Enlarge image
LGBTQ flag
Photo: Markus Heine/dpa
Amid increasing repression against queer people in Russia, a young woman has been jailed for five days for wearing rainbow-colored earrings. A court in the city of Nizhny Novgorod, east of Moscow, based the arrest sentence on the display of "extremist symbolism," said the aid organization "Egida," citing the woman's lawyer.
Independent Russian media also reported on the conviction. It was the first known case of a prison sentence because of rainbow symbolism since Russia classified the LGBTQI+ community as "extremist" last November amid international protest and thus radically restricted the rights of lesbian, gay and queer people.
The English abbreviation LGBTQI+ stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer and intersex people. The plus sign and the asterisk are placeholders for other identities and genders. The rainbow flag is one of the community symbols.
A few days ago, a video appeared on social networks that appears to show the now convicted young woman sitting in a café with the rainbow jewelry on her ears. Your companion is wearing a small Ukrainian flag as a pin on his sweater. You can see and hear how both of them are aggressively harassed by an unknown man and asked to remove the symbols. The woman was arrested a day later. What happened to her boyfriend was initially unknown.
Instead, another case caused outrage in independent Russian online media: According to the media, a case was initiated against the photographer and artist Inna Mossina in the city of Saratov because of a rainbow post on Instagram.
Especially since the beginning of its war of aggression against Ukraine almost two years ago, Russia has become increasingly repressive against social diversity in its own country. Queer people are a particularly popular target for Russian propagandists, who repeatedly denounce a “decline in values” that is supposedly imported from the West. Human rights activists have already warned that the classification of the LGBTQI+ community as “extremist” is aimed at completely silencing queer activists in the Russian public.
til/dpa