{"id":35664,"date":"2013-10-28T12:00:30","date_gmt":"2013-10-28T12:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=35664"},"modified":"2015-05-05T22:21:18","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T21:21:18","slug":"follow-the-rainbow-bricked-road-the-olympic-flames-journey-through-russias-antigay-provinces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2013\/10\/follow-the-rainbow-bricked-road-the-olympic-flames-journey-through-russias-antigay-provinces\/","title":{"rendered":"Follow the Rainbow-Bricked Road: The Olympic Flame\u2019s Journey through Russia\u2019s Antigay Provinces"},"content":{"rendered":"

This page will be updated as the torch lighting events arrive in the cities below.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Torch-route-thru-ban-regions-1024x665\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Homophobia is widespread in Russia, you all know that by now, and President Vladimir Putin\u2019s government has proved itself willing to exploit it. The federal law banning \u201cpropaganda\u201d of nontraditional sexual relations to minors seems like Russia\u2019s top branding item in the world today, and while we have yet to see a prosecution under this ambiguous and discriminatory law, its regional precursors \u00a0have been used by authorities to deny LGBT Russians the fundamental rights to assemble, associate, and speak. Unlike the\u00a0federal law<\/a>, the regional bans explicitly mention homosexuality.<\/p>\n

As another well-known Russian brand\u2014the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics\u2014approaches, the Olympic Flame is on a journey through the country, from Moscow to Siberia to the Krasnodar region, where the Black Sea resort town will play host to the winter games starting on February 7. In this project, we\u2019ll highlight when the Flame casts its glow on the10\u00a0regions that have adopted bans on homosexual \u201cpropaganda,\u201d which we identify in Convenient Targets: The Anti-\u2018Propaganda\u2019 Law and the Threat to LGBT Rights in Russia<\/i><\/a>.<\/p>\n

On this fantastic 40,000-mile, 123-day journey through 2,900 villages and cities situated on the longest route in Olympic history, there\u2019ll be many tales to tell, and the official\u00a0Torch Relay Diary<\/a>\u00a0is updated daily with information about local customs, celebrations, and torchbearers. But we also need to hear about the legal attacks on human rights and the courage of LGBT activists. We begin in Ryazan, where the anti-LGBT story began, and end with Krasnodar Krai, where Sochi is located.<\/p>\n

October 15: Ryazan Oblast<\/b><\/p>\n

No better place to start this \u201cantigay\u201d relay overview than Ryazan, where in 2006 Article 3.10 of the administrative offences code banned \u201cPublic actions aimed at \u2018propaganda\u2019 of homosexuality (sodomy and lesbianism) among minors.\u201d The article\u2019s primary purpose was to deny public events to gay rights and human rights activists, some of whom are now suing Russia in the European Court of Human Rights.<\/p>\n

In March 2009, Irina Fedotova\u2019s and Nikolai Bayev\u2019s protest near a Ryazan school building was interrupted by police, and the activists were fined 1,500 rubles (less than 50 USD) by a local court for participating in a public action aimed at \u201cpropaganda\u201d of homosexuality. Having exhausted possible domestic remedies, Irina Fedotova pleaded her case at the U.N. Human Rights Committee, which determined that Russia had violated the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, arguing that she \u201cwas giving expression to her sexual identity and seeking understanding for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

This international victory has, to the astonishment of international observers, translated into a domestic verdict upholding the United Nations\u2019 ruling. In September, the Ryazan Regional Court overturned the administrative charges against Fedotova and Bayev, who demonstrated with signs saying that \u201cHomosexuality is Normal\u201d and \u201cI am proud of my homosexuality.\u201d The ruling is a major victory for gay rights, expanding the \u201cwiggle room\u201d for advancing human rights in Russia.<\/p>\n

October 18: Kostroma Oblast<\/b><\/p>\n

The state-owned RIA news agency\u2019s coverage on the Olympic flame\u2019s passage through Kostroma Oblast notes that \u201cnontraditional modes of transportation\u201d are used there, including an imperial carriage from Catherine the Great\u2019s times, a good old Russian troika, and a galley. What a trip!<\/p>\n

Not everything \u201cnontraditional\u201d is celebrated in Kostroma. In 2011, the region amended its administrative offences code with articles 20.1 & 20.2, banning \u201cpropaganda\u201d of pedophilia and \u201cpropaganda\u201d of homosexuality (sodomy and lesbianism), bisexuality, and transgenderism among minors. Kostroma\u2019s regional law expanded the \u201cground-breaking\u201d work by the legislators in Ryazan, adding bisexuality and transgenderism to the mix, but also equating pedophilia with homosexuality.<\/p>\n

The regional law in Kostroma has been used to deny public events to LGBT activists. Yet, earlier this year a regional court in Kostroma declared illegal two bans on public demonstrations in March 2012. Both events were planned as protests against the regional ban on \u201cpropaganda\u201d in Kostroma. The same regional court also upheld the banning of public events in front of a children\u2019s library and a youth library, citing the non-admissibility of promoting homosexuality among minors. This ruling is currently being challenged in a higher court.<\/p>\n

October 27: Saint Petersburg
\nOctober 29: Kaliningrad Oblast
\nNovember 1: Archangelsk Oblast
\nNovember 11: Magadan Oblast
\nDecember 6: Novosibirsk Oblast
\nDecember 16: Samara Oblast
\nDecember 22: Bashkortostan Republic
\nFebruary 4, 2014: Krasnodar Krai<\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 humanrightsfirst.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This page will be updated as the torch lighting events arrive in the cities below. Homophobia is widespread in Russia, you all know that by now, and President Vladimir Putin\u2019s government has proved itself willing to exploit it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[181],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sexualities"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35664\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}