I am a lot of things. Right now I am discovering myself, but I know the exact scope of my identity: 

I know that I am French-Georgian,

I know I’m a woman

I know I’m a lesbian.

I know I’m an artist.

It took me a long time to say this, but now I know.

Sweden

Before moving to Sweden, I lived in France for 12 years. Leaving my ex-husband’s house coincided with the pandemic. Like many, the isolation made me face myself. Suddenly, I was all alone with my piano. It came in waves. I wrote so many songs. At some point, at the age of 37, I decided to do what I couldn’t when I was 17- to leave, start living alone and find myself.

I chose Sweden for various reasons. I wanted to be close enough with my child. I wanted to be in an English-speaking and queer-friendly country. So I left everything and came here. I wanted to set aside a small room for my art, but financial problems arose. It is very difficult when you have a child and you are the only one responsible for them. This is a topic that women don’t talk about – how their ex-husbands and partners, famous or unknown, do not visit their children. It all falls on mothers. Motherhood is a role. Everything around me is arranged so that I abandon my art, leave, and return to ordinary life. I am partly back- the reality is that I come home exhausted from work; there is less time to write or sing.

The stage 

I grew up in Gonio, by the sea, on fig and tangerine trees. My grandfather used to stand under a tree and shout to me: “Come down! The branch is soft, it will break, it is not reliable”. I was my grandparents’ girl until I was 5 years old, and then I went to live with my parents in Kobuleti.

“It took me years to realize, the ‘crush’ I had on a girl, when I was 15, was real.” 

I had a special relationship with my father- we always quarreled and all. I inherited the love of music from him. He relaxed while listening to the music from the 60s. He had huge collections, concerts numbered by years, favorite groups. He used to teach me how to distinguish music: “Now listen to the drums, now to this…”. Nowadays our opinions may differ, but not our love for music. Yet my father will not like the music I make. I ended up as a “pop” singer in the end.

I made my first steps while on stage. I was a member of Kobuleti student-youth home. My sister and I, dressed as twins, were always singing something, mostly Georgian folk songs.

Then I got married at the age of 17 and had a child. Period.

In order to return to the stage, I had to go through something that only women are subjected to. When you have a heteronormative family, you only have the time and investment to sing if you have a guaranteed salary and the children need less attention. Consequently, I stepped back on stage when I got my teacher’s license and I gave myself permission to do so.

Being trapped in Hetero life

It wasn’t like I woke up one day and discovered I liked women. It’s just that before I started asking myself questions, I was already married and in a serious relationship. There are a lot of women like me. I did not choose to get married. I didn’t know there was a choice—that I could have been in a relationship with anyone, regardless of gender; I could have been fluid, or bisexual.

“I wouldn’t trade my coming out for the world. I do not regret it for a second, but no one can say that everyone must have the will to do it.”

The end of my second marriage was a turning point for me. Before that, I was stuck in a straight life for 20 years. It took me many years to realize that when I was 15 I had a crush on a girl, and it was a real crush. Finding words in a heteronormative environment is difficult. You don’t know what to call it. I didn’t have a strong gender preference early on, so it took me a long time.

Before giving yourself the validation, of at least not being a heterosexual, you have to go through a lot. You often ask stupid questions, because you don’t know any better. When I get asked such a question now, I start seeing myself, I start thinking that I was once there, just like them, looking for proof, thinking that my identity had to be realized through some physical act. This is something only queer people face.

The pressure

Now I am 38. Before I turned 30, I was already out to all my friends, as a bisexual. Like many gay people, I also identified that way in the beginning. I wrote to my parents that I was one of the people; they wanted to put on a ship, take to the sea and sink. My father answered that he no longer thought like that. He must have remembered how passionately I protected the queer community in my youth, before realizing that I was a part of it.

“Be, but don’t say” – if you are told this, it means that being a lesbian is shameful. I am very angry about all this. I wonder what I should be ashamed of? […] Shame should change the camp.”

