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Russia Considers Making Gay Media Only Available by “Special Access,” Like Pornography

Gay media restricted in Russia

Russian parliament is considering limiting gay media to “special access,” like with pornography, instead of it being broadcasted to all. Removing gay and lesbian people from mainsteam media will inevitably lead to less representation and more homophobia, which is already rife in Russia. This comes after a Russian MP called for gays to be “sterilized” and “kept in shelters like cats.”

Milonov, a high-profile MP, said that people “have the right” to ask the state’s regulator to not allow the broadcast of gay content. “Whoever wants can have special access to such videos, as well as with pornography,” RT reported. “There is a public demand to not depict homosexual scenes.”

“A survey from the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VTsIOM) released earlier on Monday revealed that 80% of respondents believe that it is unacceptable to show homosexual relations in films and TV shows with age 18+ restrictions, while 57% of Russians surveyed said that the screening of scenes showing what they consider to be “sexual deviance” should be banned.”

Homosexuality isn’t the only thing being flagged on a “catalog” to mark so-called “toxic content,” despite the punishments likely being more severe. Other “toxic” topics proposed to be banned include radical feminism and childfree lifestyles.

Equating homosexuality with pornography — let alone “sexual deviance” — is one (disgusting) thing. Another thing is that applying for “special access” can be used as a trap: if you have to “ask” to have access to gay media then you’re automatically a possible target. Chechnya, which is part of the Russian Federation, has a history of anti-gay “purges”: including forced disappearances, secret abductions, torture, imprisonment, and murder. The Russian government cannot know who’s gay without consent. 

Amin Dzhabrailov was a victim of a 2017 purge in Chechnya. He was coloring a woman’s hair at his work, hairdressing, when “three men in uniform barged in, asking for him by name,” according to TIME. “Soon, Dzhabrailov was being hauled outside, handcuffed and thrust into the back of a car. It was hot. He felt like he couldn’t breathe. As the car took off, “my heart stopped,” he says.”

“Though the three men didn’t explain why they had come, it soon became clear, as they took Dzhabrailov’s phone, demanded his password and started scouring the device for messages and photos that would prove he was guilty of something considered deeply shameful in the conservative, predominantly Muslim republic: being gay.”

Dzhabrailov was one of dozens of men detained and tortured in the anti-gay “purge.” 

What’s going to happen to the gay men and lesbian women who, desperately wanting to access lesbian and gay media, subscribe to these porn-like media channels? It’s a flat-out ban on gay media. The Russian government knows most people will feel too unsafe to “sign up.” 

But what about the 11-year-old girls and boys who do what many of us did — tried to find gay or lesbian media — and give their details to these channels? Even if the police don’t abduct, torture and/or murder them, what will their parents do to them when they’re found out instead?

Preventing mainstream society from seeing lesbian and gay people on accessible television channels or websites, for example, means greater fear towards the unknown: homosexuality. Displacing us, making us unknowable, perpetuates homophobia. 

It doesn’t matter if the public have expressed a desire to keep gay people off mainstream media. Change the channel. Only a government who wants to erase LGB people would erase them from what people view on mainstream media.

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