LGBT Human Rights Project GayRussia.Ru is the main LGBT Advocate organization in Russia.
It is the organizer of numerous public actions in Russia, the most famous being the Moscow Pride and the Slavic Pride. It also sponsored the documentary Moscow Pride '06 which was part of the Official Selection of the Berlin Film Festival in 2007.
Since November 2008, Project GayRussia.Ru extended its advocacy work in Belarus where it launched the Slavic Gay Pride movement with its local partner Gaybelarus.By.
With over 5571 news published in Russian and 407 news published in English (as of August 11, 2009), the website of the organization is a bridge between the Russian speaking LGBT community and the rest of the world featuring Russian LGBT news in English and World LGBT news in Russian. It is also being used to advertize the campaigns and the advocacy work of the organization.
www.gayrussia.ru is the most frequently non-commercial read website about LGBT rights issues in Russia .
Project GayRussia.Ru tracked and revealed the homophobia of various Russian politicians and public figures, especially of the City Mayor of Moscow, Yuri Luzhkov.
Main Goal
The organization was created to fight discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in Russia. Its aim is to raise awareness on LGBT issues in the society by launching a series of public campaigns demanding the end of different discrimination faced by the community.
The organization believes that raising LGBT issues in public debates and in the media is the only way to change the view, often biased, of Russian public opinion towards LGBT people.
In February 2009, the organization defined a moto: “Gay Equality, No Compromise”
Organization
Origins
Project GayRussia.Ru was launched on May 17, 2005 by Nikolai Alekseev in Moscow on the first International Day Against Homophobia.
Nikolai Alekseev launched the organization because no progress was made since the decriminalization of male homosexuality in Russia in 1993.
Structure
As a non registered organization, it operates under article 3 of the Federal Law on public association which states : “Public organisations created by citizens can be registered in accordance with the current Federal Law and acquire the rights of registered legal body or can function without state registration and acquiring of the rights of registered legal body”. The organization does not receive any funding and it does not hold neither a bank account nor any property.
Key People
Nikolai Alekseev is the founder and current leader of Project GayRussia. Among other activists are Nikolai Baev, signing articles published on the website of the organization, he also represented the organization in several LGBT conferences outside Russia, Irina Fet who attempted to marry her partner in Moscow on May 12 2009, Anton Sutyagin coordinating the operations of the organization in Belarus, Yuri Gavrikov, in charge of the logistics of the campaigns. Dmitri Bartnev is the lawyer of the organization. The organization counts on a rotating group of approximately 20 to 30 activists.
Membership
Project GayRussia.Ru is a Member of the IDAHO Committee (the International Day Against Homophobia), InterPride (the International Association of LGBT Pride Organizers), the EPOA (European Pride Organizers Association). It is also the founding member of the Slavic Pride movement.
Campaigns
Project GayRussia.Ru has launched 5 main campaigns since its launch. One was successfully closed in 2008. The most famous ongoing campaign is for Freedom of Assembly which is often referred by media as the "Moscow Pride battle".
Campaign for Freedom of Assembly
As of July 2009, not a single LGBT demonstration has ever been authorized in any city of Russia .
In July 2005, Project GayRussia.Ru launched the Moscow Pride Initiative which was announced by Nikolai Alekseev during a press conference held in Moscow . The mayor of Moscow, Yuri Luzhkov said on several occasions that he will not authorize any public action of gays in the streets of the Russian capital. The Moscow Pride took place despite the bans on May 27 2006, May 27 2007, June 1 2008 and May 16 2009. Activists were arrested every year in front of the main international media. Reports were made all around the world.
Project GayRussia.Ru also extended its campaign outside Moscow and attempted to organize street public actions in Tambov (October 2008) and Ryazan (April 2009).
The organization systematically appealed any of its banned actions through the Russian courts before to send it to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France. Not a single case was won in Russia . Russian judges denied taking into consideration when judging the different cases the precedent set by the European Court . In the case of Bączkowski v Poland the Court ruled that the ban of the Warsaw Pride in 2005 was a violation of the European Convention on Human Rights, which was ratified by the Russian Federation in 1998.
As of July 2009, 168 banned events are pending consideration in 7 different cases at the European Court .
On February 14 2009, activists from Project Gayrussia.ru and Project gaybelarus.by organized together with activists from local LGBT group TaPaGeS, a protest in the centre of Strasbourg asking the European Court to speed up the consideration of their complain, the oldest being sent in January 2007.
On July 19 2006 and July 19 2007, a protest organized by Project Gayrussia.ru in front of the Iranian Embassy with the aim “to attract attention to the execution of minors and ask for the repeal of death penalty” was authorized by the Prefecture of the Central Administrative area of Moscow .
The application was not explicitly referring to a gay protest. However, the same protest was banned in July 2008 and July 2009 after the words “and homosexuals” was added in the application.
