Berezovsky Looks to Fund a Pink Vanguard?
By Sean at 4 August, 2007, 4:33 pm
Boris Berezovsky has made it no secret that he’s funded Other Russia’s activities. There are few estimates as to how many millions he’s poured into the fledgling opposition movement. What is clear that the money has produced little results. Now, according to Oleg Bratishko’s article “In Third Position,” Berezovsky has a new idea to topple Putinism: funding gay marches.
Now let’s not forget that this article could just be propaganda against Berezovsky. The idea of him funding gay marches to promote political change seems far fetched. Plus given that gay marches are pretty reviled in Russia, there is a possibility that such a report is merely a means to further slander him (as if they need to) using the old tactic of homophobia.
Still the idea is so strange that it is difficult to resist.
Bratishko writes,
Note that one of the latest banned marches by sexual minorities in Moscow happened at the same time as Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov’s controversial meeting with the mayors of London, Berlin, and Paris; the efforts of gay culture proponents turned this meeting into an attack on Luzhkov. To give Luzhkov his due, he behaved quite properly, presenting consistent arguments for his stance on not permitting mass assemblies of gays in central Moscow. But this still produced negative publicity in Europe: television news reports showed Luzhkov’s speech alongside footage of Moscow police dispersing the unsanctioned gay march.
And this is the ace that Berezovsky has decided to play: according to our sources, the gay parade promotion campaign will start in mid-August (and last until the Duma election, of course). Rumor has it that around $100 million has been allocated for the campaign already; the scope is truly impressive. It’s worth noting that the organizers envision the gay rights marches as very similar to the Dissenter March protests: with the leitmotif of provoking police, local residents, and Orthodox Christian activists. Significant numbers of foreign journalists will be flown in, so that Russia’s lack of democratic liberties can be demonstrated to them in all its glory.
Supporting gay rights in Russia is more than a worthy cause. But I’m confused as to what real political gain such marches will bring except for being yet another irritant to city administrators and police. Plus I seriously doubt the gay right movement will provide a basis for any larger mass movement in Russia as it did in the West.
In the late 1980s and 1990s, radical gay activists, mostly focused around AIDS, provided the structure and tactics for the “New Social Movements”. Groups like ACT UP were decentralized, mobile, militant, and confrontational. Their tactics shied away from effecting the legislative process by appealing to politicians, but through direct action to raise awareness. Eventually their efforts made “Silence=Death” a mainstream slogan. Without their militant efforts, it is unlikely AIDS and eventually gay rights in general would have ever hit mainstream politics.
Gay activism is unlikely to bring any large scale political results in Russia, at least in the short term. So if it is true that Berezovsky is looking to fund these marches, one can only wonder what his hope is.
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perviy nah
Radical gay activism in Russia will only make neo-nazi like groups more popular with the general population.
The radical nature of gay activism in the US has not done it any favors outside the large metropolitan areas. They have pretty much burned all their bridges in making legitimate progress for their issues through legislation. Their only regress now is through judicial activism, which only makes their cause less palatable to the electorate, as evidenced by the popularity, as of late, of anti gay marriage legislation.
The comedy TV show “Will and Grace” has done more for gay rights than any ACT UP march ever did or ever will do. Additionally, there has been evidence that the politicization of the AIDS issue during the 80’s and 90’s has actually killed or infected more gays. The ACT UP types prevented treating the AIDS epidemic as a conventional public health issue (i.e. – quarantines and shutting down bath houses), making it political incorrect to target the gay population for treatment and in doing so allowing the disease to spread.
I agree with Ivanov. If the gays…er…get into bed with bad Boris it will only provoke a nasty backlash against them. Nashi would be delighted!
Which I think is what BB thinks is the end-game. Realistically he can;t impact the election at all, but he can provoke elements in Russia, after provocation, to appear even less appealing in the Western media than they do today.
Absolute cynicism on his part. of course, his ‘hosts’ the British (suddenly liberals all) will love him for it…
i agree w/ the previous two comments; but if BAB is funding these groups, it’s likely for the purpose of embarrassing the Russian authorities in the eyes of the West rather than in the eyes of Russians
Maybe BAB’s going to come out?
“Maybe BAB’s going to come out?”
I think you might be on to something, bit in a different sense. Maybe he’s planning to attend a gay parade somewhere in Russia, so if the authorities want to arrest him, they’ll have to beat their way through the gay crowd. BAB goes down as a hero, wins plaudits & support from more western groups, media gets good copy. I am keeping an eye out if he starts sporting rainbow colored scarves…
I am trying so hard to come up with good gay jokes about BAB, and am so miserably failing. This is a potential humor gold mine!
The Ambiguously Gay Oligarch (AGO)? Nope, doesn’t work. Damn.
Boris Androphilovich Bisexualizovsky?
I think being gay in Russia plays quite differently than in the US and Western Europe. Perhaps that goes without saying. Is it possible that BAB is so far removed from Russian reality these days, that he thinks this would be popular with liberal Russians?
From quizzing Katja, she seems to think there are just as many, or maybe more, gay men in Russia than in the US. I’m not sure if I believe this – certainly it would appear being gay in Russia requires someone to be quite a bit more closeted. Of course, her impression could be skewed by the fact that she went to university in Yaroslavl, which she says is something of a gay mecca in Russia. It’s not like I’ve taken her down to P-town on the Cape (what a culture shock that might be).
By the way, did anyone realize that the supposed king of gay porn in the U.S. is Russian (ok, Russian jew)? I stumbled upon some link on del.icio.us recently with an interview of Michael Lucas or something. Ambitious guy – went from a male prostitute to porn media mogul.
Not that there is anything wrong with that.
“From quizzing Katja, she seems to think there are just as many, or maybe more, gay men in Russia than in the US. I’m not sure if I believe this – certainly it would appear being gay in Russia requires someone to be quite a bit more closeted. “
(My roommate is from Yaroslavl.)
My impression is that it is a lot more common for Russian men and women to *experiment* than for American ones. They don’t identify as “gay,” though.