of person do not exist in our society.”
Many non-governmental
organizations have taken action. The
Russian LGBT Network took immediate
action to save as many lives as possible
by spreading awareness and evacuating
any person in danger. Even those not
directly menaced by state harassment
find themselves at a heightened risk of
family violence. They are fleeing to other,
marginally more accepting regions of
Russia, or out of the federation. On the
3rd of April, the organization placed an
appeal to the Investigative Committee of
t h e R u s s i a n Fe d e r a t i o n . D e s p i t e
widespread media attention and the
publication of several first-hand stories
recounting torture and murder at the
hands of government officials, no action
has been taken to investigate the matter
as of today, neither on a local nor a
federal scale. Amnesty International has
issued a petition and various
international officials have condemned
what is scaringly reminding of a purge.
On Wednesday, a protest has been
organized by British activists outside of
the Embassy of the Russian Federation in
London.
But NGOs also warn against
islamophobic, racist, and anti-Russia
rhetoric being spread on social media.
Jessica Stern of OutRight Action
International: “Using a violent attack on
men accused of being gay to legitimize
islamophobia is dangerous and
misleading. It negates the experiences of
queer muslims and essentializes all
4
muslims as homophobic. We cannot
permit this tragedy to be co-opted by
ethno-nationalists to perpetuate anti-
Muslim or anti-Russian sentiment. The
people and their government are never
the same.”
SOURCES
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/
gay-and-terrified-in-chechnya/2017/04/09/
b128822e-18a1-11e7-855e-4824bbb5d748
_story.html
https://www.voanews.com/a/gay-men-
chechnya-reportedly-targeted-detained/
3792718.html
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-
europe-18188085
https://lgbtnet.org/en/content/statement-
russian-lgbt-networks-board-regarding-
information-kidnappings-and-murders-lgbt
https://lgbtnet.org/en/content/order-get-
confession-they-beat-him-hose-and-
tortured-electricity
http://lgbtweekly.com/2017/04/09/russian-
lgbt-network-evacuating-at-risk-people-
from-chechnya/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/01/
world/europe/chechen-authorities-arresting-
and-killing-gay-men-russian-paper-says.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/01/
world/europe/chechen-authorities-arresting-
and-killing-gay-men-russian-paper-says.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
LGBT_rights_in_Chechnya
http://www.ilga-europe.org/resources/news/
latest-news/latest-update-chechnya