The nightmare in Chechnya rages on…
LGBTQ activists in Russia say two people have died and dozens more have been detained in what the Associated Press calls a “gay purge” in the Russian republic of Chechnya.
Related: New evidence reveals Russia targeted LGBTQ Americans on Facebook
According to the Russian LGBT Network, around 40 men and women have been held in detention since December on suspicion of being gay. Two of the detainees have died of torture, the group says.
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
“Widespread detentions, torture and killings of gay people have resumed in Chechnya,” Russian LGBT Network program director Igor Kochetkov says. “Persecution of men and women suspected of being gay never stopped. It’s only that its scale has been changing.”
Alvi Karimov, a spokesman for Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, tells the Interfax news agency that no one in Chechnya has been detained for being gay and that the reports to the contrary are “complete lies and don’t have an ounce of truth in them.”
Related: Gay men come forward with new accounts of being tortured in Chechnya concentration camps
The news comes nearly a year after Russian-language opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta reported that three people were killed and more than 100 were detained for being gay.
The Russian LGBT Network — which noted in a recent report that “similar cases of unlawful arrests and detentions had begun in the late 2000s” — has so far evacuated 150 people out of Chechnya, an area in southwestern Russia with around 1.4 million residents.
Doug
This has become way out of control. Let’s face it, Drumpf will do nothing to try and stop this, but why does everyone in the UN sit back and continue to let this happen???
Scout
What should they do? What can they do? What are your suggestions that might help?
iamru2
Not to worry I’m sure Gus Kenworthy is about to tweet a vicious clap back any minute now!
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
Go Away…..
Polaro
And stay away.
TheMarc
Sorry, but LMAO!!!! Love it iamru2.
Vince
Ditto on the LMAO. Maybe there’s some puppies in need of saving and a good photographer for PR.
Kangol
The US has no leverage over Russia since its dictator basically controls our puppet President, so perhaps some other country–Germany? France? Canada?–that at least pretends to care about human rights can pressure Russia or the UN to do something to help these poor LGBTQ people in Chechnya. Clearly Putin could not care less about them!
niles
it’s insane how fast our country turned to utter s**t, and people basically don’t seem to give a crap. I’m not optimistic about our crumbling world.
gymmuscleboy
@Kangol Chechnya is predominantly muslim. How are you going to tell a muslim-majority country what values to believe in? Do you think that muslims want to be dictated to by the west about human rights? How many F’s do you think the muslim world gives about such western values?
Trump has got his work cut out for him protecting western civilisation on the mainland. He is certainly not to blame for a muslim country having their own beliefs – that is on them.
Kangol
@gymmuscleboy, Chechnya is part of Russia. Did you not know that? And Russia is not “muslim-majority”, yet is rabidly homophobic. Did you not know that?
Instead of reflexively defending puppet Donald Trump, you might ask why he won’t 1) tell his master, er, buddy Putin to do more to protect the persecuted gay people in Chechnya, and 2) tell his buddy MBS of Saudi Arabia to stop persecuting gay people in that country, and exporting religious fanaticism all over the globe.
Because you do realize that the most extreme form of Islam has been exported from Saudi Arabia for years, right? That’s where most of the 9/11 terrorists came from; that’s the home country of Osama bin Laden; etc.
gymmuscleboy
@Kangol When did I say Chechnya is not part of Russia? In response to (1) and (2) above: Again, how do you expect a majority-muslim region to respond to being dictated to by the west that they must adopt western values?
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
Go Away…..
iamru2
Lol you sound unhappy perhaps you should step away from the comments section!
Sam
Chechnya are known for Islamic region. About 95% population are Muslim. It not only countries persecuted LGBT. Look at Arab countries in middle-east. Or maybe feel sorry for Chechnya because they look European.
gymmuscleboy
Thank you, Sam. Perhaps political correctness is to blame for why the article omits what is driving this “gay purge”.
barkomatic
Queerty has reported on LGBTQ oppression in Middle Eastern and African countries as well and commentators have expressed sympathy–or at least the non-troll accounts do. Being concerned about what’s happening in Chechnya doesn’t invalidate what’s going on all over the world. It’s just we got new information on this particular region.