In general, a family emotional blackmail is the worst kind of blackmail. “If you don’t do this, I’m going to die” — this kind of pressure doesn’t just apply to queer people. In my case, it was the most difficult part.

I do realize that my parents are in a very tough position. There is a lot of pressure on them – I know who their relatives, neighbors, friends are, how many of them are openly homophobic. My parents don’t have a safe space, where they are supported. After I made my public coming out, some relatives wrote to me, some disappeared. I found out that people had deleted me from Facebook; some I deleted myself. I wonder if I’ll ever go back to my village. On one hand, I might be pleasantly surprised, and have a great time, but there is a real threat that someone might physically kick me out.

Going back into the closet

“Be, but don’t say” – if you are told this, it means that being a lesbian is shameful. I am very angry about this. I wonder what I should be ashamed of? I have never stolen anything from anyone. I take responsibility for all of my actions. I have never betrayed my words. I am the sole guardian of my child. When I look at what men get away with, I am sorry; but should I be the one ashamed? Whom did I hurt? It’s a shame to mooch off your mother at the age of 40; It’s a shame when parents and children need you and you don’t help them; It’s a shame when you’re not worth anything; It’s a shame when you don’t pay alimony to your child; It’s a shame when you act irresponsibly at work. There is enough shame to go around, but the threshold for men is much higher. I think shame should switch teams.

Family members who accepted me, did so until I introduced them to my girlfriend and/or a spouse. Everyone is very accepting, until you go on a date. Even those who have some level of acceptance do not understand what you mean when you say the word “lesbian”? Why are you going public?

This is what we call “going back into the closet” in activism.

“Why should I not talk about my personal life? Sorry, but all straight people do it very easily. For example, she says that her husband did something, and she says this without having to suppress a million worries in herself.”

When I was “on the other side”, I also had this privilege, and not for a second did I ever think whether or not I should mention my husband.

As a public servant and a teacher, I thought for a long time whether students should know that I am a lesbian. This year, one student asked me: “Madam, do you have a husband?”. I answered that I am a lesbian. Once, the children were fighting and one shouted at the other: “Gay! gay!”. I turned to him and said, “Are you calling me?”

A woman who decides to give herself the room

Institutions such as the family or other hierarchies that have women under control want to keep them in the dark. A woman who is not interested in a man is a dangerous woman. I felt this with all intensity. A man who sees that he has no chance to flirt with you must have something very bad to say to you. He’ll call you hairy and think that he’s insulted you. I use sarcasm and irony as a defense mechanism.

Just like Virginia Woolf said, when a woman decides to get a room for herself, everyone tries to push her back into motherhood. Back in it as in responsibility. How, you want to write? That must mean, you are a bad mother. I can’t remember anyone saying the same thing about fathers, even if they are pursuing their careers, although they might be fully absent from their kids’ lives, if you don’t count the toasts, of course. I think there is a legion of women stuck in their marriages, unable to leave. Women who were never able to come out, because men are controlling them- what will the father, husband, brother, son say?

Look at who is on stage, who they applaud, who they listen to. I love it when male artists say that gender doesn’t matter. Then you go to their Facebook profiles and 95% of it are sharing each others work. They teach each other in universities; they include each other in the syllabuses; they support each other. But when push comes to shove, they all oppose quotas, supporting someone just because they are a woman?! It’s as if they haven’t been doing exactly that for centuries. We’ve been at it for ages; look at all the literary prizes, the music industry, the roles, the distribution — when it comes to power, where there’s money, there’s men. And as soon as you’re a threat because you’re refusing to give up, especially if you’re queer, you are told to shut up and say thank you for getting somewhere with the quota thrown at you.

***
Getting out and making yourself visible to people means you exist. Your existence threatens the existing hierarchies. So everyone prefers to be in the closet, which in my case means not writing lyrics, not writing songs, not writing blogs, not writing podcasts.
But I am my word
I am my song
I am my texts
I am my podcasts
I am my clothes
I am my appearance.

