Russia fines party-goers for ‘looking too gay’ (www.telegraph.co.uk)

submitted 3 days ago by chuso@fedia.io to c/lgbtq_plus@beehaw.org

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Crossposted from https://lemmy.world/post/23801022

Russia fined at least seven people for “looking too gay” after a police raid on a nightclub in Tula in February which videos show was carried out by men in military-style uniforms and helmets.

It comes as the Kremlin ramps up a push to promote “traditional values” that has included tightening anti-LGBT legislation and banning “propaganda promoting a child-free lifestyle”.

One man had “crosses of black tape glued to his nipples” and a “women’s style corset” on his “naked” body.

Another had “pink socks … an unbuttoned kimono over his shoulders, his hair dyed bright orange, and red tattoos on his face”.

“Although a man, he was wearing a short top covering his chest, black leather shorts above the knee, on which there were several chain-shaped ornaments, and fishnet tights,” read another description.

“The appearance of the detainees is inconsistent with the image of a man of traditional sexual orientation,” judges were reported to have said.

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[-] Gaywallet@beehaw.org 22 points 3 days ago

smooth talker

One man, a bartender, avoided a fine by arguing that he was a goth and that was why he had eyebrow piercings, “turquoise hair” and wore a “black T-shirt rolled up to his chest”.

[-] VerticaGG@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 3 days ago

Peter Steele may well have been poorly educated or informed about things like catholocism, and some of his lyrics did come off chuddy/misogynist...but ya sure can point to him in these sorts of situations so 🤷‍♀️

Ruck Fussia (at least it's orthodox queerphobic demographic) and embrace the fagginess tho, where and whenever possible 🧙‍♀️

[-] abbiistabbii@lemmy.blahaj.zone 15 points 3 days ago

Russia really out there doing what the US republicans want to see: People arrested for "looking gay".

[-] stinky@redlemmy.com 18 points 3 days ago

Jesus Christ.

[-] sanpo@sopuli.xyz 25 points 3 days ago

Him too, long hair is gay af. /s

[-] stinky@redlemmy.com 17 points 3 days ago

bro slept with 12 dudes every night, and he was so good at it they started a religion after him

[-] eldavi@lemmy.ml 2 points 3 days ago

don't worry; it's just more pink washing, they've literally been doing something like this to the gay clubs in austin since 2000.

[-] DdCno1@beehaw.org 1 points 3 days ago

[+] eldavi@lemmy.ml 2 points 3 days ago

[deleted]

[-] DdCno1@beehaw.org 3 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Seems like it closed due to gentrification. How on Earth is this comparable to the government fining people for being gay?

[+] eldavi@lemmy.ml 2 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

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[-] DdCno1@beehaw.org 3 points 3 days ago

Have you considered that I'm not informed about local matters in this particular part of a city thousands of miles away from where I'm living and that this is all I can find about this with a cursory search? You're free to provide a decent source on the matter instead of being passive-aggressive about this and trying to lead me onto a bad paper chase with cryptic writing. I had no idea what "chain drive" even meant before I started looking.

Even if you were 100% correct about this club closing due to a government-sponsored campaign against it (which seems unlikely, given that Democrat mayor was in office when this club was closed, one who spoke out in favor of gay marriage when he was mayor of Austin), this doesn't make it anywhere near comparable to the government repression and violence that LGBTQ+ people are experiencing in Russia.

[+] eldavi@lemmy.ml 1 points 3 days ago

[deleted]

[-] DdCno1@beehaw.org 3 points 3 days ago

You treat me as if I was an enemy, even though I'm not. You make assumption about me that don't even make sense if you look at what I'm writing in the same thread or in direct replies to you. I get that you are frustrated, afraid and so many other things due to the experiences you've had and I'm sorry that you had to go through this, but you are not going to make any friends or garner much additional sympathy by being this abrasive.

I would be interested to learn more about this, bot the general entrapment scheme and how it was employed to close this particular club. Is the latter just local lore so to speak (that you couldn't possibly expect someone who isn't a local to know about) or has anyone written about it elsewhere?

I will also repeat my claim that this isn't the same as what Russia is doing, not even close. You will have to admit that concentration camps and murder squads are considerably more extreme of a human rights violation than shutting down gay clubs through subterfuge. I get that this particular incident in Russia is perhaps closer to what you're describing and that you care more about what's happening in your home town than thousands of miles away, but wouldn't it make more sense to keep the two topics separated until there's an obvious overlap, e.g. with a Republican law maker directly or indirectly importing Russian repressive measures?

[+] eldavi@lemmy.ml 1 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

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[-] DdCno1@beehaw.org 3 points 3 days ago

you’ll need to find a gay sex positive austinite over the age of 45 who used to patron the chain drive to find those details; i learned of it myself from patrons of the iron bear and highland

Then how are you expecting a random person on the Internet to know about it? This isn't /c/LGBTQ_plus_Austin_Texas_over_45_only. You presented it as if this obscure club from ages ago was something people should know about, just because they care about this cause. You thought it was relevant enough to bring up in a discussion about current-day human rights abuses in Russia.

it’s safe to assume anyone who accepts this kind of pink washing propaganda is not an ally.

