Dear friends, An interesting article about LGBT Rights in Russia.
Aryan http://www.resistingwomen.net/spip.php?article119 *Struggle for LGBT rights as a part of struggle for Human Rights and against fascism* Saturday 25 August 2007 by Anastasia Nikitina , Dmitri Makarov *This text has been produced by two eminent members of the very active Youth Human Rights Movement (YHRM) created in 1998 in Russia, and that has been officially forbidden since this summer like many other organisations in application of the new Putin law on NGOs, politically aiming at controlling the civil society according to most analysts. The article has been published in the Russian magazine Open City in a special 2006 issue dedicated to the LGBT problematic in Russia. It provides useful information about, and enlightening advocacy for, LGBT rights in the specific Russian context.* This text is aimed at answering the questions we have been asked by different people throughout the year as a reaction to the participation of the Youth Human Rights Movement, the "GROZA" movement, the Youth Network against Racism and Intolerance and a number of some other organizations leaders in events around the topic of "struggle for LGBT rights". What unites us (considering the fact that we were involved in the movement for LGBT rights for different reasons)? How this kind of activity fits in the common picture of existing rights defending and antidiscrimination movements? What are we actually defending and why? What do we speak about? We use a metaphor at the seminars and trainings of the Youth Human Rights Movement to show the essence of the notion: Human Rights are "the shield defending the Individual (as the smallest minority) from the Authority". This metaphor was first used by the Polish activist and enlightener Marek Nowicki, whose whole Human Rights conception is built around the conflict of the Individual against the Authority. By the Authority we mean the majority's power over different minorities, correspondingly the struggle for Human Rights is defense of the rights of single individuals and persons belonging to minorities and having no opportunity to defend their Human Dignity in conflict or unequal confrontation with the Authority. One of the most aggressive ideologies substantiating the authority of the "majority" is fascism. All the three components of fascism deny in practice both Human Rights and Human Dignity. Firstly, it's xenophobia, the severe intolerance to difference which inevitably leads to minority persecution, secondly, it's totalitarian mechanisms of authority suppressing personality for the sake of an abstract "commonweal" and, thirdly, it's the cult of aggression and strength excusing the most radical ways of struggle with the "enemies". That is why we - human rights activists and antifascists - never stop repeating that a consistent human rights defending and antifascist position with necessity includes struggling against all the three components of fascism. Such a position is not compatible with any propaganda of single points of this phenomenon or with "tolerance" to any forms of xenophobia, violence and totalitarian tendencies. Homophobia and We? Whereas the obstruction of Moscow Gay Pride on May 27, 2006 united all the spectrum of different fascist groups and organizations (from street Nazi-skinheads to Orthodox Christian fundamentalists), there is still no consensus on the issue of homophobia among antifascists in Russia. It turned out that our community first has to overcome its own phobias and comprehend this phenomenon by strarting an internal discussion on this issue. However, while we are trying to agree upon it, homophobia (along with appeals to struggle against "illegal immigration") becomes a topic that unites totally different nationalist and neo-fascist organizations in joint actions. Orthodox Christian grannies blessed by the Russian Orthodox Church, Nazi-skinheads and the activists of Igor' Artemov's Russian All-National Union together participated in gay clubs pogroms in the early May of 2006. The State Duma deputy Nikolai Kurianovich, who joined the neo-Nazi movement Slavic Union after his exclusion from the LDPR, cryied out appeals to violence into the megaphone on the square at the Moscow city hall. By his side stood the leader of Movement against Illegal Migration Alexander Potkin against whom a suit for sowing inter-ethnic discord (according to Article 282 of the Russian Criminal Code) was filed in Kondopoga. The articles praising an "active civil position of the "ethical majority", which won't stop at direct physical violence, were published by the Orthodox Christian publicist Egor Kholmogorov and "Russia's Special Troops" newspaper's editor Konstantin Krylov. The activists of totally different organizations directly participated in the obstruction of Pride: National-Socialist Community, Slavic Union, Russian Public Movement, Cossacks' Union, Euro-Asian Youth Union and others down to single representatives of Communist Youth Union (a youth organization of CPRF), who reported it afterwards at the party's site. Starting from the propagation of LGBT's danger, nationalists and neo-Nazis achieve more and more public recognition of their significance and legitimacy and also get public grounds for disseminating their ideas. However, such situation can be easily explained, as to voice homophobic statements is less dangerous than frankly racist or even nationalist. For instance, the aggressive protest actions against Gay Pride where carried out