An Act of Creative Defiance and LGBTQ Pride in Russia

check out this very cool Pride visibility action:

Inspiring!

The text reads:

"in Russia, the act of displaying the LGBT flag in public can get you arrested, so these 6 activists from latin america resorted to creativity: wearing uniforms from their countries' football teams, they turned themselves into the flag and walked around Moscow with pride."

How

Amazing

is

This?!

My thanks to the activists who put themselves out there to stand up for what's right, to Gabi (@harleivy) for sharing this, and to everyone for helping get the word out.

The idea that showing a Gay Pride flag is illegal is ridiculous, and alarming, and we shouldn't stop talking about it and protesting this kind of institutional homophobia whenever and wherever it festers.

You can find out more about The Hidden Flag project here.

The light in me recognizes and acknowledges the light in you,
Lee

Day 17 Finale: So Many More Russian LGBTQ People To Celebrate!

Russian Pride Map, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, found here.

In a country of 143 million people, even the conservative estimate of 10% of a given population being Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender or Queer would mean that 14,300,000 Russian people are not able to be their authentic selves.

More Than Fourteen Million People!

We who are able to need to stand up, speak up for, and celebrate Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Russia!

To bring our celebration to a rousing and inspiring finale, here are 24 additional LGBTQ Russians to know about:


Polyxena Soloviova (1867-1924) was a poet and the first translator of Alice in Wonderland into Russian. She shared her life with Natalia Manaseina, who left her husband to be with Polyxena.

Polyxena and Natalia living openly as a lesbian couple, an arrangement "accepted by their families and by society" is mentioned here and on pg. 351  of "Russia's Gay Literature and Culture"

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Konstantin Leontiev (1831-1891) was a well-known novelist and literary critic. He was also bisexual.
pg. 351 of "Russia's Gay Literature and Culture"


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Prince Vladimir Meshchersky, Russian gay novelist and publisher who was "frequently invited to the imperial palace by the last three tsars." pg. 351 of "Russia's Gay Literature and Culture"

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Sergei Nabakov was Russian and gay. He lived in Austria with the man he loved up until he was killed in the Holocaust.  He was written about by his brother, Vladimir, in Vladimir's memoir about their Russian childhood. Vladamir also wrote in that memoir about how each of their parents had a gay brother (as did he.) pg. 351 of "Russia's Gay Literature and Culture"

***

Viacheslav Ivanov and Zinovieva-Annibal Ivanov (1866-1907) were Russian. They were husband and wife. And they were important members of the Queer and Allied community.

Viacheslav was bisexual, and included in his poetry collection Cor Ardens (1911) a section called "Eros" about his crush on another man. Zinovieva-Annibal wrote the novel Thirty-Three Freaks and the collection of stories The Tragic Zoo "that did for Russian lesbians' what Kuzmin's Wings had done for gay men: They showed the reading public that lesbian love could be serious, deep and moving." After Zinovieva-Annibal's death, Viacheslav published more of her work that hadn't yet been out in the world. pg. 354 of "Russia's Gay Literature and Culture"

***

Konstantin Somov was a gay Russian artist. pg. 356 of "Russia's Gay Literature and Culture"

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Kuzma Petrov-Vodin was a gay Russian artist - "Russia's foremost painter of male nudes." pg. 356 of "Russia's Gay Literature and Culture"

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Sergei Lemeshev was a popular Operatic tenor and Sviatoslav Richter was a pianist. Both were Russian and well known. And both were men who loved other men during "the Stalinist age." (1930-1953ish) Sergei and Sviatoslav were both married to women, but that didn't change who they were or whom they felt attraction to. pg. 362 of "Russia's Gay Literature and Culture"


***

David Dar (1910-1980) was a Soviet writer who came out as gay after leaving the USSR.

Edward Limionov was also a Russian writer who, once he left Russia, openly lived (and wrote about his life) as a bisexual.  pg. 363 of "Russia's Gay Literature and Culture"

***

"Twentieth-century Russians who have been openly gay, lesbian or bisexual during at least some part of their lives include activists Yevegeniya Debryanskaya, Roman Kalinin, and Alexander Zaremba; dancers Boris Moiseev and Valery Mikhailovsky, and writers Evgenii Kharitonov (1941-1981)... and Marina Tsvetaeva."
pg. 484 of "Completely Queer"

***

"May 24, 1974
From the USSR (see RUSSIA) comes a rare public acknowledgement of the country's repressive policies against gay men and lesbians. American news services report that noted FILM director Sergei Paradzhanov has been given six years' hard labor for crimes including "partial homosexuality' and "incitement to suicide." He is one of an estimated 1,000 persons arrested each year on charges related to homosexuality."
pg. 648 of "Completely Queer"

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"1993
Two years after his death, Yevgeny Kharitonov's openly homoerotic poetry and prose are published for the first time in RUSSIA. Previously distributed via underground samizdat, Kharitonov achieved a reputation as the first major gay male writer in Russia since Mikhail Kuzmin, who died in 1936."
pg. 667 of "Completely Queer"

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"April 24, 1994
In RUSSIA, Yaroslav Mogutin, the country's most visible openly gay journalist, makes headlines when he attempts to register his marriage to American artist Robert Filippini. The head of Moscow's Wedding Palace No. 4 politely refuses his application."
pg. 669 of "Completely Queer"

***

Soviet Russian diplomat G.V. Chicherin (1872-1936) was gay. He was Commissar for foreign affairs, (starting under Lenin) until his retirement in 1930, and was the head of the Soviet delegation to the Genoa Conference after World War One. He negotiated - at a secret meeting with Germany's foreign Minister, Rathenau - the Treaty of Rapallo.

