Rainbow bLAWg

The mayor of Sochi was ridiculed last week after his statement that there are no gays in the resort town even though he is aware of the many night clubs and resorts that cater to gays. One such club, Zerkais, is situated near his office, and offers a male striptease and drag shows.

Another club, Mayak, offers nightly drag shows for up to 400 customers in a dimly lit, one-storey building close to the seafront. There is no sign outside because after it had been ripped down so often by homophobic youths, it was left down. The openly gay co-owner of Mayak, Andrei Tanichev said he has attended meetings with the mayor over improving the gloomy lighting outside his club.  And he also says he was in contact with the city’s administrative offices before the Olympics. They called and asked whether their menus had been translated into English and asked whether they were training staff to speak foreign languages.

Tanichev tries to look at the positive side of the discussion about LGBT rights sparked by the recent anti-gay “propaganda” law, and hopes local and national attitudes will change after the Olympics. “Before it, the rights of Russian homosexuals were not discussed at all,” he said.

He says the new law has not changed anything for his club. “In our region, a 10 p.m. curfew for youngsters has already been in place for around three years. We’ve brought in strict bouncers and ID checks at the entrance,” Tanichev said. According to him, there are never minors in the club.

The problem with trying to disappear people who refuse to disappear is that their stories find a way of getting told. There is a battle going on against websites, against journalism, against free speech, and against storytelling. Last week the young journalist who launched an online forum called “Children 404: We Exist,” was charged with violating the country’s new “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations.” A trial date will be set soon, and if she is found guilty, which is very likely, she’ll be fined and the page on vk.com will be shut down.

The name, Children 404: We Exist, comes from the online “404 not found” error code.

Even if the government is successful, a similar forum and website will eventually resurface. People will get their stories out in one way or another.

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Carrie Stone