trending on Twitter right now. Lots of Russians are coming out. Many of them are under 18, and they give zero fucks about stupid homophobic laws. Those brave teens give me so much hope. Please be safe, and never lose your heart!
Today, 1 month later, the top tag in the country is #МЫЗАЛГБТ (#WESUPPORTLGBT)
Keep it up, compatriots, that’s a good thing you’re doing.
January 2016: there’s another surge of LGBTQ-themed posts on twitter, and the tag is trending nationwide again.
That might be related to the upcoming Duma vote :( let’s keep it going! Every ounce of support helps!
Additionally, I’m sure there are other avenues to offer aid, but the one I know off the top of my head is to purchase the song Uprising of Love by Melissa Etheridge, getting it’s title from the LGBTQ+ rights movement of same name; proceeds go towards those negatively affected by the Duma legislation and homophobic rhetoric being spread. The message of the song is powerful, as is the aid your purchase provides.
Everyone, please sign it. Please help us stopping this awful law that would actually criminalize being openly LGBTQ in Russia!
Good news: Duma has rejected the draft law!
The petition above has become the largest and most successful among the LGBTQ rights petitions. Thank you for helping us win this one!
However, the bigger fight is far from over, as the censorship established by homophobes in power still exists, and even though being LGBTQ is not a crime, it is still pretty dangerous to publicly come out or even show support for LGBTQ in Russia.
April 2016: “LGBT follows Russia” is the top Russian tag trending on Twitter, and the movement seems even bigger this time!
May 17th and 18th: LGBT-themed Russian tags trend at the very top nationwide for 50 hours non-stop. The record is broken. It even gets into news on other social networks.
June 3rd: #LoveIsLove and #Pride2016 trend as №1 and №2 in Russia even though we cannot legally have our own Pride parades (yet).
Wow, you guys
The year is 2016
Pride parade DID happen in St. Petersburg on the Palace square this summer. No arrests, everything went okay (probably because there were foreigners as well, and the Palace square is a popular tourist location)
YABLOKO, a Russian social liberal party, has officially included LGBTQ rights in their election promises
The infamous homophobic law was repealed in St. Pretersburg, thanks to YABLOKO
An openly gay man and LGBTQ rights activist is running for the State Duma
13th September 2016: there was a protest in St. Petersburg near the barbershop that had decided to deny its services for gay folks. The protest went perfectly well, although the barbershop still hasn’t changed its policy.
Cool, unfortunately these things are not really spread in mainstream media that’s why a lot of people don’t hear about these things but overall this and ha fact that these things were not followed by exec more pressure gives me hope that we are moving in a positive direction.
