Wednesday, October 16 at 7:00 PM at the LGBT Center in NYC.
With our successful Coke eZap and the action with RUSA LGBT at Carnegie Hall, we are gathering to plan our next steps. Bring your friends and your best ideas.
Queer Nation NY & RUSA LGBT Town Hall Meeting on Russia
Third Queer Nation NY & RUSA LGBT Town Hall Meeting on Russia
New anti-LGBT legislation – a bill that would remove children from their LGBT parents – introduced in the Russian Duma (Russian parliament) demands a response.
“We’re kind of past the point where silence can ever protect,” Gessen told the crowd during the August 21 meeting. “At this point, the more Russians know and the Kremlin knows that the world is watching, the safer we feel on the ground.”
And Russians and the Kremlin are watching and listening to the response that has swept around the globe since Russia enacted its anti-gay propaganda law in June. The law bans any pro-LGBT statement in public or private and on the Internet. With the law, Russia has effectively criminalized being out of the closet or supporting the LGBT community.
“One of the best moments of my time was when I was in my car 10 days ago in Moscow and I turned on the radio and they were talking about the vodka boycott on every radio station,” Gessen said. “That is getting media attention. It was really, really amazing, Suddenly we’d been granted visibility that we hadn’t had in years.”
Gessen has been living in Russia for the past 20 years. Her writings are published by The New York Times and other influential media outlets. She wrote The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin, the acclaimed 2012 political biography of the current Russian president. In a recent piece for The Guardian, she explained why she and her family will be leaving Russia for good. Gessen spearheaded the writing of a public statement released by Queer Nation NY now signed by dozens of Russians and their supporters – many taking great risks by adding their names – calling for a boycott of Russian goods and the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi.
The exuberant crowd also planned a demonstration targeting The Coca Cola Company, a major sponsor of the Winter Games. The demonstration will take place on Wednesday, August 28, at noon in Times Square. Visit QueerNationNY.org or our Facebook Page for further details. You may also follow us on Twitter @QueerNationNY.
The group then strategized over how to continue the Russian vodka boycott led by Andrew Miller, a Queer Nation NY member. There have been boycotts and protests on four continents since the July 22 call by many LGBT activists to boycott Russian products and the Winter Games.
Further demonstrating the boycott’s power, John Esposito, president of the newly formed Stoli USA, the U.S. subsidiary of SPI Group, the Russian company that makes and sells Stolichnaya vodka, attended the meeting. Esposito was joined by Lori J. Tieszen, the senior vice president and chief marketing officer at Stoli USA. Esposito and Tieszen were welcomed at the meeting and informed that they could comment just like any other person there by raising their hands. They chose to remain silent.
The town hall meeting was sponsored by Queer Nation NY and RUSA LGBT, a Russian-speaking American LGBTQ association. The event was moderated by Ann Northrop.
More pictures of the event may be found on the Social+Diarist Page on Facebook.
Queer Nation & RUSA LGBT Town Hall Meeting on Russia
Please join us for a Town Hall Meeting on Russia on Wednesday, August 21, at 7:00 PM, to firm up action plans.
Our special guest will be journalist Masha Gessen, who will provide firsthand testimony about what it’s like for LGBT Russians today. Masha is a well-known and widely respected lesbian activist who last year published The Man Without A Face, the acclaimed biography of Vladimir Putin.
In the meantime, check continue to visit our site for ongoing press coverage of LGBT Russians and please see the wrap-up of last week’s meeting. New York magazine reported on the town hall’s sizable contingent of LGBT Russians, many of whom are now seeking asylum in the United States.
And help to spread the word about Wednesday’s meeting: WHEN: August 21, 7:00 PM WHERE:LGBT Community Center 208 West 13th Street, between Seventh and Greenwich Avenues
Last night, about 100 people gathered at New York’s LGBT Community Center to talk about strategies for fighting Russia’s new law against “homosexual propaganda” — a measure that bans most forms of gay public expression. Attending the event, convened by the groups RUSA LGBT and Queer Nation, were about a dozen LGBT Russian New Yorkers, including both longtime residents and recent arrivals. With their American supporters, they discussed ideas ranging from vodka pour-outs to marches in front of New York’s Russian Orthodox churches — church leaders in Russia support the law — to campaigns against U.S. corporations, such as Coca-Cola and McDonald’s, that have a large presence in Russia and are sponsoring the upcoming Winter Olympics in Sochi.
We checked in with some of the Russian attendees to see how they feel about their country’s new crackdown on gays, what should be done about it, and where to get the best Russian food in New York City.
Over 150 Gather for Queer Nation NY Town Hall Meeting on Russia
More than 150 people, including many Russians and Eastern European emigres engaged in this issue, gathered at The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center to discuss the Russian government’s continuing attacks on LGBT Russians and to plan a response to those attacks.
The August 14 meeting, which will be followed by an August 21 meeting at The Center, was organized by Queer Nation NY and opened with comments by Ann Northrop, a Queer Nation NY member, followed by presentations from Nina Long, the co-president of RUSA LGBT, a Russian-Speaking American LGBTQ association, and Roman Mamonov, a Russian TV anchor who was fired from his job after coming out. Mamonov left Russia in 2012 after receiving death threats and has applied for asylum in the U.S. Nancy Goldstein, who wrote “Sticking It to Sochi: Russian LGBT Activists on What Works” in The American Prospect, read a statement of support from Alexei Davydov, a gay Russian activist. Two videos that demonstrated the violence that LGBT Russians are enduring and the global response were shown.
The attendees included such community stalwarts as longtime gay and AIDS activist Andy Velez, journalist Andy Humm and Randy Wicker, who has been fighting for the community since before Stonewall, and much younger community members including a young Russian man who has been in the U.S. for just three weeks and a young Bostonian who recently returned from a trip to Ukraine. Brad Hoylman, the openly-gay state senator who represents the district that runs from 72nd Street to the West Village and from river to river in Manhattan, and Tom Duane, who held that seat for 14 years before Hoylman, were at the event. Also attending were longtime gay and AIDS activists Jamie Bauer and Ira Manhoff, attorney Joan Gibbs, and Michael Lucas of Lucas Entertainment, a film studio.
Following the presentations, attendees had a wide-ranging discussion about how the community should respond. There was support for a continuing boycott of Russian products, including Russian vodka, and the 2014 Winter Olympic Games at Sochi. Other ideas included pressing the New York City mayoral candidates to oppose the recently enacted Russian law that bans any pro-gay statements in public or private and on the Internet to pressing Andrew Cuomo, New York’s governor, to offer Lake Placid, the site of the 1980 Winter Olympic Games, as an alternative to Russia where the 2014 Games are scheduled to be held.
Other proposals included picketing the September 23 Opening Night Gala at the The Metropolitan Opera. The performers that evening will include soprano Anna Netrebko and conductor Valery Gergiev, both are supporters of Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president and a champion of the anti-gay law. Attendees also suggested denying U.S. travel visas to anti-gay Russian politicians and funneling money and support to LGBT activists in Russia. Duane proposed that he and a group travel to Russia to directly confront the anti-gay law. People also proposed targeting the sponsors of the 2014 Games.
After this discussion, attendees decided that they would produce an action following Queer Nation NY’s August 21 meeting, which will also be held at The Center and will feature author and journalist Masha Gessen, who is leaving Russia after 20 years because of the threats to her and her family.