And three years ago, when I was still in the closet, all these things that I value most in myself, today, I was not.

Whether I am a good singer is up to others to assess, yet, to be honest, I don’t think my songs are bad. Just for a moment, imagine that a popular song written by a hetero man or a woman didn’t exist, just because the singer was straight. Imagine that queer community is the dominant part of society saying: “Oh god, why don’t you straight people just sing at home!”. When someone says “Do whatever you want, but for yourself alone”, what they mean is: you must not exist.

“No path a queer person chooses to live is wrong. If you are scared to come out, well, I am no example. I’m not asking anyone to come out. But I wouldn’t trade my coming out for anything today. I don’t regret it for a second, but no one should say that everyone must have the strength to do so. You can not demand anyone to be this brave.”

I was very affected when “Batumtumelebi” asked me for an interview in September of last year and I said that my mother doesn’t know. I said it half ironically, although it was completely true. Then I realized I couldn’t. You stand there on stage in front of queer people who come to your concert and listen to you, look at you, and you say: Oh, don’t photograph me, don’t tag me. Don’t spread me… but you need that to record an album. But the mother does not know. This is no way to live.

No path a queer person chooses to live is wrong. If you are scared to come out, well, I am no example. I’m not asking anyone to come out. But I wouldn’t trade my coming out for anything today. I don’t regret it for a second, but no one should say that everyone must have the strength to do so. You can not demand anyone to be this brave.

Humans deal with it as best we can, and once again, shame should change camps.
I do what I can. I need this.
I do this for myself. So that when I turn 60, I can say- wELL, darling. I am a lesbian artist and you can kiss my ass!

Wine, Duduk, women and club Jujuna

I had no idea I wanted to do a podcast. I couldn’t allow myself to do that before. I started writing a book two years ago, but since I did my Coming Out, the story has taken me to a completely different place. Now it’s more than obvious that the text will be about coming out and love for queer people. Before that, I had all of this locked up.

They scare you that they’ll call you a “lesbian” singer. Let them! I decided to answer: Thank you! What an honor to be addressed this way.

I think this whole straight community has a lot to learn from the queer community. I encourage everyone to keep an eye on our podcasts and content. If they listen to queer advices on sex life, their relationships might survive.

Along with the podcast, we also make online content. My co-sister, Natia, takes care of culture and memes. We also opened a club called “Jujuna”. This, friends, is a kind of circle where we give sex advice. One big deconstruction every hetero couple needs. From us, they can learn about couple dynamics, sexual relations, dating and well-being. I would personally recommend that they get a little queer in their hetero relationship as well. Let them relax a little and enjoy life more.

Sister

Dao is an activist song. I love it and I’m proud of what I did, although it’s not my best song. The clip was released with the support of the Women’s Foundation and I am very happy.

I have my own notes on production, but everything was done on a very activist level; we put our heart and soul into it as much as we could.

Making an album is my dream. I have a few beautiful songs ready for it. I want to sing about loving women. And I want to do it with words and formations I love the most: by crossing Georgian-National-popular-Fanogi (Georgian national musical genre). No one should expect me to be a good and reliable artist that Tea Tsulukiani might like. I will be vulgar, express protest, and anger. But there are some things that are sacred to me – Georgian folklore is my great love, and I treat it carefully. For example, in my video I am wearing a Chikhti-kopi (a part of the old Georgian clothing, a headdress) with pride. It’s a small detail, there’s nothing special about it, but I’m so lucky that I’m a lesbian and I’m wearing it. It’s a blessing for me and for those teenage kids listening to and writing to our podcasts from their “closets”.

I came out for those kids. I came out because I used to be that kid. First and foremost, I am singing for that little girl, who dreamt of girls at night, but thought that she had to become a boy to make that dream come true. And then I sing for all the other queers, who are everywhere, yet hiding in “closets”. It is to them that I want to say; Oh my God, we exist. Whether it’s through songs or podcasts, I want to show them that being queer is a blessing!

