It's such an easy way to silence criticism from the left to point to Russia's abysmal track record on LGBT issues while pinkwashing Ukraine. And it's incredibly disingenuous given how horrible Ukraine is in that regard. Support for gay marriage is something like 20% of the population (for context, that's about half as much as in the most persecutory red states in the USA), Zelenski made transphobic jokes on his TV show the very week before he was elected, Azov terrorized queer people as much as they terrorized Roma, i could go on. Even before the war, it really wasn't a safe place to live when you're LGBT, and it is absolutely needed to call this out.
For the record, when I worked with Rainbow Railroad we'd usually try to get people to Prague and St. Petersburg. Those were our two ideal choices for Slavic areas. Big bonus to St. Petersburg for Russians, Belarusians, and Ukrainians is that if shit goes real south its not too hard to flee to Finland, but usually St. Petersburg is enough and not many knew languages other than Russian anyways.
Since I know Czech (more or less I guess) I mostly worked with people needing resources to get to Prague.
Yeah, it's worth keeping in mind that fleeing domestically is often the easiest option. I can imagine there's a massive difference between living in St. Petersburg or, say, somewhere in rural Chechnya. On top of that, the situation for LGBT refugees from Russia has become a lot worse now due to the travel restrictions many countries in western Europe placed on Russian citizens - most EU states do not issue tourist visa to Russians anymore and some places like Finland do not allow Russians to enter at all any longer. Russian LGBT people who make it to the EU by taking the indirect route through Belarus or Georgia are frequently faced with pushbacks to these countries.
It's unbelievable how European governments have the gall to condemn Putin for his treatment of LGBT people and then immediately afterwards slam the door in the face of Russian LGBT people who come here seeking help.
It's such an easy way to silence criticism from the left to point to Russia's abysmal track record on LGBT issues while pinkwashing Ukraine. And it's incredibly disingenuous given how horrible Ukraine is in that regard. Support for gay marriage is something like 20% of the population (for context, that's about half as much as in the most persecutory red states in the USA), Zelenski made transphobic jokes on his TV show the very week before he was elected, Azov terrorized queer people as much as they terrorized Roma, i could go on. Even before the war, it really wasn't a safe place to live when you're LGBT, and it is absolutely needed to call this out.
For the record, when I worked with Rainbow Railroad we'd usually try to get people to Prague and St. Petersburg. Those were our two ideal choices for Slavic areas. Big bonus to St. Petersburg for Russians, Belarusians, and Ukrainians is that if shit goes real south its not too hard to flee to Finland, but usually St. Petersburg is enough and not many knew languages other than Russian anyways.
Since I know Czech (more or less I guess) I mostly worked with people needing resources to get to Prague.
Yeah, it's worth keeping in mind that fleeing domestically is often the easiest option. I can imagine there's a massive difference between living in St. Petersburg or, say, somewhere in rural Chechnya. On top of that, the situation for LGBT refugees from Russia has become a lot worse now due to the travel restrictions many countries in western Europe placed on Russian citizens - most EU states do not issue tourist visa to Russians anymore and some places like Finland do not allow Russians to enter at all any longer. Russian LGBT people who make it to the EU by taking the indirect route through Belarus or Georgia are frequently faced with pushbacks to these countries.
It's unbelievable how European governments have the gall to condemn Putin for his treatment of LGBT people and then immediately afterwards slam the door in the face of Russian LGBT people who come here seeking help.