There's lots more detail on Chicherin and on how Rathenau was, like Chicherin, "another bachelor, who well understood Chicherin: they had similar tastes" - that's code for them both being men who could fall in love with other men - on pages 145-147 of "Homosexuals In History" by A.L. Rowse. Dorset Press (Macmillian) 1977.

***

Alexie Apukhtim was a popular Russian poet of the late 1800s and early 1900s, who had a romantic relationship with Peter Tchaikovsky. pg. 351 of "Russia's Gay Literature and Culture" And for more on Tchaikovsky, see day one of our Celebration - taking us full circle!

* * *

The citations from "Russia's Gay Literature and Culture" are from Simon Karlinsky's excellent chapter, "Russia's Gay Literature and Culture: the Impact of the October Revolution" in "Hidden from History: Reclaiming the Gay and Lesbian Past" Edited by Martin Duberman, Martha Vicinus and George Chauncey, Jr. Meridian Press (Penguin), New York. 1989.

The citations from "Completely Queer" are from "Completely Queer: The Gay and Lesbian Encyclopedia" by Steve Hogan and Lee Hudson. Henry Holt, New York, 1998.

The Chuckchi, Koryak and Kamchadal! Day 4 of our Celebration of Russian LGBTQ Pride: An Olympic Counter-Programming Event #OlympicShame #RussianPride

A Siberian Shaman

Photo from here.

In Russian Siberia, three indigenous nomadic peoples - The Chuckchi [Chukchi], Koryak and Kamchadal - embrace a third gender.

As reported at PBS' great resource: A Map of Gender-Diverse Cultures Throughout The World,

"Chuckchi (Siberia)

"The Chuckchi (and neighboring indigenous peoples including the Koryak, and the Kamchadal) are a nomadic, shamanic people who embrace a third gender. Generally shamans are biologically male with some adoption of female roles and appearance who married men but also were not subject to the social limitations placed on women. Third gender Chuckchi could accompany men on the hunt, as well as take care of family."

So cool to know!

Here's more from the pbs-linked website of Raven Kaldera. Alhough it has a pretty negative spin on being gender non-conforming and not playing by the "gender rules," it does provides more detail about how the third gender was recognized and functioned in these societies:

If you look at the research on shamanism worldwide - and especially that of the subarctic circumpolar shamanisms, from Siberia to the Inuit - you find, over and over, the disturbingly frequent presence of spirit-workers who transgressed gender roles and indulged in unusual sexual practices. In some cultures, just showing evidence of these behaviors was considered a sign that a child was bound to be a spirit-worker of some sort.

This was remarked on particularly in Siberian shamanism, specifically among the Chukchi, Koryak, and Kamchadal, and across the Bering Strait with the Inuit. While Siberia may seem to be a long way in the minds of many people, from Scandinavia or even Finland, there are many things that the circumpolar subarctic shamanic traditions have in common, much more so than shamanic traditions from further south. …

Interviews with these "transformed shamans" report that the spirits informed the shamans in question that they were required to put on the clothing and take up the jobs of the opposite sex; in some cases, they lived their whole life in this way, including taking lovers appropriate to their role, and in some cases the male-to-female shamans would ritually mime childbirth. (Even here, however, the "special" role of these shamans as still not playing by the gender rules can be seen; a "shaman-wife" of this type did not have to observe the taboos of women, but could accompany their husband to battle, and rather than taking their husband's name, sometimes the husband took theirs instead.) Sometimes one also finds reports of male-to-female shamans who changed gender later in life, but remained husbands to their wives and fathers to their children, merely adopting female clothing and household jobs. Some merely donned women's clothing during ceremonies.

There's more on the Chukchi people at this site, where I learned they call themselves the Lygoravetlat, which means "genuine people."

And also at this site on Siberian Shamanism, that quotes from Yuri Rythkeu in National Geographic [February 1983],

"The Chukchi are a people who used to herd reindeer on the tundra and set up coastal settlements on the Bering Sea and other coastal polar areas. Originally they were nomads who hunted wild reindeer but over time evolved into two groups: 1) Chavchu (nomadic reindeer herders), some of whom who rode reindeers and others who didn’t; and 2) maritime settlers who settled along the coast and hunted sea animals."

