Russia’s most prominent gay rights organization, Sphere Foundation, is up and running less than a year since Putin’s government forced its closure.
In 2022, the Kremlin sued the Sphere Foundation, a legal entity that operated the Russian LGBT network, for acting under “foreign influence” during a crackdown on gay rights.
Dilya Gafurova, head of the organization, told The Daily Beast that most of the foundation’s members volunteered to work under the radar while it was defunct.
“As a consequence of our legal entity’s liquidation, we faced a choice: we could either go our separate ways or buckle up and look for solutions,” Gafurova said. “As somebody heading Sphere, I really would not have blamed anyone at the time who’d wanted to leave—we already had put up a good fight, had a good run while we could; I mean, we were the ones who supported the LGBT+ movement across Russia for over 11 years, and some members of our team had been public, doing advocacy and awareness-raising work, and therefore were running high personal risks. But very few did leave, our core team is preserving itself.”
Sphere has managed to keep all of its previous programs and projects intact. It is now looking to expand. The foundation has been supporting gay rights in Russia for many years but it aims to include feminist initiatives, too.
Sphere’s resurrection comes at a significant time. On December 5, Putin signed a law that restricts “LGBT propaganda.” Promoting homosexuality, under the law, can be as little as mentioning same-sex attraction in public, online, in advertising or in the media.
“We were the ones that had been running a campaign against the previously existing ban on ‘LGBT propaganda’ among minors. The previous law was not used much, wasn’t really applied—mostly to curb activism and the work of such organizations as ours on awareness-raising,” said Gafurova. “We see the new legislation as an expanded version of that—the wording is so vague, the government may use it as it pleases them if they’re willing to target one’s activity. What is ‘LGBT propaganda’ anyways? They have this set of bills that now touches upon so many spheres, like media, book publishing, streaming platforms, stores and e-commerce, and yet ‘propaganda’ isn’t even clearly defined.
“Many are asking us why the Russian government would pass such legislation now, when it’s grappling with enough issues as is. In fact, it makes a lot of sense—it’s a part of an ideological confrontation with the West. Being LGBT+, in the eyes of Russian MPs, is the result of harmful Western influence, a ‘hybrid war,’ as they call it.”
Gafurova is concerned the organization could be labelled as “propaganda,” despite the law technically not prohibiting it from providing psychological and legal assistance.
“We made our peace with it,” said Gafurova. “We will not change a thing, so the LGBT+ people will not be made feel as if they are on their own with what’s happening.”
