page_title: LGBT culture in Russia
hierarchical_section_title: LGBT culture in Russia
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Logo des Moscow Pride English: Logo of the Moscow Pride
context_page_description: Although life in modern Russia allows many more liberties for gays and lesbians than it did before the Revolutions of 1989, unofficial discrimination and fear are still rampant. "It would be foolish to interpret some new freedoms as tolerance," said Igor Kon, a sociologist who is Russia's best-known expert on sexual practices, and author of The Sexual Revolution in Russia. Gay life in Russia is less open than in Western countries. With more quickly growing acceptance, major cities like Moscow and St Petersburg now have LGBT clubs and venues.
  In 1989, 31 percent of the Russian population said in polls that homosexuals should be executed, and 32 percent said they should be isolated. Only 12 percent said they should be left alone. The figures are shifting slightly, however: in 1994, 23 percent in a poll said homosexuals should be killed, 24 percent said they should be isolated, and 29 percent said they should be left alone.
  "What everyone here knows -- gay or straight -- is how to have a private life that is different from their public life," said David Tuller, an American journalist and author of Cracks in the Iron Closet: Travels in Gay and Lesbian Russia.
context_section_description: Although life in modern Russia allows many more liberties for gays and lesbians than it did before the Revolutions of 1989, unofficial discrimination and fear are still rampant. "It would be foolish to interpret some new freedoms as tolerance," said Igor Kon, a sociologist who is Russia's best-known expert on sexual practices, and author of The Sexual Revolution in Russia. Gay life in Russia is less open than in Western countries.  With more quickly growing acceptance, major cities like Moscow and St Petersburg now have LGBT clubs and venues.
  In 1989, 31 percent of the Russian population said in polls that homosexuals should be executed, and 32 percent said they should be isolated. Only 12 percent said they should be left alone. The figures are shifting slightly, however: in 1994, 23 percent in a poll said homosexuals should be killed, 24 percent said they should be isolated, and 29 percent said they should be left alone.
  "What everyone here knows -- gay or straight -- is how to have a private life that is different from their public life," said David Tuller, an American journalist and author of Cracks in the Iron Closet: Travels in Gay and Lesbian Russia. "In the West we would call that living a lie," he said. "Here they don't think that way. This is not a talk-show culture. Nobody is ever going to appear on television to talk about wanting to sleep with short men or tall women. They just want to be able to have their lives and not be bothered. For people here that would be a big step."
caption: Moscow International LGBT Pride Festival was first celebrated in 2006 and was the subject of the documentary Moscow Gay Pride '06.
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