A Chukchi shaman was "was the preserver of tradition and cultural experience. He was meteorologist, physician, philosopher, and ideologist—a one-man Academy of Sciences. His success depended on his skill at prognosticating the presence of game, determining the route of the reindeer herds, and predicting the weather well in advance. In order to do all this , he must above all be an intelligent and knowledgeable man."

Despite the male pronoun used above, it's fascinating to learn more about what people in this third-gender role did in their culture.

Knowing that indigenous people in Russia saw - and still see - gender differently than the binary (and dominant) Russian and Western culture's view that you're-either-a-guy-or-a-girl is inspiring. People who combine male and female qualities, roles and attributes to form their own gender identity feels very similar to the "Gender Queer" identities being claimed by younger people in the LGBTQ community today.

And knowing that Russia has this history of indigenous gender non-conformity - an honored and sacred position among their society - in the Chukchi, the Koryak and the Kamchadal? That's something to celebrate!

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Add To The Celebration:

Who are the Gay, Lesbian, Bi, Trans and Queer Russians you'd like to celebrate? Tell me your favorites in comments, or by twitter, and on the final day of the Olympics, I'll run a rainbow variety-pack post with everyone's suggestions!

Please Note: Given the situation in Russia, I'm thinking we should keep it to either people who are no longer living in Russia or are historical. I'd hate to create a list that then would be used against people by a repressive, anti-LGBTQ regime.

Having said that, there is a lot of Queer Russian heritage to explore and so many LGBTQ Russians we can celebrate!

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Take Action (and today's bonus video!):

Get the Olympic sponsors that count you as a customer to know that you expect them to stand up and speak out in support of Russia's LGBTQ community.

Here are the main ten sponsors of the Sochi Olympic shame:

I LOVE this grand-standingUP moment, as reported in the International Business Times, of European Parliament Member Michael Cashman cutting his Visa Card To Protest Sochi.

“The discrimination, violence and human rights attack by [Russian President Vladimir] Putin are entirely unacceptable. Attacks on lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people are equally unacceptable,” Michael Cashman, a British Labour MEP representing the English region of the West Midlands, said. “I trust the athletes to speak out in Sochi, but I condemn sponsors like McDonald's, Coca-Cola and Visa for their continued support of the Games. I will boycott the sponsors, starting now, with Visa. Madame President, not in my name!” He then proceeded to pull out of his pocket a Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) card and a pair of scissors, cutting it in half.

Here's the video:



Go, Michael!

Now each of us has to figure out how WE can stand UP and have our voice heard, too!

Counter Programming The Olympics - 17 Days Of Celebrating Queer, Gay, Lesbian, Bi and Transgender Russians and Russian History Starts Friday!

It's something I've been thinking about for months, with the anti-gay laws in Russia and the upcoming winter Olympics on this collision course of injustice and prejudice, what can I do here on this blog to help make a difference?

I've signed petitions (lots of them.)

Boycotting the Olympics seems unfair to the athletes.

Moving the Olympics out of Russia (to someplace like Sweden) sounded best to me, but that didn't happen.

Pressuring the Olympic sponsors (looking at you, Coca-Cola and McDonalds) to speak up against the anti-gay laws (which activists are doing) is a great idea, but the big-money machinery of the Olympics churns on, seemingly uncaring of the rights of queer people in Russia (both Russian and foreign.)

But we do care. Millions of us.

And what we can do - each of us - is raise our voice!


Thousands of Swedes did just that, singing the Russian national anthem in the Stockholm Olympic Stadium, in support of Russian LGBTQ people. It's an event created by the group "Live and Let Love" and the video is very moving.



And I'll be raising my voice here. For 17 days, starting on February 7th and ending on February 23, for each day of the 2014 Winter Olympics, I'll be featuring a celebration of Queer Russia. Gay Russia. Lesbian Russia. Bi Russia. Transgender Russia. We'll be looking at people and history and celebrating just how Gay Russia has been, is, and will always be.

Since my website is geared for youth 11 years old and up, if I was in Russia, just sharing the history of LGBTQ Russians like I'm going to do would be illegal under their new laws. Mentioning that the famous Russian composer Tchaikovsky was gay is something for which I could be arrested. Fined. Even put in jail for up to two weeks. (A Russian newspaper was just fined under their laws for running an article about a middle school teacher who was fired for being gay.)

Yes, and Tchaikovsky was gay - he'll be featured on Friday! (He even had a gay brother.)

I'm grateful to live in the U.S.A. where I can speak out and stand up, but I think about all the LGBTQ people who aren't free to raise their voices. The ones in Russia. The ones in other countries where being yourself (if you're different from the heterosexual norm) is a crime.

And I know I need to RAISE MY VOICE.

Join me.

And together, we'll sing the glories of being authentic, and the power of Russian Pride.

Here's to a gay gay gay Olympic season!

(And an extra-special shout-out of "GOOD LUCK!" to the five athletes brave enough to be openly queer going into the Olympics!)

Namaste,
Lee