1 in 5 Russians want gays and lesbians ‘eliminated,’ survey finds

[VogueMusic]

1 in 5 Russians want gays and lesbians ‘eliminated,’ survey finds

Elizabeth Kuhr

 

Nearly 1 in 5 Russians want to “eliminate” gay and lesbian people from society, according to a new survey, a finding that has incited fear and anger among LGBTQ activists in the country.

“There is this feeling you are targeted, and that 18 percent believe I should be eliminated is just awful,” said Svetlana Zakharova, an out lesbian living in St. Petersburg. “It was very emotional.”

The survey, published this week by the Levada Center, a nongovernmental research organization based in Moscow, also found that 32 percent of respondents wanted to “isolate” gay men and lesbians from society, compared to 9 percent who wanted to “assist” them.

One of the researchers, Ekaterina Kochergina, said she and her team wanted to measure the “social distance” — which in this context is unrelated to the global pandemic — between the Russian population and groups considered by some to be “deviant.” In addition to sexual minorities, the survey looked at how ostracized feminists, pedophiles, terrorists and people living with HIV/AIDS are from Russian society.

“The more unfavorable, the more social distance between us and them,” Kochergina explained.

Kochergina acknowledged moral concerns about the phrasing of the questions and the selection of identities included in the survey. She said the use of the word “eliminate” in the survey means “to make something disappear from your reality,” not to physically destroy people, and that the questions were about identity groups as “phenomena.”

“A lot of people in Russia would not want to see gay people existing,” said Kochergina. “Not necessarily to kill them but to have a society where this does not exist as a phenomenon.”

The survey, which polled over 1,600 people from 50 Russian regions in face-to-face interviews, was part of the Levada Center’s ongoing research for its “Soviet Man” project. Started in 1989, Soviet Man aims to document the changing social perspectives of Russian people since the fall of the Soviet Union.

“The idea is to try to understand what is the ‘Soviet person,’” Kochergina said. “It’s an archetype.” She said that while perspectives on social issues are evolving, some Russians still harbor negative opinions of people who are different. “Other means dangerous,” she explained.

Zakharova, who serves as a board member and the communications manager for the Russian LGBT Network, the country’s largest LGBTQ organization, said the Levada Center’s survey was damaging and could trigger more hatred in a nation where “the level of hatred and violence … toward different groups” is already “very high.”

“These questions published read ‘how to deal with those people,’ and there is the answer: ‘liquidate,’” said Zakharova, who thinks the language used should be illegal. “It’s not about phenomena for me; it’s totally about social groups.”

Kochergina chalked the 18 percent up to Russians “who are very aggressive toward anyone who is marked as ‘the other.’” These people, she said, would vote to “eliminate” or “isolate” anyone different from themselves.

Zakharova, however, fears that the wording of the survey questions, particularly the “eliminate” one — even if it was not intended to mean physical elimination through violence — will lead Russians to believe that this is in the realm of possibility.

“It is very scary and very worrying,” she said, adding that there are anti-LGBTQ Russian “groups that are very active and very aggressive and very visible, and they feel supported by the government.”

Russia passed a law in June 2013 that bans distributing information on LGBTQ relationships and issues to minors. Under the legislation, also known as the “gay propaganda law,” any act or event that authorities deem to promote homosexuality to children is punishable by a fine. After the law passed, the country saw an increase in anti-LGBTQ violence, according to a 2014 Human Rights Watch report.

In a 2019 Russian LGBT Network poll, more than half of the LGBTQ people surveyed reported experiencing at least one type of violence or abuse due to their gender identity and/or sexual orientation: 56 percent reported experiencing psychological abuse, 12 percent reported physical violence and 4 percent reported sexual abuse. Over the past several years, there have also been a number of disturbing reports of state-sponsored detention, violence and torture against gay and bisexual men in Chechnya, a semiautonomous Russian region

“The state gives the signal that LGBT people are not real people, that they are second- or even third-class citizens,” Zakharova said. “This is scary.”