Kangol
Chechnya is part of RUSSIA. It is not an independent country. Russia has homophobic laws on the books, and Vladimir Putin could very easily clamp down on the anti-gay persecution in Chechnya if he wanted to. He doesn’t want to.
Vince
@Kangol. Kadyrov is a Putin Puppet for sure. However, Russia and Chechnya used to be bitter enemies. Allot of bloodshed. It’s also a majority Muslim country and by default not friendly to gays or any kind of human rights as they usually are.
Brian
Yes, Muslim Chechens are behind this violence. Unfortunately, LGBT people are hated worldwide. Look at Uganda (majority Christian), Jamaica (majority Christian), or any conservative/orthodox sect of Judaism. India (majority Hindu) only just decriminalized same-sex sex a few months ago.
gymmuscleboy
@Kangol If Putin legalised homosexuality in Chechnya tomorrow, how do you think the 95% muslim population would respond? How long do you think it would take for them to stop the “fairly common” practice of honour killing their homosexual relatives?
Besides, you can’t just demand that Putin legalise gay marriage in Chechnya! Have you considered the practicalities of demanding a devoutly religious region to adopt foreign values into law? What do you think are the chances of such a demand being accepted peacefully? If it leads to instability/violence in the region, what do you think the long-term repercussions would be?
We can all agree that Russia is not as good for gay people as the west – Nowhere is! Both Russian culture and Islamic values are homophobic. However, we know that Islamic values are more deeply held, and therefore more problematic – Research shows if you ask a muslim how they identify, they will tell you they are a muslim first and a national second or even third.
gymmuscleboy
@Brian Homophobia in majority-Christian countries such as Jamaica and Uganda is partly due to the low IQ of the population. The relationship between education and acceptance of homosexuality has been shown.
Prax07
Send a team in there and wipe out the government leaders.
barkomatic
This is very disturbing to read. I guess the only thing we can do is support groups that try to facilitate LGBTQ people’s escape from that horrible country.
Hussain-TheCanadian
I really hope this is not true, I want to believe this is not true, I feel for all of those who are being rounded up for no reason, no crime, and no recourse of escape. The midget tyrant that lords over Chechnya is disgusting, vile, corrupt, and a hypocrite. Maybe he should look up his son’s Instagram page, and glance over the pictures of him boozing, whoring, and “showing off” the wealth is midget daddy stole from the Chechen people.
Vince
He’s a evil psychopath for sure.
Kieran
Nice try attempting to pin this on “RUSSIA!!!”
The facts are Chechnya is 95% Chechen. Less than 5% of the population claim to be Russians.
And Chechnya is a predominantly Christian region. HA HA!!! Just kidding. Actually, 95% of Chechens are followers of Islam.
Kangol
Chechnya is PART OF RUSSIA! It is under Putin’s control. Don’t be inane; it doesn’t matter what the religious composition of any part of Russia is, if it’s under Putin’s control, nothing happens there without his support or oversight. He controls Chechnya and its leader is his puppet. If you don’t believe me, look it up.
To give a counter-example, in two former Soviet Republics that are now fully independent countries, things are different. In Kazakhstan, which is 70% Muslim, sex between gay people is not legal, and LGBTQ people are not being tortured and killed there. In Armenia is 95% Christian, gay sex is legal, and LGBTQ people are not being tortured either. In both, however, life is not great for LGBTQ because of social and cultural strictures. But neither is under Russian control like Chechnya.
Brian
It is literally in Russia. The laws are the laws of Russia. The local leaders are supported and protected by Putin.
Nice try, though. You should get a job working for Sarah Huckabee. She’d like you.