I'm not "accepting" anything. I specifically wrote that it seemed that way after a cursory search and provided you with an opportunity to tell me more about this, ideally with more than hearsay. I'm not saying it didn't happen, but 1) it seems a bit far-fetched in a Democrat stronghold, under a mayor who is sympathetic to the cause (was already sympathetic to the cause before the club closed and who was also able to direct what police is doing in his city) and 2) I am perplexed that you still haven't provided anything that supports your claim. Once again, you are not a good spokesperson for your cause by being obtuse and abrasive. If I were on the fence about this topic, this kind of unpleasant interaction might push me in the other direction. I'm not, never have been, because I've always been opposed to any kind of discrimination since kindergarten (one of few things I'm proud of in my life). You could treat me much worse and I'd still only be annoyed by you, but there are certainly people other than me who aren't this tolerant.

This is only a small corner of a small corner of the Internet - and one that where one can expect virtually everyone to either be LGBTQ+ or sympathetic - so the amount of damage you'd be able to cause with this kind of behavior is limited, but one has to wonder if you're like this elsewhere and doing yourself and others a disservice on larger and more visible stages as well. Again, being aggressive is an entirely normal reaction to having experienced aggression yourself and I am truly sorry that you have had terrible experiences, but please direct this aggression only towards those who actually want to cause harm to you and others, not people who are genuinely trying to understand and learn.

[+] eldavi@lemmy.ml 1 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

[deleted]

[-] DdCno1@beehaw.org 2 points 3 days ago

a club that was shutdown less than five years ago is current enough.

To local affairs and in the context of talking about America maybe, but not here. Thanks for finally providing a time frame, by the way. I thought this was about something happening in 2014 based on what search engines provided me on this club. I'm saying this in the nicest way possible, but extracting teeth is less painful than extracting any information out of you. You should choose a life of crime, because police would rather release you out of custody than having to endure interrogating you. Please excuse this attempt at sarcasm/humor.

This discussion was originally about repression in Russia before you derailed it and I unintentionally played my part in helping you derail it, by the way - and we're still at it.

your assertion that gays aren’t arrested anymore in this country

Yet instead of providing information that contradicts a possible error on my part, your reply was once again condescending and dismissive, just like with this comment. I've been almost begging you for better answers and hard facts several times already, yet you still can't bring yourself to step down from your throne and actually talk to me like I'm another human being. Why? What do I have to do in order to prove to you that I'm not some champion (or victim) of American corporate oligarch pink washing or some other word salad accusation you've been throwing at me for some reason? Seriously, I'm trying, despite mounting frustration, but you're not making it easy.

[-] UngodlyAudrey@beehaw.org 1 points 2 days ago

being nice is what our oligarchs want you to use to discredit people.

You do realize you're posting in a Beehaw community, right? We do expect you to be(e) nice when engaging with people here. DdCno1 is trying to engage in good faith(and, honestly, getting very understandably frustrated). If you don't want to educate them, that's perfectly fine and valid. If that's the case, then this conversation isn't really going anywhere at this point and it'd be best if you disengaged and moved on.

[-] SteevyT@beehaw.org 2 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

You will have to admit that concentration camps …

texas has started construction on such a facility and it will be the first in this nation; so give it time

It's at least a century too late to be the first in the nation.

[-] thelucky8@beehaw.org 16 points 3 days ago

Russian Man Arrested for Organizing LGBTQ+ Tours Dies in Police Custody

A Russian man arrested [...] for organizing LGBTQ+ travel tours has died in pre-trial detention, rights groups and Russian state media reported Sunday.

Andrei Kotov, the director of the travel agency Men Travel, was charged last month with taking part and organizing "extremist" activities.

The OVD-Info rights group cited Kotov's lawyer as saying investigators told her that he committed suicide early Sunday. [...] OVD-Info said that the 40-year-old Kotov reported being beaten during his arrest last month. Last month, state media published a video of him being questioned on the floor by law enforcement authorities.

[-] xilliah@beehaw.org 10 points 3 days ago

I quick read it at first and thought the military uniform guys were also dressed too gay 😘

It's good that we have traditions otherwise the amount of gay sex would be too damn high 😝

[-] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 6 points 3 days ago

Was it because I had a dick in my mouth?

[-] armpit_sweaty@beehaw.org 2 points 2 days ago

to be fair, it was a straight guy's dick...

[-] stinky@redlemmy.com 2 points 3 days ago

Well. Fined doesn't mean killed or arrested. I'm wondering how this would have gone down in the USA.

[-] DdCno1@beehaw.org 9 points 3 days ago

But what about America.

This has to be one of the more ridiculous examples of whataboutism. And yes, they do kill gays in Russia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-gay_purges_in_Chechnya

[-] stinky@redlemmy.com 2 points 3 days ago

I'm saying "I'm glad they only got a fine -- they'd have been arrested or killed in the USA" not "Russia has it easy, gays get arrested or killed here" might want to go work off some steam buddy it's got to be exhausting being that agitated all the time 😂

[-] DdCno1@beehaw.org 7 points 3 days ago

People are not being arrested for being gay in the US anymore. Violence against gays is overwhelmingly committed by private individuals. This might change under Trump, let's hope he fails, but he's not in office yet.

Again, you're totally off the mark here. The situation is so different between the two countries that bringing up America makes no sense.