"We are unconsciously looking around." Almost half of the LGBT Person in 2024 collided with violence or its threats. Study

The Group “Exit” and the Foundation “Sphere” issued a report on the position of LGBT people in Russia in 2024. To do this, they interviewed more than 6 thousand LGBT Person after introducing LGBT Propaganda in the country among adult and transgender transition, as well as recognition of the LGBT movement with an extremist organization.

“Paper” got acquainted with the results of the study and talks about violence in relation to LGBT people, their financial condition and cases of forced work in the sex industry.

Researchers added points about denunciations and censorship

Organizations "Exit" and "Sphere", helping LGBT people, gathered 6403 profiles from Russian LGBT Person from December 2024 to January 2025. Researchers distributed a survey through social networks and friendly organizations, among acquaintances and in acting applications.

“Exit” and “sphere” have been published by research since 2022. This time of their respondents, only 5 % emigrated from Russia. In 2023, there were 6 %of them, and in 2022-16 %. Among the most common reasons for moving are the growth of homophobic and transfer moods in Russia, a sense of unsafe, recognition of “LGBT move” “extremist” and tightening censorship.

Due to the tightening of legislation in relation to LGBT Person, researchers included points about denunciations and self-censorship in the survey.

The authors of the study indicate that due to the peculiarities of the distribution of the questionnaire-through the website of the Quir-dating-cisgender men (48 %), and not women, transgender persons or non-warar people, were more responsible for it. Most of the answers, as in previous reports, came from the inhabitants of St. Petersburg and Moscow.

“Exit” has been exploring the discrimination of the LGBT Person since 2012. Over the years, the group collected data only in St. Petersburg. All works can be found on the organization’s website .

LGBT Person called to the police due to denunciations

Among the respondents, 14 % reported that in 2024 they were threatened with writing denunciations on them. Among the transgender respondents, this share is higher than 18 %. Among the LGBT teenage, the share of those who faced the denunciation threats is 19.9 %even higher.

Bisexual Nebinarian person, 24 years old

Petersburg

- I will organize closed parties that are not entirely Quirry, but can clearly cause questions. There are threats to have any denunciations and I and the same organizers. They have not yet led to anything real, but became a reason for blackmail.

Homosexual transgender man, 23 years old

Moscow

- The neighbor stopped me and my partner in the courtyard next to the entrance, when we went outside, and began to threaten us with legislation on propaganda. Like he “knows who we are”, that we sleep and live together, and he will not tolerate it. Then he shot us on the phone and followed us, shouting threats that if he sees us at least holding hands, he would sue us for the promotion of our children, who, by the way, live nearby and can see it and become gays.

Only 1 % of respondents said that they really wrote a denunciation on them. The complaints were sent to the police, SK, the prosecutor's office, the FSB, the Ministry of Justice and the RKN, as well as to employers, to schools or universities and to the guardianship authorities.

In most cases, denunciations did not lead to real consequences. “Perhaps this is due to the lack of evidence in scammers or the lack of interest from law enforcement agencies,” the authors of the study noted.

The fifth of the respondents are on the verge of poverty, some are forced to provide sexual services

20 % of respondents replied that they can only afford to buy food. In 2023, this figure was 22 %. Among transgender people, this share is much higher-31 % (against 33 % in 2023). This indicates their especially vulnerable economic situation, the authors of the study indicate.

Constant income has 71 % of respondents. However, among transgender people, this figure is significantly lower - 57 %. The authors of the study associate this with the stigmatized position and the younger average age of the transson surveyed.

Homosexual cisgender man, 21 years old

Petersburg

- In the summer of 2024, I worked as a personnel selection manager. I was identified by HIV, and the authorities learned about this and that I was gay. They began to oppress me and avoid as a plague, then they gave an application for dismissal on their own and confronted with the fact: if I do not sign, then they will arrange hell at work.

Bisexual transgender man, 25 years old

Moscow region

- I am on hormone replacement therapy, and my documents have not been changed. Each interview is a lottery, both when searching for housing and when looking for work, starting with the need to go through a checkpoint for an interview and ending with the need for self -assumption to each employer in a row. Each time I see lamb eyes, the words “how it happened”, accusations of fraud and refusals for refusals.

Despite the fact that most respondents have a salary, their income is lower than the average salary in Russia (for comparison, the authors of the study took the data of the Federal State Statistics Service: 84,000 rubles before deduction of taxes). A third of the LGBT Person surveyed earns from 40 to 70 thousand rubles, a quarter-from 70 to 130 thousand rubles and 18 %-from 19 to 40 thousand rubles.

A small part of the respondents (5 %) in 2024 received money for sex, escort, work with a model in pornography or webcam. Those who told about this note that they had to do this work due to a difficult financial situation and the lack of alternative earnings.

Bisexual transgender woman, 21 years old

Petersburg

-I get a lot of money working as a webcam. Now I have been resting and recovering morally for two weeks, as the work leads to strong burnout (yet the emphasis goes on what I myself do not like in my body). I have been in this area for more than a year. A year ago, this was the best and conscious decision. Now I would gladly find another sphere.

