The Transgender Story of Coy Mathis is Edited Out of the Russian edition of "Good Night Stories For Rebel Girls"

This was reported last week in Huffington Post's Queer Voices by Daria Litvinova, LGBTQ People Erased From Books In Russia Under ‘Gay Propaganda’ Law: A story written by trans activist Coy Mathis is missing from the Russian edition of a new children’s book.

Image from this beautiful post about the original "Good Night Stories For Rebel Girls" on MommyShorts

According to the article,

Liza Lazerson, a feminist blogger who owns a copy, said she was surprised to see that while the cover promised 100 stories the book contained only 99 and one blank page - supposedly for the reader to add their own.

“But then a follower sent me a photo of Coy Mathis’s story from the French edition,” Lazerson, who is based in Moscow, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in written comments.

Mathis, an 11-year-old transgender girl from the United States, won a landmark victory in a 2013 case against her school allowing her to use the girl’s bathroom.

Bombora, which printed the book in Russia, did not immediately respond to requests for comment....

Francesca Cavallo, one of the authors of “Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls,” said she was “deeply saddened that Coy’s story has been left out.”

It's sad and frustrating that children and their families in Russia won't have access to this empowering story of a young girl who was born with a boy's body, and how her parents (and ultimately, a judge) were so supportive of her being allowed to use whatever bathroom she felt most comfortable using at school.

In these times where governments create darkness, every bit of light becomes more important, and more powerful. 

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

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

Sophia Parnok! Day 9 of our Celebration of Russian LGBTQ Pride: An Olympic Counter-Programming Event #OlympicShame #RussianPride #CheersToSochi

Sophia Parnok

Sophia Parnok was a poet. She was Russian. And she was a woman who loved other women - a lesbian.

Sophia, referred to in a biography as Russia's Sappho,  "... early on asserted that her own lesbian identity was both innate and potentially positive."

In 1905 (when she was 20) Sophia ran away with an actress to Western Europe.  That was the year she wrote this poem:

Just listen, how amidst inspired dreaming
the soul will suddenly lay bare its secret curves.
Let your thought illuminate them brightly
with creation’s breath in an audacious surge.
You will see, then, how the endless distance
so easily and wondrously removes its haze,
and there upon a lofty pedestal of marble
the depth of worlds feels Beauty’s silent gaze.

"Back in Russia, she briefly married to free herself from her family's influence, then left her husband in 1909 and began supporting herself by writing and translating.

In 1914, she fell in love with the poet Marina Tsvetaeva, and Sophia's first book, Poems (1916) "...included poems addressed to Tsvetaeva that are probably the first obviously lesbian love poems ever written [and published] by a Russian woman.

When she started publishing poems inspired by Sappho (such as The Roses of Pieria (1922) and The Vine (1923), "...critics were more hostile; ultimately, the Soviet literary establishment showed its disapproval by ignoring her."

Though she died in 1933, Sophia's work and impact were rediscovered by Russian readers in the 1990s.

Two more of her poems to enjoy:

I know profoundly well – you’ve shown me everything,
the breathing of the skies, and speech of mighty billows
and twinkling of the stars within the depths of air,
and lightning’s vivid laugh in gloomy quietude
you’ve given me with you in brilliant consonance.

So let that farewell cry, as always, sound above me!
I have a heart so that it can be broken!
I know too well that last, that grievous moment,
when happiness can’t help but be forsaken –
but through the garden joyfully I’ll go!
So what if a new loss lies in my future,
– My heart’s so happy in its secret fever:
love summons me, and I won’t contradict her

and

I see: you’re getting off the streetcar – utterly beloved
a breeze, and in my heart it breathes you’re – utterly beloved
I can’t tear my eyes from you because you’re – utterly beloved!
And however did you come to be so – utterly beloved?
You, she-eagle from Caucasian glaciers, where in heat it’s cold.
You, carrier of a very sweet contagion, who never has a cold.
You, beclouder of your lover’s reason with logic clear and cold.
All five senses reel from your intoxication – utterly beloved!

Sophia being an out, proud lesbian poet in Russia's history? That's something to celebrate!


Quotes above taken from pg. 431 and 432 of "Completely Queer: The Gay and Lesbian Encyclopedia" by Steve Hogan and Lee Hudson. Cited source "Sophia Parnok: The Life and Work of Russia's Sappho" by Diana Lewis Burgin (1994).

The photo of Sophia and more of her poetry, translated by Diana Lewis Burgin, were found here.

***

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!

***

Bonus: Check out this fun video ad from Norway that pokes fun at Russia's anti-gay laws!

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!

***

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!

***

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!

#LoveAlwaysWins - A Video Highlighting Russia's Anti-LGBTQ Laws And How That Will Impact Olympic Athletes

Watch this, discuss and share...



It's a good question:

What if living your dream meant living a lie?

Let's speak up and stand up - not just for the Olympic athletes who will be traveling to Russia for the winter games, but for all the LGBTQ people in Russia who are now living under these repressive laws.

