Sexual Citizens in Exile: State‐Sponsored Homophobia and Post‐Soviet LGBTQI+ Migration

Abstract

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.

Post‐migration psychosocial experiences and challenges amongstLGBTQ+ forced migrants: A meta‐synthesis of qualitative reports

“…The theme contains three categories: intersectional challenges encountered as an LGBTQ+ forced migrant (ES 97%; Akin, 2017; Alessi, 2016; Alessi et al, 2018, 2020; Alessi, Greenfield, et al, 2021; Cerezo et al, 2014; Dhoest, 2019, 2020; Golembe et al, 2020; Held, 2022; Kahn, 2015a, 2015b; Kahn & Alessi, 2018; Karimi, 2020a, 2020b, 2021; Kostenius et al, 2021; Lee & Brotman, 2011; Llewellyn, 2021; Logie et al, 2016; Mulé, 2021; Murray, 2014a, 2014b; Novitskaya, 2021; Oren & Gorshkov, 2021; Rosati et al, 2021; Wimark, 2019, 2021), psychological reactions and manifestations (ES 86%; Akin, 2017; Alessi, 2016; Alessi et al, 2018, 2020; Cerezo et al, 2014; Golembe et al, 2020; Held, 2022; Kahn, 2015a, 2015b; Kahn et al, 2018; Kahn & Alessi, 2018; Karimi, 2020a, 2021; Kostenius et al, 2021; Lee & Brotman, 2011; Llewellyn, 2021; Logie et al, 2016; Mulé, 2021; Murray, 2014a, 2014b; Oren & Gorshkov, 2021; Rosati et al, 2021; Wimark, 2019, 2021), and practical issues related to resettlement and living conditions (ES 66%; Akin, 2017; Alessi, 2016; Alessi et al, 2018, 2020; Cerezo et al, 2014; Golembe et al, 202...…”

“…The theme contains three categories: resilience and strengthening resources (ES 90%) (Alessi, 2016; Alessi et al, 2018, 2020; Alessi, Greenfield, et al, 2021; Cerezo et al, 2014; Dhoest, 2019, 2020; Golembe et al, 2020; Held, 2022; Kahn, 2015a, 2015b; Kahn et al, 2018; Karimi, 2020a, 2020b, 2021; Kostenius et al, 2021; Lee & Brotman, 2011; Logie et al, 2016; Mulé, 2021; Murray, 2014a, 2014b; Novitskaya, 2021; Oren & Gorshkov, 2021; Rosati et al, 2021; Wimark, 2019, 2021), identity formation (ES 62%; Akin, 2017; Alessi, Greenfield, et al, 2021; Cerezo et al, 2014; Dhoest, 2020; Golembe et al, 2020; Held, 2022; Kahn, 2015a, 2015b; Karimi, 2020a, 2020b, 2021; Lee & Brotman, 2011; Llewellyn, 2021; Logie et al, 2016; Murray, 2014a; Oren & Gorshkov, 2021; Rosati et al, 2021; Wimark, 2019), and establishing and maintaining social relationships (ES 45%; Dhoest, 2019, 2020; Held, 2022; Kahn, 2015a; Karimi, 2020a, 2020b, 2021; Mulé, 2021; Murray, 2014a, 2014b; Oren & Gorshkov, 2021; Wimark, 2019, 2021).…”

Violent Affections: Queer sexuality, techniques of power, and law in Russia

“…Russia's major censorship state agency, Roskomnadzor (the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media), enforces this law by ordering the withdrawal of information rendered 'propaganda of non-traditional sexual relationships' from public access. But its effects go further than mere law enforcement, as this book and other studies show (Shtorn 2018;Novitskaya 2021;Utkin 2021b;Soboleva and Bakhmetjev 2015;Kondakov 2017b).…”

“…This could explain the rise of anti-queer violence in that period encompassing the years spent on investigation, prosecution and adjudication of cases. Peaking anti-queer violence is one of the results of this meme's resonance, while we should add to this all the other effects that violent affections produced at the time, such as online bullying or displacement of LGBT+ people from Russia to other countries for refuge (Brock and Edenborg 2020;Lokot 2019;Novitskaya 2021;Mole 2021). Second, the comparison shows that the meme may have reached its zenith and that its demise was due to its codification in law.…”

American Conservatives and the Allure of Post-Soviet Russian Orthodoxy

“…Post-Soviet Russia, the creation of both church and state as it were, a geopolitical, religiously attuned country, becomes, in the words of one of my Appalachian interlocutors, "the only thing that can save the world". This salvation for traditionalists comes through the preservation of the heteronormative family, the moral curation of the public sphere, and the subjugation of fundamental human rights for LGBTQ+ people (Novitskaya 2021). Indeed, during a 2013 interview between far-right conspiracist Rick Wiles and World Congress of Families managing director Larry Jacobs , the latter proclaimed to the former that "the Russians might be the Christian saviors of the world at the UN because they are standing up for these traditional values-family and faith" (Tashman 2013).…”