Story by Spencer Knowles

 
For 46 years the Soviet Union surrounded itself with the Iron Curtain. This term has been used to describe the ideological differences and physical political boundaries in Europe during the Cold War, cutting off influence from the outside world and hammering home the importance of nationalism. Today, 22 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Iron Curtain being lifted, Russia finds itself under the world’s watchful eye as the international community follows the Olympic torch to Sochi for the XXII Winter Olympiad.
February’s Olympics has brought increased attention and scrutiny to a country that has been historically unwelcoming to outside influence. Foreign relations have been particularly strained with the United States. The two countries have butted heads over several current issues including Syria’s use of chemical weapons, granting asylum to Edward Snowden after he leaked classified intelligence data, and social tension over what some consider a homophobic Russian political agenda. The latter has had the largest effect on the upcoming international games, drawing protest from civil rights organizations, and calls from Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) activists to boycott the Olympics.
In June 2013, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed into law a bill banning the distribution of gay propaganda among children, with propaganda being defined as publically promoting anything that equates same sex relationships to heterosexual relationships.  The Russian Federal Assembly also passed a bill limiting adoption by homosexuals, within and outside of Russia, and discussed legislation that would criminalize homosexuality. Despite criticism from LGBTQ supporters worldwide, the propaganda law is supported by 88 percent of Russians, according to a poll from the Levada Center, a Russian non-governmental research organization. For Yevgeny Senturev, a 33-year-old from Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, the law is important for protecting young minds from what he considers a harmful lifestyle.
“I will stand against people if they try to propagandize homosexuality as a norm to my children,” says Senturev. “The world community doesn’t have the right to impose its views on our country. Russia is an independent state with its own history, traditions, and religious and moral principles, which most citizens preserve.”
Because the language of the law cites vague “homosexual propaganda” specifically, police have arrested people for various infractions. The first instance occurred on July 22, 2013, when four Dutch tourists were arrested while making a documentary about gay communities in Russia.  The law has also served as a pretext to prevent LGBTQ protests and to break up gay pride parades in Moscow.
For gay rights activists in Russia, fines and jail time are not always the biggest concern. On October 12, a gay pride demonstration was violently confronted by anti-gay protesters, resulting in injuries and a total of 67 arrests from both sides. Physical assaults on homosexuals and transgender people are common, and open homosexuality is generally not tolerated in Russian society.
“The society has no acceptance at all of gays,” says Artur Sibgatullin, a University of Oregon student who has lived in Russia and the United States. “As our generation gets older, new ideals, new morals are going to come out of that. But until that happens, it’s going to be looked down upon. It’s going to be something that’s just avoided.”
21-year-old Sigbatullin lived in Russia for 11 years before moving to Eugene when his mother got married. He is among a generation of Russians who never knew life in the Soviet Union and grew up during the rebuilding of the Russian state. Raised under the guise of democratic principles, this new generation now expects a government, which in the past has been accused of deep corruption and election fraud, to deliver a more transparent government, the right to a meaningful vote, and freedom to demand these changes without fear of persecution.
“But,” Sibgatullin asks, “how can you be a democracy if you haven’t experienced it, if you don’t really know what it is, if you’ve always been under a regime?” He explains of the Russian youth, “They look up to the freedoms that [Americans] have. And when they see that it’s becoming socially acceptable to like your own kind, you know, what’s wrong with that?”
However, the United States may not provide the best examples of transparency and social reform. Only with great persistence and determination have minority groups been able to find an ally in the U.S. government. LGBTQ groups have been able to form such an allegiance only recently—less than a year ago homosexuals faced federal restrictions on same-sex marriage and openly gay individuals serving in the military. After repealing both measures, the Senate is now on the verge of passing the Employment Non-Discrimination Act that will protect LGBTQ individuals in the workplace.
Maure Smith-Benanti, assistant director of LGBTQ education and support services at the University of Oregon, came out as a lesbian in 1997, when attitudes towards homosexuality were much more conservative. “It feels like the first decade of my being out was a lot of work, a very steep uphill climb,” she says. “I never would have imagined in a million years that we would have come as far as we have.”
Growing up in a Mormon household in Utah, Smith-Benanti was well aware of conservative social values in the United States.
“In rural areas in our country, currently it’s the same [as in Russia],” she says. “I mean, there are still 38 states where you can get fired for being lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender, and only 16 now that you can get married in.”
When asked if the United States should be so concerned with gay rights in Russia when our own domestic policy still needs help, Smith-Benanti responded, “I don’t know if it’s fair, but it is probably right. It’s probably hypocritical, and it’s probably the right thing to do.”
As the world approaches the 2014 Winter Olympics, it remains to be seen what statements, if any, will be made by athletes and activists both on and off the field. President Putin has guaranteed the safety of gay athletes and tourists by temporarily suspending the propaganda law in an effort to ease concerns from LGBTQ activists.  The Russian president has also taken measures to limit the politicization of the games by banning all protests during the months leading up to and surrounding the event.
The Olympics has a long history of political involvement and controversy. The U.S. and the Soviet Union each led boycotts during the later parts of the Cold War, and the 1968 black power medal stand protest by Tommy Smith and John Carols in Mexico City is a lasting image of the African American civil rights movement. The gay rights movement in Russia is in its infancy, but the minority group of pro-LGBTQ Russian citizens is committed to change, however long it may take.