To others I would like to say that this is who we are, people. We are your children, sisters, aunts, and we are normal human beings.

I’m Gocha Gabodze, 32 years old, queer activist. Currently, I work in the political party Droa, where I am the secretary of social politics.

I am interested in people, especially different people.

Childhood

I grew up in the 90s, in Tbilisi, in a communal style house, with no electricity and gasification. However, I still remember that period and mutual support well – TV series, music, the search process… I had a happy childhood, even though it was accompanied by economic hardships.

Queerness is an innate human condition, it’s just that different people call it their name at different times. As a child, I didn’t think it was necessary to highlight and advertise it, I thought it was already clear.

I used my less masculine voice, for example, as a form of self expression. This is the age when people perceive differences with special intensity, although it did not hinder me. I had very close classmates and they always supported me, we joked with each other sometimes, but it didn’t feel like bullying. I also really liked to laugh at myself and I think it’s a good quality to be able to joke about yourself. Maybe it was a kind of tactic. Now I don’t use it anymore, I don’t need it, but when I saw people trying to make fun of me, I started to make fun of myself and it always paid off.

At the same time, my interests have always been related to art: I drew, I loved music, I watched movies, I read magazines, I was a collector… Elton John, Madonna and her queer-friendly creations were a big thing for me, and Freddie Mercury, Queen were a source of inspiration. Art was the medium through which I got answers to the questions I had as a teenager. Back then the only TV representation of queer people was in Latin soap operas. Now there is Netflix, where, in my opinion, a bit exaggerated, yet somewhat accurate representation of queer community, so this is no longer secretive. 

As a teenager, when you are alone and searching for answers, you still wonder why you are not like everyone else. Everyone probably has depression related to this, but I had supportive people by my side – friends, teachers. There are frequent stories when the opposite happens, but I have a good experience. There were teachers in the school who tried to teach us to communicate and respect each other despite our differences, and this continues to this day. Family may not give a person as much as school and friendship, therefore, I believe that public schools are of special importance, and teaching is the profession that should raise citizens and create a society based on correct values.

Pink glasses

Coming out happened at the age of 20-21. When people start asking questions you either pretend or answer. In my case, I answered. I never like leaving any room for gossip. I already had a blog at that time, where I used to write about issues that interest me to this day- about people, who differ due to their circumstances, this has always been the subject of my interest. Even whenI look at my childhood paintings, there are no typical men and women, I made abstractions where I almost never assigned gender. People had no gender, and I liked that neutrality.

I met other queer people back then. There was Facebook and open or anonymous blogs, and these were the spaces where queers wrote their own stories, and it was a way for me to become friends with them. There were spaces where we gathered; this strengthened our psychology at the time; new relationships were formed; one meets new people, and the anxieties they have disappear. We empowered each other, even without realizing it. We left these meetings with a different attitude than we had in society. We were happier and more free, as if we left our masks outside and the boundaries that others had put in place were temporarily abolished.

We were mostly teens, who generated some kind of content online, and this was a way to widen our vision, it was as if I had put on pink glasses. The government at that time was also intolerant, although there were also queer-friendly people who made such a position with public statements, so I had illusions that, yes, there are problems in some part of society, but they can be solved. I thought that what I saw in people even on May 17, 2013 was unimaginable .

May 17th

I faced reality for the first time on May 17, 2012, when I was doing an internship at Radio Liberty and covering the May 17 march. A parishioner of a certain church saw the procession and a counter-demonstration was organized in half an hour. I could see how queer activists started disappearing – the police, who were supposed to neutralize the counter-demonstrators, tried to silence the queer activists. However, on the second day, it was still possible to hold some kind of rally.

Then it was May 17, 2013, which still haunts me to this day. Then, in fact, seconds saved our lives. I was there as an activist. Perhaps we should have been more organized, but we did not fully understand the risks that were on the other side.

