Name: ロシアの反ゲイ法の下での生活の恐ろしい現実 (The terrifying reality of life under Russia's anti-gay laws)
Uploaded: 2021-01-14T04:50:41.000Z
Duration: 26 min 8 s
Description: VoiceTubeの動画で発音を聞きながら英語表現を覚えよう！学べる英語：

程度の副詞

I've just arrived in St Petersburg for the opening of Queer Fest, the city's annual gay

festival, and I'm racing to get to the launch party before police close it down. Since July,

promoting homosexuality has been a criminal offence.

"Well we've just arrived at the venue for the opening of Queer Fest and there are three

police cars and some fourteen police apparently on the lookout for gay propaganda".

That's the official term for suggesting that it's okay to be gay.

If you suggest it to anyone under 18, you can be arrested.

The law against so-called gay propaganda to minors has made the festival a pariah. Forty

venues refused to host the launch before this 17th floor gallery came to the rescue.

Polina, who's now scared to give her surname, is Queer Fest's main organiser."Nobody knows

what propaganda means. It's vague, and it's deliberately

vague because then our government can use this law arbitrarily to apply to anything,

any open expression of homosexuality. So really it drives all these people out of public space".

The law has caused outrage in the liberal West. Diplomats from Britain, Sweden and the

Netherlands have come to lend high-profile support.

"The Prime Minister has told President Putin, the other Ministers, their counterparts, that

they find this law against European law on human rights. So you have to say to what you

think is not right and is discrimination. So that is what we do and what we will keep

"Why it's polite to act like this in Russia? It shows that these countries, honestly, they

don't respect us". Vitaly Milonov heads the legislative committee

of the St Petersburg city government. He drafted a ban on gay propaganda that became the model

for the national law. On the eve of the Queer Fest launch, he asked police to lock down

For once, he didn't get what he wanted and the festival went ahead. It's organised by

a group called 'Vixhod' meaning 'Coming Out' but thanks to Milonov's law all this year's

events will be inside. "People are intimidated. People are afraid.

They don't know what is legal and not legal to do. I don't know

if I can hold hands with my girlfriend in the street and everybody's just feeling this

pressure all the time. That's what it's all about".

A video message from an esteemed gay celebrity urges them to carry on.

"Hello, I'm Stephen Fry. I'm sitting here in the offices of Vixhod, in St Petersburg.

I came here on a journey to find out just exactly what this new homophobic law is about

and although I've been horrified and upset and angry, at the brutish

tyranny of so many of the homophobic people who are supported by the local government

and indeed the federal government, what has touched me much more has been the work of

the activists of Vixhod and the people who stand up to bullying,

stand up to homophobia, stand up to name calling, stand up to violence.

And Vixhod is wicked. Thank you". The sentiments go down well with the LGBT

crowd, meaning lesbians, gays, bisexuals and trans-gendered.

But the overwhelming majority of Russians support the new law.

The country has never departed from the view that sex is only normal between a man and

a woman. Even in the relatively gay-friendly world of showbiz, popular celebrities are

Valeriya Perfilova is one of Russia's favourite entertainers, performing around the world

"I think it's our duty to protect our children from any kind of sexual propaganda, because

their mind is so vulnerable to process information of any kind of sexual relations,

whether straight or gay. It doesn't matter -- even me I would prefer not to know who

sleeps with whom. I think the person's private life has to be left behind their doors".

As well as being an acclaimed singer, Valeriya is a devoted mother of three. Like many Russians,

she wonders why her country's being picked on when scores of other countries don't even

allow gay sex. "Nobody discriminates them because they are

everywhere, in every sphere of social life and we have a lot of friends who are gay".

"So you have nothing against anyone for being gay?"

"No, no not at all. It's... I'm against ah... they need to shout it in the media. It's quite

unnatural. Why should I know who does this or that, who prefers this or... why should

I know? I don't care. I think it's not decent at least. We were brought up like this. It's

not decent to speak about it". Masha Gessen is also a mother of three but

sees the issue very differently. She's the ultimate suspect minority - a US-educated

dissident writer who is also a Jewish lesbian."Russia is not a tolerant society.

When the West was having a sexual revolution and the gay liberation movement in the '60s,

'70s and '80s, we had the Soviet Union. We didn't have any of that. We don't have a way

of talking about these things. This is really the first time that homosexuality has been

discussed in public in Russia and this is the way it's been discussed. So it's very

easy, it's very easy to turn people who are already not particularly tolerant, not accustomed

to talking about these things, to turn them violently against a social group and that's

exactly what's happened. We've seen a huge rise in anti-gay violence".

And they've seen it all over the internet. Vigilantes have been luring gays to parks,

accusing them of being paedophiles and publicly humiliating them. Every encounter recorded

"All of that appeared after propaganda laws. This group of people,

Occupy Pedofilyaj it's called, they are posting videos of young gay men being tortured and

obviously they open themselves in the videos and the police is not doing anything to investigate".

Some might see this as bullies picking on a weak minority, but Vitaly Milonov says he's

As well as being a politician, he's an Orthodox Church deacon.

"It's a sin. We... as a Christian, I cannot allow... because I'm elected as a Christian,

a member of parliament... because I never hide that...I'm a Christian. I think that

a society that legalise sin cannot do it because sins are written not

by men, not by humans, it's written by God a list of the sins. That's why society that

legalise sin is going down terrifically". Even so, he insists his law isn't anti-gay,

it's just pro-children. Homosexuals can still do what they want behind closed doors but

from now on they can't tell anyone under 18 that it's normal.

"It's legal to smoke a cigarette, it's legal to smoke a cigarette, but no one is able to

make propaganda of cigarettes or spicy food among very small kids. It's

not... it will.... it can kill a kid to give him spicy food, but it's nice stuff for an

adult. We are talking about lessons in the schools

with the assistance of LGBT organisation describing that it can be not only Santa Claus, one Santa

Claus, it can be a couple of Santa Claus - you know... that they are destroying the fairy

tales of Europe, changing them from princess and a prince to two princes or two queens

living together". Gay rights for Russia!... Gay rights for Russia!

The repercussions of Milonov's law are spreading around the globe. Protests have been held

in 30 countries, like this one outside Downing Street in London.

Many are demanding a boycott of the Winter Olympics to be held in the Russian city of

Sochi in February. "We should boycott the Games

completely. Boycott them. Any civilised country should boycott them for this. If this was

about people of colour or about religion, oh there'd be a huge hue cry, but it's not.

Because it's gay men and women, oh fuck them - you know what I mean? Pardon the language

folks". Britain's government opposes a boycott, but