In April 2009, Project GayRussia.Ru decided to take to the UN Human Rights Committee the ban of the July 2008 protest. The organization aims is to ultimately get a ruling against Russia both at the European Court and at the UN Human Rights Committee.
Campaign for Lifting Ban on blood donation by Gays
In April 2006, Project GayRussia.Ru asked the General Prosecution and the Minister of Health to amend the instruction on blood donors released by the Minister of Health on September 14 2001 which includes homosexuals as part of the HIV high risk group.
In July 2006, the General Prosecution recognised that there is nothing in the law which prevents gays from donating their blood. Instead, the law only define a list of disease that can prevent to donate blood. As a result, it asked the Ministry of Health to remove homosexuals from its instruction.
In April 2007, Project GayRussia.Ru sent a reminder to the General Prosecution and the Ministry of Health as the instruction had not been amended.
On September 14 2007, Project GayRussia.Ru organized a protest in front of the Minister of Health asking for the instruction to be amended. The protest took place despite having been banned by the authorities and several activists were arrested. The same day Nikolai Alekseev attempted to give his blood at a transfusion centre in Moscow . He was denied. The denial was recorded by several media who were covering the event.
In May 2008, the Ministry of Health wrote to Project GayRussia.Ru and confirmed that it had finally removed homosexuals from its instruction.
As of July 2009, this campaign still marks the only discrimination against homosexual removed in Russia since decriminalization of male same sex relations in 1993.
Campaign to End Ban on HIV+ Foreigners Entering Country
In February 2009, Project GayRussia.Ru initiated a campaign for the cancellation of article 10 of the law of 1995 on prevention of distribution of HIV in Russia which bans HIV-positive foreigners from staying in Russia for more than three months. The organization asked the President, the Prime Minister and the Foreign Affairs Minister, to stop requesting foreign visa applicants for their HIV status.
Campaign Against Regional Law to forbid propaganda of homosexuality to minors
On May 24 2006, the local parliament of the region of Ryazan added to the list of administrative offences: "Section 3.13. Public actions oriented to propaganda of homosexuality (male and female) among minor children".
In March 2009, activists of Project GayRussia.Ru launched a campaign asking the law to be repealed. On March 30 2009, Nikolai Baev and Ira Fet were arrested in Ryazan and charged for propaganda of homosexuality to minors after they stood next to a local school with banners quoting “Homosexuality is normal “ and “I am homosexual and proud of it”. They were released and sentenced to a fine.
As of July 2009, the organization is preparing to send the case to the Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights. The organization also appealed for 1 march and 1 picket which were denied. The aim was to be able to challenge the constitutionality of the law at the level of the Constitutional Court and European Court of Human Rights.
Campaign for Same Sex Marriage
Organization of International Events
In 2006, Project GayRussia.Ru organized the 1st Moscow Pride Festival from May 25 to May 27. In 2007, Project GayRussia.Ru organized the 2nd Moscow Pride Festival from May 26 to May 27. In 2008, Project GayRussia.Ru did not organize a festival. The 3rd Moscow Pride took place in the form of 2 street actions. In 2009, Project GayRussia.Ru organized the 1st Slavic Pride Festival in Moscow from May 14 to May 17
In 2005, Project GayRussia.Ru initiated a “LGBT barometer” to monitor the attitude of Rusian towards homosexuals. The poll was made by the Independent Centre Levada. It took place in Spring 2005, Spring 2006 and Spring 2007. It was discontinued from 2008 and onward due to lack of funding.
Project GayRussia.Ru operates as an informal news agency, providing information directed to the LGBT community in English and in Russian. This channel also served to publicize the activities of the organization. As of December 2008, Project GayRussia.Ru reported the publication of over 5’000 articles and 10 million hits on its website.
In Russia , its news are often republished by news agency Interfax, radio Echo of Moscow, and internet portal Lenta.ru, Newsru.com.
Outside Russia, its news are republished by news agency AFP, AP and numerous LGBT magazines and internet portals such as Tetu, E-llico Illico, Yagg (France), The Advocate, 365gay.com, Queerty (USA), UKgayNews, Pinknews (UK).
In 2005, Project GayRussia.Ru has established a partnership with the LGBT news site UKGayNews.
In 2009, Project GayRussia.Ru has established a partnership with Gay-Radio.ru, the main Gay Radio broadcasted in Russian over the internet.
Recognition & Awards
In March 2006, Project GayRussia.Ru was an Iron Donor of the XXIII ILGA World Conference which took place in Geneva, Switzerland.
In May 2009, Project GayRussia.Ru was awarded the "Golden Heart Award" from the Phnom Penh ( Cambodia ) LGBT Pride Festival in recognition of its support to the organization.
See "Reputation and Awards" of Nikolai Alekseev for other Awards attributed personally to
Nikolai Alekseev in the framework of his involvement with Project GayRussia.
A retrospective of the work accomplished by the organization from May 2005 until December 2008 is available under GayRussia Celebrates Three and a Half Years of Gay Activism.