“It was the most difficult experience of my life – I could see a huge crowd coming towards us and even though they were holding crosses in their hands., they were ready to do unimaginable things to us”

Then the state and the church decided to show their strength. In this case, the queers were mere conduits and excuses for the conflict between these two powers. Different groups are used for this purpose periodically, in the 90s this group was ethnic minorities and the public’s contempt was directed towards them. At that time, thousands of Georgian citizens, representatives of the ethnic minority, left the country and went through the most difficult history. Subsequently, this propaganda was transferred to queers and a new demon was created. Dictatorial regimes need an enemy icon that is often changeable and a tool to control the masses. Our governments are not far from it either and choose this type of politics. The state did not protect us there, and it was deliberate, concerted behavior.

It was the same on July 5th, which was orchestrated by the security services. Whenever we get involved in public activities, we can feel state security services breathing at the back or our necks. They wiretap us and tail us with cars, this is the same agency that controls these violent groups. These groups are called skinheads, Georgian march, Alt-info. They are just projects created by the government to control the masses and spread propaganda. 

More than activism

Georgian queer activism has been developing before my eyes since 2011. There were meeting spaces before, but they became public in 2011, when we planted flowers on Mtkvari. Since then I have participated in all activities in some form.

“Queer activism is very heavy in the sense that there is always a counterbalance to the state fighting you.”

Instead of being focused on consolidating the community and strengthening it, you have to react to many issues that you would not have to react to if the state was supportive. Therefore, we are still talking about almost the same topics that we talked about for the first time when I got into a queer organization. More precisely, we can no longer talk about what we used to talk about – marriage equality, the right to adopt, the experiences of other countries in this regard. Today, these topics are taboo for queer organizations. Based on the current reality, today queers have to deal with severe socio-economic problems, and all these are secondary tasks. When your basic needs are not met, you can no longer afford to dream of equal rights.

Internalized homophobia is very common. I think we need to help each other grow stronger and the best way to overcome this internalized homophobia is to share our experiences. Every story is different, one person’s path may not be an example for another – there are different experiences in regions, ethnic minorities, disabled people, different families, but sharing it has some effect.

Societal stigma isn’t just about queer people. When I saw that other groups had similar barriers, I started to fight for my rights and other people’s rights, to stand in solidarity. For years, I have been working on the issues of disabled people in a working and activist way, on which I have accumulated a lot of knowledge. I believe that solidarity is the way that makes society, community much stronger. On May 17, I also saw disabled people at demonstrations, and this mutual solidarity of different groups, sharing of each other’s experiences, I think is very important.

The experience may be different, but the problem is always the same. For me, this is also a form of activism, when you don’t think that you should only fight for your own rights – you should fight for others too, it strengthens the community and helps you grow personally.

Droa

A person is not created to serve the state, the state is created to serve a person and it should be equally oriented towards all people. There should not be privileged and less privileged groups. When it comes to human rights, socio-economic problems, the state should be an instrument to fulfill people’s goals and dreams.

We are different people and it is with this difference that we strengthen each other, our wealth is in diversity.

I think that Georgian culture is also tolerant, even in “The Knight in the Panther’s Skin”, even in Georgian legends we can see many such ideas that became valuable for Europe after the Renaissance. With our value system, we are no different from the developed society. Those stereotypes, which are taken as national values today, are twisted.

Queerness is not a set concept and we should be involved in all activities of society, including politics. I think queer politics is important and relevant in current reality For me, the political union Droa was a combination of a value system in which I saw myself, opportunities and a way to change, because the priority for us is the person. Today, as the social politics’ secretary of this party, I am working on studying the needs of various groups, which will be reflected in the party documents as well as in the election programs that we are going to present to the voters.

