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This article presents a transnational ethnography of a Russian‐speaking LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer/questioning) community in New York City addressing the impact of state‐sponsored homophobia in Russia, particularly the 2013 “gay propaganda” ban on international queer migration. Drawing on the theorizations of Russian state‐sponsored homophobia from a perspective of sexual citizenship, the article suggests that emigration through political asylum becomes a new form of the post‐Soviet queer political subject's response to the exclusion from citizenship. Accompanied by the increase in physical and symbolic violence generated by the antigay legislation, the current configuration of sexual citizenship makes staying in Russia unbearable for some non‐heterosexual citizens prompting them to emigrate. In the United States, they attempt to find safety from systemic homophobia and access sexual citizenship rights by applying for political asylum, which is a precarious route in itself as it makes them vulnerable to the structural violence of the U.S. immigration regime. Their willingness to take this risk indicates the significance of both state‐sponsored homophobia and sexual citizenship to their lives. The article also considers another transnational effect of the “gay propaganda” law: the transformation of RUSA LBGT, a New‐York‐City‐based Russian‐speaking LGBTQ community, from a social to activist organization, due to the influx of new migrants seeking asylum in the United States. Thus, it suggests that state‐sponsored homophobia in Russia has de‐territorialized transnational effects such as stimulation of LGBTQ emigration and transformation and mobilization of diasporic communities.

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