Namaste,
Lee

Parents of a Gay Man Stand Up For LGBTQ Rights While In Russia

Tourists - and impromptu activists - Richard and Rochelle Cohen

I liked this story, My Parents Who Believe Being Gay Is Okay Went To Russia And This Is What They Did.

It explains how tourists Richard and Rochelle Cohen (parents of gay pinknews founder Benjamin Cohen) held up a "Gay OK" sign in their photos in the Russian city of St. Petersburg.

I'm glad Ben's parents weren't arrested, and I'm proud of them for doing something.  For standing up.

That's how we'll change our world (and the situation in Russia.)  If enough of us stand up for what's right.

Let's all stand up!

Namaste,
Lee

Speak Out For Russia - Or, To Russia With Love

Consider signing this petition:

To President Putin, Russian politicians and all world leaders:

We stand with citizens across Russia who are calling on their government to stop the crackdown against lesbian, gay, bi and trans people that is fuelling anti-gay violence.

We urge leaders around the world and within Russia to work to eliminate all anti-gay laws and protect all citizens from violence and discrimination in Russia.

Not sure what this is about? Check out my two previous posts on Russia's Attack on LGBTQ rights and the Olympics, Part One: What's Going On? and Part Two: What Can We Do?

Namaste,
Lee

Russia's Attack On LGBTQ Rights and the Olympics, Part Two: What Can We Do? (GSA Mondays Are Back!)

Welcome back to a new school year, and our first GSA Mondays Post!

The situation in Russia is getting pretty bad for LGBTQ people, and our Allies.  The Olympics are only six months away.  Tourists are already being arrested.  What can we do?


Speak UP!
 
Some Athletes are.

US middle distance runner Nick Symmonds dedicated his 800-meter silver medal at the world athletics championships in August to his gay and lesbian friends back home, becoming the first athlete to openly criticize Russia's controversial anti-gay law on the country's soil.

I like how Nick said,

"I do have respect for this nation. I disagree with their rules."

Two Athletes from Sweden, competing in Russia at the same World Athletic Championships two weeks ago, painted their nails in rainbow colors as a "silent protest" to Russia's anti-LGBTQ laws.

From a Huffington Post Article, Emma Green Tregaro, of Sweden, competes in Moscow, Russia. (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)

From this HuffPost article, Moa Hjelmer shows off her rainbow nails

Emma Green Tregaro shared a photo of her colorful nails on Instagram on that Wednesday with the hashtag "pride."

But the pressure is on, and "...Tregaro was encouraged to change the colour of her nails because she was in breach of the Olympic rules and she could face disqualification."  The Swedish Olympic committee "has ruled that political protests against Russia’s anti-gay legislation will not be tolerated at the Sochi Olympics next year."

The next day, as NPR reported, Tregaro competed with all her nails painted red.

Getting the word out increases the international pressure on Russia, and gets people everywhere talking about LGBTQ rights.

There are petitions to sign onto, like

The causes.com petition to Visa (a major sponsor of the games.)

The All-out Campaign's petition to President Putin and Russia's leaders, that reads:

To President Putin, Russian politicians and all world leaders:

We stand with citizens across Russia who are calling on their government to stop the crackdown against lesbian, gay, bi and trans people that is fuelling anti-gay violence.

We urge leaders around the world and within Russia to work to eliminate all anti-gay laws and protect all citizens from violence and discrimination in Russia.

And the petition to the International Olympic Committee to move the Olympics out of Russia entirely.


Boycott

Adults are boycotting Russian vodka, but what about those of us who don't drink?  What about teenagers?  What are our options?  What can your GSA do?

Should we not watch the Olympics?

Michelangelo Signoreli's article "Boycott the Olympics? Russian Vodka? NBC? Maybe -- Here Are 5 Other Ripe Targets" gives some interesting facts:

Procter & Gamble is the biggest advertiser on Russian T.V.

Hotel Chains - many of them U.S. companies - are investing and further expanding into Russia. Including Holiday Inn Express, Intercontinental, Hyatt, Marriott, Radisson, Ritz-Carlton, Hilton and Sheraton...  As Michelangelo asks,

"Do these companies really want to be associated with a government that may snatch babies from their mothers' arms or, under the "gay propaganda" ban, will jail anyone, including gay foreigners staying at these hotels, for waving a rainbow flag?"

As Michelangelo says,

These are just a few of what are surely many more American interests, including many companies that enjoy high ratings on HRC's CEI [Corporate Equality Index] and consider themselves pro-gay. As Russia moves in a very dark direction, a line must be drawn in the sand. American companies and politicians who court LGBT people are going to have stand against this brutal regime in no uncertain terms. And it must be expressed in actions, not just words.

Celebrate Queer Russia

Celebrating LGBTQ Russians is a direction to go as well.  If we make a big deal out of the LGBTQ Russians in history and culture, then Russia can't pretend like they don't have lesbian, gay, bi, trans and queer people there.  And maybe that will help on the road to getting Russia's Queer community out of the drink and back on the road to equality.