We want to have an evidence-based politics: we consult research from various organizations, public defender reports, conduct surveys and in-depth interviews to then propose our solutions to the electorate, among whom we want the queer and disabled communities. Election programs should be person-centered and voters should know in advance, precisely, how they will improve their lives, it should no longer be reduced to slogans. These slogans are also very often just poetry with less content. The main driving force for us is people and offering new ideas and beliefs to these people.

The first steps must necessarily be changing socio-economic politics. Queer people face barriers to education, employment problems, especially when they come out, many employers shy away from hiring them. Also, a disabled person may have a university degree, but the company refuses to hire them just because they do not have adapted bathrooms. People may not be able to use many years of work because there is no state policy to make spaces available for everyone and not just for specific people. Even health politics, where queers face a lot of discrimination. You have to go to specific places to get any services, and you’re constantly looking for a queer-friendly doctors, which is unbelievable. People are leaving the country, many of my friends are emigrating, and on the path of integration into the European Union, such a large flow of emigration is a big problem for the country.

Georgia should be the center of gravity in the region. It should be a free country where all people can realize their potential. It is impossible to live in this country otherwise.

Every day is a new opportunity

I would tell queer people not to spend their time thinking that something will not work out for them and that their identity will be a barrier. Yes, we all go through tough times, but it makes you stronger. Giving up on yourself is a bigger problem than learning to love yourself, even in small steps.

Not everyone has to be out loud about their sexual identity one day, but everyone should have spaces of comfort. People should never give up on their goals and dreams, and every day is an opportunity to take one step closer to that dream.

“I left Russia on February 27, due to the start of a full-scale war with Ukraine. I was planning to emigrate before, but I had to leave immediately. I had not been to Georgia before, I arrived for the first time on March 29”, –  tells us 34-year-old Dania Nazarova, who currently lives in Georgia,. She is a quality assurance engineer by profession.

Life in Georgia

According to her, she has not faced any major issues in Georgia yet, except social isolation and getting used to new living conditions, which are a part of emigration. 

Dania says that soon after the war started many queer people have left the country just like her. She still does not have enough time and resources for regular communication with strangers in Georgia, therefore she does not know many queers here.

“I hardly know the queer community here, but I managed to connect with a few people and it was a very nice experience. I am also subscribed to local queer organizations and try to stay up to date. Unfortunately, I could not attend the Tbilisi Pride events in the summer.”

She does not have any plans for the future. She feels free here and is very grateful for this. She also understands well that Georgian citizens feel threatened by Russians and Russia’s aggressive politics.

“Georgia is the most beautiful country I have ever seen. I believe that the territories occupied by Russia should be returned to Georgia immediately,”- she says.

Family and coming out

When it comes to coming out with herself, Dania tells us that she has never had any kind of turning point. 

“It’s always been normal for me that people can love each other regardless of their sexual orientation and gender identity,”- she says.

For Denmark, it is very sad and sometimes difficult to hear the stories of people who thought they were sick or that they had to change and become “normal”. This was not the case for her.

Her family knows about her orientation, she never hid her relationships, and as soon as she started a somewhat serious relationship with a girl, she told everyone. She claims, that her family has never been aggressively homophobic.   

“I’ve never heard from them that gays should be burned or put in prison, but they wanted me to have a “normal” family,”- she says. 

She mainly communicates with his mother, who perceived the relationship between Dania and her lover as a phase that would end for a long time. She thought that they were just “friends”, but Dania never accepted the situation and always pointed out that they were a couple.

“She used to tell me that me and my partner had a fake family, that it was time to think about getting a “real” one, get married and have children. It has been years so I no longer feel burdened by this topic. As for my father and brother, they have never satiated their opinion on this matter,”- says Dania when talking to Queer. 

Being queer in Russia

“It was extremely difficult for me to live in the Russian reality. You always feel the pressure and you know it will get worse,” Dania tells us about life in Russia.

She laments that everything activists have done in the last 10 years has failed to stop Putin’s fascist regime, and every year more and more brutal laws are implemented.

