Current and Future Situation for LGTB in Russia

According to wikipedia (below) there has been no noticeable changes in Russia since 2003-2005. It’s like the LGTB community there has been encased in crates and put on a refrigerated truck with destination unknown.  There have been some gay Russians with a lot of courage but with little backing. This is a nation that still remembers the days in which Putin was part of KGB and the President had all the power.  Things started to change but then there was a monkey wrench thrown in the engine of progress and it made it stop.  

The people in their 45-75 years, started missing the old regime. There was more respect for elders, less crime, they said. "We knew how things ran"  You knew how to deal with the lines for bread and food. They were used to it! Once a big nation makes such a big change it takes years for the wheel of progress to start running again. You need to have the patience and the courage to make sure that the people have a saying in government and fight those that feel like they missed the old ways by reminding and showing nations that have made the transition. Most of the nations in Europe change their governments from totalitarian to some form of democracy. 

Being Gay is more difficult and one needs to be brave and smart of how to go about changing minds to see you as people. There is a lot of miss-information that has to be clear up.

This post in Russia is part of post on Russia adamfoxie* will be sending out. To maybe give encouragement to the the Lesbian, Gay, Transexual and bisexual communities there. Also to bring the issue forward to the rest of the world that reads this posting that our friends in Russia need help. As Gay and Lesbians we are family no matter where we are.  Our problems have been the same and the homophobic, ignorant people tend to be similar also.

We we know each without having met.

Adam Gonzalez

adamfoxie*

 (Wikipedia):

Current situation of LGBT rights in Russia:

• The age of consent currently stands at 16 since 2003, regardless of sexual orientation.
• Transsexual and transgender people can change their legal gender after corresponding medical procedures since 1997.
• Homosexuality was officially removed from the Russian list of mental illnesses in 1999 (after endorsing ICD-10).
• There is currently no legal recognition of same-sex couples in Russia, and same-sex marriages are not allowed. Public support for gay marriages is at 14% As of 2005.
• Single persons can adopt children, regardless of sexual orientation, but only married couples can adopt children together, as a couple.
• Gay people (at least officially) can serve in the military on a par with heterosexual people since 2003^]

Public opinion about LGBT topics and people tends to be negative: according to 2005 poll, 43.5% of Russians support re-criminalization of homosexual acts between consensual adults;  at the same time, 42.8% of Russians support a legal ban on discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation  There is a visible LGBT community network, mostly in major cities like Moscow and Saint Petersburg, including nightclubs and political organizations, however, homophobia is very strong in Russia and most ex-soviet states so precaution is needed.

Same-sex marriages are not allowed in Russia. "Attempts by same-sex couples to marry both in Moscow and elsewhere in Russia are doomed to fail, Irina Muravyova said, head of the Moscow Registry Office. We live in a civil society, we are guided by the federal law, by the Constitution that clearly says: marriage in Russia is between a man and a woman, Such a marriage [same-sex] cannot be contracted in Russia!" Muravyova declared at a press conference.^[

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