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Story Publication logo January 11, 2014

Hardship for Gay and Lesbian Russians far from Moscow

Country:

Russia
Author:
Image by Misha Friedman. Russia, 2013.
English

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Official Homophobia in Russia

With homophobic rhetoric now legitimized by federal law, being gay in Russia can be extremely...

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Konstantin Golava is a 22-year-old environmental activist in Tolyatti. Image by Misha Friedman. Russia, 2013.
Since coming out, he has been beaten by unidentified thugs, fired from his job and vilified by national and local media as having desecrated the memory of Soviet victims of WWII by deliberately placing condoms near the city’s eternal flame. Image by Misha Friedman. Russia, 2013.
Golava stands at the entrance to Tolyatti’s main park, where he was attacked in broad daylight last year after holding a news conference to explain the eternal flame incident. Image by Misha Friedman. Russia, 2013.
Golava lives in a tiny room that he shares with his brother and parents. Image by Misha Friedman. Russia, 2013.
Golava goofing around with his friend Sasha and their friends at Sasha’s home in Tolyatti, the only safe place where they feel they can be themselves. Image by Misha Friedman. Russia, 2013.
Beneath a photograph of Freddy Mercury, Sasha and a friend look at vacation pictures in Sasha’s home in Tolyatti, which he shares with his boyfriend. Image by Misha Friedman. Russia, 2013.
At Sasha’s home. Image by Misha Friedman. Russia, 2013.
Konstantin Golava with his friend, a fellow LGBT activist. Image by Misha Friedman. Russia, 2013.
“I’m afraid in Tolyatti — every fifth person knows my face,” Golava said. Image by Misha Friedman. Russia, 2013.
Konstantin Golava sits in a gay nightclub in Samra with Oksana Berezovskaya, the head of an LGBT support group called Avers. Image by Misha Friedman. Russia, 2013.
Golava attends a play about tolerance in Samara accompanied by Mikhail Tumasov, who founded the Avers support group. Image by Misha Friedman. Russia, 2013.
Alina and Lesya also live in Samara and have been together for a year. They are worried about losing custody of Lesya’s 10-year-old daughter because of growing anti-gay sentiment and legislation in Russia. Image by Misha Friedman. Russia, 2013.
Alina watches a video about seeking asylum in the U.S. at her home in Samara. Image by Misha Friedman. Russia, 2013.

This piece was also published by the Russian language BBC.

Photographer Misha Friedman spent 10 days in Tolyatti and Samara, two cities 600 miles south of Moscow in September 2013, photographing the lives of gay men and women far from the hustle of Russia's biggest cities.

He reached out to BuzzFeed after reading this story, which details the brutal abuse and violence faced by gays and lesbians in those cities. By chance, among those he photographed were two of the story's subjects — Konstantin Golava and Mikhail Tumasov.

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