LGBT Londoners stand with tortured gay men in Chechnya
- Text by Michael Segalov
- Photography by Theo McInnes
As summer finally starts to hit London this April, pride season will soon be on us once again; up and down the United Kingdom towns and cities will play host to big queer celebrations, LGBT people will stand proud as they march, prance and dance through the streets.
We’re a long way from complete LGBT equality in Britain, from a mental and sexual health crisis to youth homelessness and a spike in hate crime, for many life is still a struggle everyday.
But when news seeped through into the media this week that in Chechnya, a southern Russian republic, hundreds of men “suspected” of being gay are being abducted, tortured and even killed under orders of the government, it was a stark reminder to all of us that across the globe LGBT people are still being abused and murdered by governments and states.
In the United Kingdom white gay men have relative privilege in our community and society more broadly, and many seem to forget the hatred, abuse and violence faced by other queers at home and and abroad. This devastating news will hopefully act as a wake up call.
Svetlana Zakharova from the Russian LGBT network has told reporters that “gay people have been detained and rounded up,” in Chechnya, and that she and others are working to evacuate people from the camps, with some have now having left the region.
“Those who have escaped said they are detained in the same room and people are kept altogether, around 30 or 40. They are tortured with electric currents and heavily beaten, sometimes to death.”
“You cannot arrest or repress people who just don’t exist in the republic,” a spokesman for Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, Alvi Karimov, told Interfax, seemingly unwilling to deny the accusations. “If such people existed in Chechnya, law enforcement would not have to worry about them since their own relatives would have sent them to where they could never return.”
Last night queer people and their allies took to the streets of London outside the Russian embassy to make their voices heard. The message was clear: for too long the Russian government has watched on as LGBT people are prosecuted, persecuted and marginalised, and now they’re complicit in the outright murder of gay men. The British government are complicit too in sending queer people to death with callous deportations; this is an issue that starts close to home.
When stories like this one break, they act as a reminder of just how far we’ve left to go. LGBT people are still murdered for simply being who they are; we should remember that as we march in pride and in protest this summer.
Sign the Amnesty International petition to demand an end to the torture.
Enjoyed this article? Like Huck on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.
Latest on Huck
Clubbing is good for your health, according to neuroscientists
We Become One — A new documentary explores the positive effects that dance music and shared musical experiences can have on the human brain.
Written by: Zahra Onsori
In England’s rural north, skateboarding is femme
Zine scene — A new project from visual artist Juliet Klottrup, ‘Skate Like a Lass’, spotlights the FLINTA+ collectives who are redefining what it means to be a skater.
Written by: Zahra Onsori
Donald Trump says that “everything is computer” – does he have a point?
Huck’s March dispatch — As AI creeps increasingly into our daily lives and our attention spans are lost to social media content, newsletter columnist Emma Garland unpicks the US President’s eyebrow-raising turn of phrase at a White House car show.
Written by: Emma Garland
How the ’70s radicalised the landscape of photography
The ’70s Lens — Half a century ago, visionary photographers including Nan Goldin, Joel Meyerowitz and Larry Sultan pushed the envelope of what was possible in image-making, blurring the boundaries between high and low art. A new exhibition revisits the era.
Written by: Miss Rosen
The inner-city riding club serving Newcastle’s youth
Stepney Western — Harry Lawson’s new experimental documentary sets up a Western film in the English North East, by focusing on a stables that also functions as a charity for disadvantaged young people.
Written by: Isaac Muk
The British intimacy of ‘the afters’
Not Going Home — In 1998, photographer Mischa Haller travelled to nightclubs just as their doors were shutting and dancers streamed out onto the streets, capturing the country’s partying youth in the early morning haze.
Written by: Ella Glossop