We can read and share this excellent Advocate article on the gay Russian writer Mikhail Kuzmin.

Explore the poetry of Russian lesbian Sophia Yakovlevna Parnok and bi Russian Marina Tsvetaeva, who at one point were in love with each other,

Watch a film directed by gay Russian Sergei Eisenstein.

And maybe even play some Tchaikovsky.  After all, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky is the gay Russian who composed the 1812 Overture.  The Nutcracker.  And Swan Lake.


These are just some ideas.  Raise awareness about what's going on. Speak Up. Boycott. And Celebrate Queer Russia.  

Talk about it with your friends, discuss in your GSAs and share the ideas and suggestions you come up with in comments!

Namaste,
Lee

Russia's Attack On LGBTQ Rights and the Olympics, Part One: What's Going On?

This photo from Australian news: "Gay rights activists hold a banner reading "Homophobia - the religion of bullies"in Moscow's Red Square" in July 2013.  The caption further reads, "Police detained several activists." (AP Photo/Evgeny Feldman)

Russia.

We here in the U.S.A. have a complicated relationship with Russia - our ally during World War II, our nemesis during the Cold War, and a country we're quite engaged with right now.  They're an economic engine.  A market for American things.  A player on the world stage...

So much so, that the upcoming Winter Olympics will be held there starting February 7, 2014.  In Sochi, on the banks of the Black Sea.

But political tides in Russia are shifting, and human rights, especially for LGBTQ people, are going under.  Russia recently passed an "anti-gay propaganda law" that

"passed overwhelmingly in parliament [The vote was of 436 in favor, 0 against] and signed off by Putin, bans the public discussion of gay rights and relationships anywhere children might hear it. Those found in breach of it can be fined and, if they are foreign, deported.

Critics say the law is so vaguely defined that it can be used to prosecute someone just for wearing a rainbow T-shirt or holding hands with someone of the same sex in public. Amnesty International has condemned it as an "affront to freedom of expression and an attack on minority rights."

The New York Times explains that these anti-gay laws

...also contradict the charter of the International Olympic Committee, which calls sport a “human right” and states that “every individual must have the possibility of practicing sport, without discrimination of any kind.” With laws like these on the books, gay athletes, gay fans and others who speak their minds could put themselves in legal jeopardy by attending the 2014 Winter Olympics, which are in Sochi, Russia, in February.

In Michelangelo Signorile's recent interview with Moscow journalist Masha Gessen, a lesbian and a mother, she told him about "reports that Vladimir Putin may push for a law in the fall to remove adoptive and biological children from the homes of gay parents."

Why is Russia suddenly so anti-gay?

In this CNN article, Professor Dan Healey of Oxford University cites the anti-gay groundwork done by the anti-gay laws of Stalin and the Gulags of that era.  He suggests that "Official homophobia is being used by the Putin leadership as a way of distracting public attention away from the fact that the economy is actually slowing down drastically."

To learn more about what's going on, here are four musts to check out:

Harvey Fierstein's excellent op-ed piece in the New York Times

This New York Times Editorial, "Mr. Putin's War On Gays"

This excellent interview Michelangelo Signorile did with Harvey Fierstein on his radio show



And

This interview Dan Savage did about the Russian Vodka Boycott

Will Russia arrest gay, lesbian, bi and trans athletes and fans?  They're saying that their anti-LGBT law applies "equally to all persons, irrespective of their race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation, and cannot be regarded as discrimination based on sexual orientation."  So, no one should be worried.  Unless, of course, they're openly supportive of LGBTQ people.

As Sunnivie Brydum pointed out in an article in the Advocate yesterday,

"But whether LGBT athletes and spectators would be permitted to participate in the 2014 Winter Games was never in question. Rather, what remains unconfirmed is whether athletes and spectators who express support for LGBT communities by holding hands, kissing, or wearing or waving a rainbow flag could be in violation of the broadly defined law."

The first step is to get informed.

On Monday, we'll talk about what we can do.

Namaste,
Lee

This Milk Will Make You Gay... Milk Carton Accused of Trying To Make Children Gay in Russia

Yeah, that purple cow, rainbow, and guy with the mustache...  clearly just gay propaganda.

I wish I were joking... but it's in the news.

Here's two quotes from the article:

Mr Artukh [People's Council spokesman] accused Pepsi Cola [which owns Vesyoly Molochnik milk] of trying to promote homosexuality to young people, saying "this is a company renowned for actively and aggressively financing and promoting homosexuality."

 and

...the director of gay rights advocacy group Coming Out Polina Savchenko said the move was a sign of the mood in St Petersburg since the anti-gay propaganda law was passed in November "It's so ridiculous and so middle-aged that it could be funny but unfortunately it's not funny because we know that they're serious," Ms Savchenko said.

So much work still to do to make our world safe for all queer people!  (And for those rainbow colored dancing cows, too.)

Namaste,
Lee