The Silenced Citizens of Russia

Abstract

This article draws attention to how citizenship, informed by heteronormativity, is represented in politics, judiciary and public social practices in Russia. I argue that the observed discursive reality affects construction of heteronormative citizenship that restricts full inclusion of lesbians and gay men via silencing. The ideas of the article are taken from literature on citizenship and two empirical research studies that I conducted in 2010 and 2011–2012. The first is dedicated to the uncovering of discursive effects of political argumentation in Russia. The second study centres on the accounts of lesbians and gay men themselves regarding their citizenship rights. Both studies give rise to concerns about Soviet legacy in contemporary Russian debates on homosexuality. This idea is supported by an analysis of that historical context that may be grasped from empirical studies of the Soviet.

Essentialist beliefs and social distance towards gay men and lesbian women: a latent profile analysis

“…LGBT and heterosexual communities in social networks, which could have led to a larger proportion of non-heterosexual participants (homosexuals, bisexual, and other orientation) in the sample, because heterosexuals often started, but did not finish, filling out our questionnaire. This may be due to the fact that the topic of research was unpleasant for them and because of negative discourse about homosexuality in Russia (Kondakov, 2014;Novitskaya, 2017;Wilkinson, 2014). Meanwhile, homosexuals, bisexuals, and other non-heterosexual individuals may have seen this questionnaire as a way to speak out about their sexuality and confirm their identity, which may have led to a greater completion rate.…”

Inequality and social stratification in Russia during the Putin regime: From market transition to war on Ukraine

“…Government media messaging has explicitly linked military aggression toward Ukraine with the “re‐masculinization” of Russia (Voronova, 2017). Conventional, even toxic masculinity is not only popular in the abstract in Putin‐era Russia, it has legislative teeth: in the last decade new laws have weakened protections against gender‐based discrimination in the labor market, decriminalized domestic violence, and effectively outlawed overt homosexuality (Johnson, 2017; Kondakov, 2014; Temkina & Zdravomyslova, 2014), and pro‐natalist policies emphasize women's role as bearers of children (Borozdina et al., 2016). Such measures serve to reinforce women's subordinate position in Russian society.…”

Minority stress among Russian lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in young and middle adulthood: Associations with internalizing and externalizing mental health problems.

“…Contrary to the general trend in the Western world, anti-LGBT attitudes in Russia have even worsened over the last 20 years (Levada Center, 2015, 2021). There are increasing difficulties for Russian LGBT organizations and community centers to fight for equal rights and to support LGBT people (Buyantueva, 2018; Horne & White, 2020; Kondakov, 2014). Today’s Russian LGBT community faces more violence cases than ever before, including severe hate crimes (Human Rights Watch, 2014, 2019; Kondakov, 2021; Russian LGBT Network, 2016).…”