not only with negligence of the authorities but also got support from religious organizations (from Evangelic Christian Union to Muftis' Council of Russia and Moscow Patriarchy), a number of politics and public figures (including such as the leader of the "DDT" rock band Dmitri Shevchuk) who did not sympathize the right-wing radicals having conducted the Moscow gay clubs' pogroms on the eve. No consequences followed the Moscow mayor Yuriy Luzhkov's speeches, in which he declared that he would obstruct the Pride manifestation by any means directly violating the legislation on manifestations and the constitutional norms concerning the freedom of assembly,.. And no public condemnation followed his recent insinuations about the "Satanic" nature of Gay Pride. Such climate of tolerance to discrimination not only gives the sense of impunity to the aggressors and provokes them to more radical actions but also allows the politicians and public figures such as the "Rodina" fraction's deputy Alexander Chuev or ex-LDPR member Nikolai Kurianovich to openly demonstrate their homophobia and appeal for the legislative restriction of homosexuals' rights. We can only emphasize that despite of the fact that appeals to violence and direct violence towards the "sexual minorities" meet much less public condemnation than attacks of foreign citizens and people of other nationality, these crimes stand in the same row with racial and nationalist hate crimes and are committed today by the same people. It seems that our society is going to walk the same way as the post-Weimar Germany. Very few people already remember the fact that the first victims of German Nazism of the 1930's were homosexuals, people with limited abilities and dissidents. And only after that the fascist state found arguments for a systematic extermination of Jews, Roma, the Slavs, etc. People who justify the discrimination of any of these social groups today reproduce the logic that the Nazi regime was guided by. And the question, whether they do it consciously or just follow the tastes of the majority not able to defeat its fears and accept the diversity as a value, actually doesn't matter: the consequence of a such position will be the growth of intolerance and of the number of the discrimination victims. "Struggle" - with whom and in the name of what? The pink triangle, an identifying sign of homosexuals in Nazi concentration camps, in the past used to be a symbol of resistance and an emblem of LGBT's struggle for their rights along with the rainbow flag. Historically it developed so that the struggle of LGBT for their rights is inseparable from the anti-fascist struggle. At the same time, the integration of efforts and solidarity with anybody who is subject to discrimination is a necessary element of anti-fascist movement which is aimed at acting against the discrimination of minorities and not keeping out when they become the victims of neo-fascists. Struggle for LGBT rights as we understand it is not a claim for a special status or special rights. It's an element of struggle for Human Rights - for the right of respect to private life and personal immunity, for the right not to be subject to humiliation or discrimination, finally it's the struggle for the right to human Freedom and Human Dignity, irrespective of one's origin and his/her gender or sexual orientation. The struggle for LGBT rights is not a separate campaign for the defense of a separate group's interests. It's a part of anti-fascist struggle, struggle against all the elements of fascism. Including with necessity the struggle against intolerance to difference, it assists in acknowledging and accepting differences and the ability to see Human in every person despite of any external characteristics. Struggling with harsh distribution of gender roles and with stereotypes of "right models of behavior", the movement for LGBT rights crashes the cult of militarism and physical power typical for fascist ideologies propagandizing the images of a man-warrior and housewife woman and blaming and victimizing everyone who does not fit in these models. Speaking about the third component of fascism, it's important to remind that all of the totalitarian regimes that ever existed (from USSR and Germany up to China and Cuba) were intolerant to "sexual minorities" which were one of the most unprotected social groups and which was very easy made a scapegoat. Putting forward in public space demands which are not accepted by the authorities is impossible in a politically constrained state. If we really want to stand up for defending LGBT rights and walk this way of transformation with our society, than the first step should be the activity connected with enlargoffing the space of political and civil freedoms. We are sure that in order to become really effective, the struggle for LGBT rights must go beyond the protective reaction to discriminative practices and realize itself as part of the human rights movement - propose a positive alternative to existing public opinion and norms dominating in the society. A consistent anti-fascist struggle must include the struggle against discrimination in all its forms, the extermination of xenophobia, including xenophobia among antifascists, and the assistance to LGBT community in defense of their rights. Dmitri Makarov, Anastasia Nikitina Youth Network against Racism and Intolerance Moscow - Voronezh --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth?hl=en-GB -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