“Queer people are under constant pressure and discrimination, thus it is very hard to keep what is yours or even keep going. Years ago I was diagnosed with anxiety depressive disorder. Many queer people I know are in similar situation.” 

Dania is not sure that she can call herself an activist, but she always lives openly and periodically participates in projects that aim to increase the visibility of queer people.

Dania says Russia’s laws make activism dangerous.

“The law regarding propaganda is repressive and the state uses it as a tool to increase pressure on activists.” 

Dania tells us that in the Summer of  2022 a lot of famous people came out in Russia. Among them was a tennis player Daria Kaasatkina, who now resides in Spain. Her agent, Sophia Tartakova, who was a TV presenter was fired for openly supporting her. 

In addition, Dania says that Nadezhda Karpova also spoke about the orientation, and became the first Russian football player to come out.

Dania tells us that in addition to homophobia, transphobia, misogyny, and sexism are widespread in Russia, including among non-heterosexual people, and this had additional negative  affect on the  queer community. When asked about the attitude of the Russian people towards LGBTQI people, she uses statistics and says that according to the annual discrimination survey, the level of human rights violations based on sexual orientation and gender identity has increased from 16.6% in 2014 to 78.4% by 2020.

“As a rule discrimination manifests in working spaces. In 2020, 15% of respondents reported being the victim of abuse, humiliation, appearance regulation by employees, harassment, threats, refusal to hire LGBTQ people, wrongful dismissal, forced resignation, or other incidents involving sexual orientation or gender identity, whether accidental or intentional. caused by exposure”.

Dania sais that women and queer people earl less money then men worldwide. So she, of course, felt discriminated against. 

“There are places where women are still forced to wear makeup and skirts at work. I no longer have to face these issues while working remotely”- She says. 

It is hard for her to answer the question regarding safely walking in the streets, but she says that not many people feel safe in Russia and that trans people are the most vulnerable. She said that she had never encountered homophobia herself. 

“In April 2017, thanks to a series of publications by the Russian LGBT Network and the independent media, Novaya Gazeta, it became known that the authorities and law enforcement officers of the Chechen Republic harassed, illegally imprisoned and tortured LGBT people, and some were killed because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

In March 2021, St. Petersburg police arrived at one of the events, where at least 10 teenagers between the ages of 12 and 18 were arrested. They asked the children and their parents for explanations regarding their participation in the LGBTQI event.”

Dania says there are also known cases of forced psychiatric treatment and long-term domestic violence against queer people.

“LGBTQI people are victims of sexual violence and blackmail by their male relatives and family members.”

They  also tell us about recent arrests and fines related to the use of LGBTQ symbols in Russia. for example: 

The activist says that in the summer of 2022, the Russian State Council will submit several more draft laws on “rejection of family values” and “propagation of non-traditional sexual relations”. The authors of the document claim that the rejection of the family as a social value, the so-called Promotion of a childless lifestyle and “promotion of non-traditional sexual relations” are no less dangerous for the development of Russian society as “propagation of non-traditional relations among minors”, which is already prohibited by law. 

Dania tells us that after the start of the war in Ukraine, LGBTQI activists in Russia close their offices for security reasons, leave the country, but do not stop their activities.

Attitude towards Russian occupation

According to Dania, she communicates mainly with activists and leftists, and everyone in this circle has an unequivocal opinion that Russia should immediately return the occupied territories, as well as listen to the indigenous people of Siberia and other regions and, if necessary, give them the right to a legal referendum on secession from Russia.

“Many more people in Russia do not support the government’s actions than the television shows”.

Dania Nazarova notes that since February 24, 2022, many people have been arrested in Russia for their anti-war stance, cases have been opened against them, and some have been prosecuted.

“People never stop protesting, but Putin’s dictatorship still holds strong.”

Despite everything, the activist is still optimistic and notes that progress cannot be stopped. According to Dania, there are many more open and courageous queers among young people. She sees the future in them.