showsRussian people are not free," he told reporters.
Alexeyev was held overnight in prison and was interrogated for hoursat a time. "The psychological pressure was overwhelming," he told TIME."This was by far the worst treatment from the police that I have everreceived." He has been arrested four times since starting Gayrussia.ruin 2005. Still, Alexeyev says he will not stop until gay and lesbiancouples have the same rights as all other Russians. "We want the rightto adopt children and the right to get married." His work has come at aprice. When he came out at 22, he was in the middle of pursuing amaster's degree in law. But when he announced that the topic of histhesis would be gay-rights legislation in Europe, he was expelled. Sayshe: "There is a homophobic totalitarian past in Russia, while in thepresent, there is this huge influence of the Orthodox Church, andRussian authorities are doing nothing to stop homophobia."
In between protests, Alexeyev works with human-rights lawyers todefend gay rights within Russia's bureaucratic court system. Last weeka lesbian couple in Moscow was refused the right to get married;Alexeyev plans to take the case to court. He has had some success withlegislation. Last year his activism helped change a law that barredgays and lesbians from donating blood. Alexeyev speaks regularly to gaygroups outside Moscow to promote his message of equal rights. "Moscowand St. Petersburg is one thing," he says. "There are clubs andcommunities [in the big cities,] but being gay in a Russian small townis scary."
The fear is pervasive. In Moscow, Viktor, 28, says, "My family doesnot know I am gay. I am open about it to anyone that asks, but I wouldnever tell my parents. I don't know what my mother would do, but I knowmy father openly hates homosexuals." Like many gay men, Viktor didn'twant to attend the parade on Saturday. "I just want to be treated likeeveryone else, and going around and screaming I am gay isn't going tohelp me." Says Sergei, who is married to a woman but advertises forliaisons with men on gay dating sites: "Being gay is just notconsidered normal like in the West. In Russia there are just no good[gay] role models. No normal people who happen to be gay."
If Alexeyev had hoped that the Eurovision finals would help hiscause, he was wrong. The events were treated with an awkward silencefrom Eurovision organizers. The Dutch team had threatened to pull outof the competition if the parade was banned, but the team did notqualify for the finals. And the Norwegian winner, Alexander Rybak,patronizingly told a press conference, "I think it's a little bit sadthat they chose to have the protest today. They spent all their energyon that parade, while the biggest gay parade in the world [an allusionto the campy performances of the contest] was tonight." (See a recap of Eurovision through the years.)
Nevertheless, Alexeyev tries to find a silver lining to thesuppression of his march. "We changed the location of the march at thelast minute so that we wouldn't be attacked by anti-gay groups likeprevious years," he says. "This is the first year that no one wasseriously injured in the parade." In gay Russia, that counts for anachievement.
영어번역사시험 준비 Russia to Gays: Get Back into the Closet(09.05.19)