Despite reports of increased violence and the enactment of the “gay propaganda law,” Kochergina said the situation has improved over the past three decades, when the Soviet Man project first started.

“Things from a political point of view have become worse, but still somehow Russian consciousness tries to be better,” she said, noting that in 1989, the survey’s first year, 35 percent of those polled wanted to “eliminate” gays and lesbians, compared to 18 percent in the latest findings. This year’s Soviet Man survey also found 79 percent of Russians want to “assist” people with HIV/AIDS, an increase from 53 percent in 1989.

“It’s nice to see that actually the willingness to see homosexuals, to accept them, is actually rising,” Kochergina said.

She pointed to a separate survey released by the Levada Center last year that found Russian attitudes toward LGBTQ people — while still predominantly negative — have improved, especially among young, educated women. Twenty percent of last year’s participants said they completely agree that gay men and lesbians should have equal rights in Russia, compared to just 7 percent in 2013 when the “gay propaganda law” was passed. The 2019 data also found that those with gay and lesbian acquaintances have more positive attitudes toward sexual minorities.

While Zakharova said the situation for the country’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer community is indeed dire, the Russian people are “not as homophobic as authorities or federal mass media try to portray them.” While the government may be treating the community worse, she added, the situation on the whole “is slightly changing for the better.”

 

https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/1-5-russians-want-gays-lesbians-eliminated-survey-finds-n1191851

[runa]

I'm pretty sure you would get the same numbers elsewhere, tbqh, even in USA. 

[Kilt]

Russians have bigger fish to fry than eliminate LGBT people. That country is going down the shits at an alarming pace with increasing poverty rates and disproportionate inequalities between regions.

[horn]

It's funny none of the western countries government e.g. UK/Germany/France/Canada/Australia/Spain etc, not even US or Trump administration, dare to accuse Russia lack of human rights.

You don't see them accusing Middle-Eastern countries having no human rights AT ALL either. In addition, Trump is telling the world Saudi is his friend.

And yet all of them are accusing China lack of human rights.

A bunch of hypocrites.

[elijah]

4 hours ago, runa said:

I'm pretty sure you would get the same numbers elsewhere, tbqh, even in USA. 

Absolutely wrong. Putin has done all he can to demonise gays and this is a direct result of his rule. He has been targeting half of

Europe with disinformation about gays and the moral degradation of the west (he is aligned with ultra conservatives from the west too). And it pains me to admit his hybrid war against the west succeeds in Eastern Europe. EU should wake up and expose him for what he really is.

[IsaacHarris]

21 hours ago, runa said:

I'm pretty sure you would get the same numbers elsewhere, tbqh, even in USA. 

You would especially in the United States of Donald J Trump

[IsaacHarris]

On 5/2/2020 at 4:55 AM, VogueMusic said:

“A lot of people in Russia would not want to see gay people existing,” said Kochergina. “Not necessarily to kill them but to have a society where this does not exist as a phenomenon.”

“Not necessarily to kill them, but...”

[acko]

That's a surprisingly LOW number, given the HATE PROPAGANDA supported by the RUSSIAN government.

[MadFan]

Dropping an awesome queer horror short here, I think it's worth a watch. And yes, fuck the Russian government.

 

[Guest eroticerotic]

Everyone is gay so I don't think they want gays eliminated. People seemed to have a problem with hyper sexual women throughout history as well. 

Which makes me  think, people have a problem with the hyper sexual persona and The hyper focus on sexual activity in general. I think it's about the lifestyle, not the orientation. or sex.

The dialogue is very very limited and it is still very one sided, despite the progress made as far as tolerance. Long way to go when it comes to self acceptance.

 

[madonnasuperfan01]

This is disgusting but tbh i expected the number to be higher. When you see the extremely homophobic government and culture that Russia has i assumed at least half of Russians would want to see gays eliminated.

