Atamans are looking for gays

A group of Cossack activists demands a ban on the LGBT festival in Kuban. Militant patriots do not know where exactly it will take place.

Kuban Cossacks, Russian nationalists and some officials of the Krasnodar Territory are calling for a ban on the Black Sea 2016 LGBT festival scheduled for early July. Its participants, warn the authors of a petition posted on Change.org, will receive a “warm welcome.” Some activists have already received threats that they will be “greeted like Navalny” - referring to the recent attack by people in Cossack uniforms on FBK employees at Anapa airport.

“Black Sea 2016” should take place from July 7 to 10, reports the official website of the Russian LGBT network. This is the second meeting of this kind in Kuban in a row. Last year passed without incident. The program of the upcoming festival includes sports events, a master class in jiu-jitsu and yoga, awareness-raising sessions, quests, and songs with a guitar around the fire.

The organizers deliberately do not indicate the venue in open groups on social networks, wanting to avoid clashes with opponents of LGBT people, but it is known that, like last year, the festival “will be held in a picturesque place, on the Black Sea coast.”

On June 21, a petition appeared on the popular platform Change.org to the prosecutor of the Krasnodar region Leonid Korzhinek, the chief police officer of the region Vladimir Vinevsky and the head of the Kuban Metropolis, Metropolitan Isidor (Kirichenko), demanding to ban the LGBT festival.

“By allowing such an event to take place on our land, we are signing our own death sentence. We are putting an end to the long-standing traditions of strong family life, we are betraying everything that our ancestors fought for and for, we are betraying the traditional way of life. And if we allow this event to take place, there will be no turning back. Kuban is the heart of the traditions of southern Russia. For us, morality, family and traditions are not an empty phrase. An LGBT festival on our land, the land that our ancestors conquered with their blood, is a shame for every resident of our region,” the author of the petition, Ivan Romanov, is outraged.

A person with this name has not previously been encountered among Kuban opponents of the LGBT movement. It is likely that the true initiators of the petition hid behind a fictitious name. Whoever is behind the petition, which has currently been signed by about one and a half thousand people, it demands that the supervisory and law enforcement agencies, as well as for some reason the Metropolitan of the Russian Orthodox Church, ban the Black Sea 2016 festival, find out the sources of its funding and “possible connections with unfriendly foreign organizations." It is also proposed to “check the health and mental adequacy of the event organizers, if there are mental disorders, send the organizers for compulsory treatment” and “stop the public dissemination of information about the festival in the media and social networks.”

Interestingly, those signing the petition most likely do not know that according to public information, the founder of the platform Change.org, Ben Rattray, launched it after he learned that his brother was gay, but was afraid to openly declare it.

Alexey Korolev

The head of the regional branch of the LGBT network, Alexei Korolev, understands the true motives of the authors of the protest petition and recalls that the previous festival was held peacefully, despite the attempts of opponents to disrupt it:

“ The accusations brought against the festival are quite absurd and generated by the authors’ own insecurities. I do not rule out that this is a custom-made action related to undermining the position of the Krasnodar Territory in the tourism business. I am absolutely sure that the organizers will take the necessary measures, as they did last year, to ensure its safety. For my part, on June 15, I sent a statement to the prosecutor’s office of the Krasnodar region about the activities of these gentlemen, I expect a proportionate and adequate reaction from the state supervisory body for inciting hatred towards the LGBT social group. Our people are good, the region is multi-ethnic, here we are accustomed to the fact that everyone has personal characteristics that need to be respected, and it is impossible to do otherwise in the resort area. According to some indicators of tolerance, we are already “treading on the heels” of St. Petersburg; in the Krasnodar Territory there are three LGBT organizations, this is a very high indicator, only capital cities can boast of it.”

Alexander Topalov

Alexander Topalov, a well-known political strategist in the Krasnodar region and former commissar of the Nashi movement, assures, however, that “the organizers will not be able to assemble any real camp.”

– I have an idea of ​​what the LGBT club “Reverse” is (one of the organizers of the festival. – Author’s note). This is a party of, let’s say, marginalized people who themselves cannot decide which of the countless subspecies of gays, lesbians and transgender people to classify themselves as. They waited until summer, invited unfortunate friends from other regions to “visit at sea” and at the same time decided to make a sensation out of it, calling the event “LGBT camp” .

It’s hard to think of a “better” place than one of the most conservative regions in the country,
Alexander Topalov believes that the reason for the aggression against Black Sea 2016 is precisely the desire of the organizers to express themselves as clearly as possible:

“If information about the camp had not been pushed forward in the media and social networks, there would have been no petition against it. People do not specifically look for venues for such events. I would really question the adequacy of the organizers, if the event is real at all. It’s hard to imagine a “better” place than one of the most conservative regions in the country.”

However, the LGBT forum is supported by the Krasnodar branch of the People's Freedom Party (PARNAS).

Leonid Zaprudin

Its leader, Leonid Zaprudin, was brief:

“Our party recognizes citizens’ unshakable right to freedom of movement and assembly. I hope that law enforcement agencies will protect the LGBT community during their events in the Krasnodar region. Addressing the Cossacks, I want to state that we understand their ethnosocial and cultural identity. But at the same time, we require them to respect other identities: based on sexuality and gender.”

Despite peacekeeping calls, on June 22, atamans of several rural and city societies of the registered Kuban Cossack army submitted an appeal to the administration of the Krasnodar region demanding a ban on holding a camp on “Cossack land.”

Albert Gayamyan

Among those who have been actively opposing the LGBT rally for the second year is the head of the national human rights committee “Presumption,” chansonnier and doctor of theology Albert Gayamyan:

“Last year we held gatherings, prepared for a rally, but government officials came to me and asked me not to hold it and gave their word that there would be no festival. And a week after the rally, information about its holding appears on social networks. Even the private security company guarded him. I sent an official request to the regional headquarters of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, received an official response “according to the monitoring of the emerging operational situation in the Krasnodar Territory, during the specified period, no events were held within the framework of the “First Krasnodar LGBT Tourist Rally “Black Sea””. Who to believe?

Albert Gayamyan added that an appeal has now been submitted to the administration of the Krasnodar Territory from eight atamans of rural and urban Cossack societies, in whose kurens there are more than 400 Cossacks. The appeal states in a very harsh form that the Cossacks will not allow such an event in Kuban.

Nina Solovyova

However, an activist of the LGBT network, one of the organizers of the festival, Nina Solovyova from Krasnodar, emphasizes that the event will be held on private territory and no one can legally ban it: “Therefore, any petitions make no sense,” Solovyova is sure.

Author: Andrey Koshik/Radio Liberty