Are We Russian Gay People Foreign Agents?
The Russian government says yes, to try to silence us
I used to open my eyes and ask myself if there was any point in getting up, taking a shower, and having breakfast. It wasn’t close to depression.
I was burned out.
I needed a considerable amount of time to identify and accept my state. First, being a gay man living in Russia, I spent two years on intense study of English and another one translating my novel into English. Then I had to find a proofreader, so I posted a job on the Editorial Freelancers Association (EBA) website.
By the end of the first week, I got almost a hundred responses, all different. Every single of them I read; two of every three proposals I threw into the trash. It was amazing, I must admit, all new to me. I am a Russian novelist who has never set foot in any English-speaking lands. I remember how thrilled I got every time Google notified me about another email with a copyedited test piece. One day my choice fell upon a freelancer from New York who managed to capture the nature of my story like she already knew what it was about. Sarah was perfect for the job, and soon proved the call of my intuition right. In the course of a few months, my novel would be available in paperback and kindle on Amazon.
Whenever my novel sells another copy, it makes me feel good inside because I know that my work of fiction based on a true story is going to bring changes to a particular reader for good. I see other changes around, me though, and some of them are quite worrisome.
The Russian government is working to silence us
It is disquieting to read that last November and December, two more LGBTQ organizations in Russia were added to the list of unregistered public associations functioning as foreign agents. Branding people and media as foreign agents seems to be back in the game. As of the date of this publication, there are six LGBTQ organizations on the list.
The Vykhod or Выход (Coming Out) organization, for example, was recently marked as a foreign agent in Russia even though their mission statement explains that they operate for the recognition of human dignity and equal rights by the state and society, regardless of sexual orientation and/or gender identity. Although their website is accessible from Russia, there is no certainty that it will be so tomorrow. Take a look at Gay.ru and Qguys.ru that were long ago blocked from access from within Russia.
Could this “foreign agent” nonsense work the other way around too? With the tension between the collective West and Russia building up, I wonder if anti-Russian politicians in the US might promote the notion that LGBTQ organizations (as well as Black Lives Matters groups) are, in fact, foreign agents funded by no other than Russians, Chinese, North Koreans, etc, perhaps collectively.
We gay people in Russia are not foreign agents, of course
LGBTQ people know orientation works in mysterious ways. I was 10 years old or so (growing in a village under Saint-Petersburg in the 80s) when one day I got hard because I was staring at a handsome guy. Neither a drag queen from the US nor a hard-rocking and good-looking lesbian from (name any European country like France) was around and told me that it was okay to feel that way. Without any western or whatever propaganda, I simply got hard.
LGBTQ rights are human rights, and you can help
In 2022, there is still so much work to be done for LGBTQ people around the world. I wrote my novel Truth with Ornaments to bring comfort to LGBTQ readers in Russia and to help create tolerance in Russia and globally.
My novel is very hard to access in Russia, but you can help it work! Get yourself and your friend a copy. Learn about our lives and struggles.