[YannBouch]

I, maybe naively, think that they have to said that. People are mainly afraid and stuck in this spiral were if it's illegal, is the government tells you it's bad, must be right. Since promoting the existence of the LGBTQ+ is forbidden it might afraid people to speak their truth outside what the government tells you. 

THAT SAID. Pretty sad to see that the human rights are completely shut away after the Olympics. It was all over the news at that time and if political forces from all around the globe were just a bit more oppressive toward Russia. I still don't know why it is still tolerate. 

THAT SAID, Russia is just one of many also... This is just surreal to think it's still an issue. On another level, classic dictatorship moves to blame a particular group/groups for everything while the main problem is the government itself. 

[Guest]

isn´t soemthing similar happening in Poland? I mean clearly homophobic policies?

[runa]

22 hours ago, eroticerotic said:

Everyone is gay so I don't think they want gays eliminated.

 

oh, here we go again,  

 

 

[Flip The Switch]

^ 

[horn]

Anti-gay places/countries like Dubai, Russia, Saudi are on my no-go list.

I mean if they don't welcome us, why should we visit them?

 

[Martin B.]

4 hours ago, horn said:

Anti-gay places/countries like Dubai, Russia, Saudi are on my no-go list.

I mean if they don't welcome us, why should we visit them?

 

I completely agree with you. It is out of the question that i'm going to spend a cent in countries where homosexual residents are victims of social stigma, incarceration or deaths. We are not talking about countries where there are traces of "good" old homophobia, but countries where it is still cultivated politically and openly encouraged.

[elijah]

On 5/3/2020 at 6:43 PM, MadFan said:

Dropping an awesome queer horror short here, I think it's worth a watch. And yes, fuck the Russian government.

 

Love it. Tnx for the link.

[Aime]

Erm, there have been news about the concentration camps for gay people in some parts of the country, and my friends tell me some A/B-list TV personalities are saying gays shouls be burned alive the way they did it in Nazi Germany, so yeah... the number seems kinda low.

[Jaz]

On 5/2/2020 at 8:04 AM, runa said:

I'm pretty sure you would get the same numbers elsewhere, tbqh, even in USA. 

This.  Even more in some other countries that are even more backwards with LGBTQ rights!

We have to remember that we have come a long way, but we have a long way to go.

[Genevieve Vavance]

coming partly from Balkan most of them are curious closeted homophobes who want to try some dick up their ass but are afraid of peer pressure from other closeted fags.

 

[ThomasW]

4 in 5 Americans want (gov)Russians eliminated, #5 is the cheeto

[elijah]

18 hours ago, Genevieve Vavance said:

coming partly from Balkan most of them are curious closeted homophobes who want to try some dick up their ass but are afraid of peer pressure from other closeted fags.

 

This pretty much. No one can convince me a total straight man could be homophobic. Most have their gay tendencies, of which they are afraid of.

[horn]

11 hours ago, ThomasW said:

4 in 5 Americans want (gov)Russians eliminated, #5 is the cheeto

Because US can't dominate this world with the existence of Russia, China, Germany, France & North Korea.

[Genevieve Vavance]

On 5/7/2020 at 5:33 AM, elijah said:

This pretty much. No one can convince me a total straight man could be homophobic. Most have their gay tendencies, of which they are afraid of.

and they are always SUPER straight, like okay we get it, that's always a sign  

[Jazzy Jan]

On 5/5/2020 at 9:12 PM, Martin B. said:

I completely agree with you. It is out of the question that i'm going to spend a cent in countries where homosexual residents are victims of social stigma, incarceration or deaths. We are not talking about countries where there are traces of "good" old homophobia, but countries where it is still cultivated politically and openly encouraged.

Agree. I think as a world “ society “ we tolerate and excuse extreme cultural practices and cruel religious fanaticism. Places that show extreme cruelty and discrimination towards gay people and towards women as well should never be excused. Will always value human rights over cultural and religious barbaric “ rights” at all times.