Keen to draw attention away from his country’s appalling human rights record, President Putin went on a charm offensive in the run-up to February’s Winter Olympics in Sochi, releasing political prisoners and environmental campaigners, and announcing that there would be ‘no discrimination’ against gay people at the games. For Russia’s LGBTI (Lesbian, gay bisexual, transgender, intersex) community, the words rang hollow. The latest proposed homophobic law – which would deny gay parents the right to bring up their own children – was put on ice before the Olympics but the vote was rescheduled for the end of February, once the media circus had left town.
Isabella Moore travelled to Russia to meet ordinary Russians whose lives and loves are threatened by their government’s crackdown on its LGBTI citizens.