Growth of violence

The share of respondents who were beaten or threatened with physical violence increased by 4 % to 47.5 %. Most often, transgender persons face such problems.

Bisexual transgender man, 16 years old

Petersburg

-I was blackmailed by my friend, in front of whom I took a camming out two months before this event. He extorted money from me, which I allegedly owed to him. After that, he began to threaten that he would tell about my identity to people who could attack me.

Pansexual transgender woman, 27 years old

Moscow

- I walked with a friend at the Baumanskaya metro station. Her voice does not correspond to appearance. Both I and she received a strong blow to the head from an aggressively tuned man, with the words: “Are you, shemales?!” Glasses flew off me, and when I retreated, he kicked them. Fortunately, the glasses did not break, because I would not have money for the purchase of new ones. I would like to deliver a response, but that man was in the company of the same strong friends who laughed at all this. I did not want to put my girlfriend such a threat, and I would not have mastered a fight with several people.

Homosexual cisgender man, 21 years old

Tomsk region

- The younger brother was an actor of violence. He looks at Pozdnyakova and
He hates LGBT people, as I understand it, he is a Nazi. He beat me because of my sexual orientation. I received several blows in the neck and head. Then I sat on a chair and did not expect a blow. I did not apply for medical help, since the consequences were nonsense. This happened in August 2024, I made a camming out in front of him in March of the same year.

In 2024, 6 % of participants encountered sexualized violence in 2024
survey (361 people) - 2 percentage points less than a year earlier. Among the transgender people, the share of the victims of sexualized violence is higher-8 %(3 percentage points less than in 2023). Most often, familiar people committed violence, among whom - colleagues, friends, friends of friends or partners and relatives.

A small proportion of respondents - 2 % - said that they were faced with conversion therapy. Most often this happened in the regions of the North Caucasus. Talking about her in more detail, respondents most often described forced visits to a psychiatrist or psychologist. However, there were cases of forced hospitalization, visits to priests, monasteries, religious assemblies, exorcism and “expulsion of demons”.

Homosexual cisgender woman, 20 years old

Leningrad region

-Clinic "Phoenix" in Rostov-on-Don, doctor Bukhanovskaya. I turned there with the RPP, they began to ask me about sexual and romantic preferences, behaved friendly, and then offered electric shock therapy. As it turned out, they practice it for the "treatment" of transgender people.

LGBT bundles began to hide their orientation and gender identity more often

Most respondents (88 %) feel the influence of state censorship against LGBT people, and 85 % noticed strengthening homophobic and transfer moods. Even more - 91% - they said that they were forced to resort to self -censor when discussing their sexual and gender identity and LGBT in general. This leads to the fact that LGBTs close and feel lonely.

Homosexual cisgender woman, 28 years old

Petersburg

- I notice that my friends and I even talk quieter when the topics come about LGBT. We even unconsciously look around. I feel that I squeeze when I think that someone could hear us, or that my girlfriend took my hand or acquired me in a special way, and it may seem unacceptable to someone.

Some respondents are forced to hide from the military registration and enlistment office, so as not to get into the army and to war in Ukraine.

Bisexual transgender woman, 18 years old

Petersburg

-The threat of calling for service for me is especially great, because because of my statement that I hate the idea of ​​war, people from the military registration and enlistment office promised to send me the first to die. Since then, they constantly called me and my parents to check if there is an opportunity to call me.

Secretity affected the relationship of LGBT people with doctors. The share of respondents who share information about their sexual orientation or gender identity with doctors decreased in 2024 from 25 % to 22 %. Almost a third of the respondents (29 %) noted that they at least once refused to visit a doctor in 2024, due to fear, to encounter discrimination or a biased attitude. Researchers associate this with repressive laws and state pressure.

Heterosexual transgender man, 18 years old

Petersburg

- I went to the endocrinologist to receive a certificate. I had to say that Kolya Hormones. I was called a “girl-girl” and said that I would regret it later if I could not give birth to a child. I said that I do not need children. They answered me that all women want children.

Due to repressive laws, human rights activists cannot help many LGBT Persons

After the announcement of the “LGBT” movement with an extremist organization, human rights initiatives lost the opportunity to openly help LGBT people in Russia, some Quirpoints closed, the human rights activists surveyed noted .

Anna Eroshenko

Fem-fluor activist

- People continue to be afraid, people go to underground and are forced
To be content less. The question is not in representation, not in
in order to somehow increase awareness, develop
Collective pride, but in just surviving.

Jan Dvorkin

Head of "Center T"

- The law on extremism also influenced the helping initiatives. Because of him, a number of confrontation were closed, it became impossible to receive donates in rubles. Some of the organizations could not continue their work, and someone reduced activities. Transgender people themselves began to lead a more hidden lifestyle, they speak less to themselves, they anonymize their pages on social networks. And for transgender people, this is often a matter of transpartments, since after it began to hide its transstetus, it will be almost impossible. Accordingly, many are afraid and begin to postpone the transition for a while after the emigration that they dream of. And so their position is becoming more and more isolated.

Human rights activists and activists noticed in 2024 an increase in applications for help with leaving Russia, processing humanitarian visas, refugee and emergency evacuation in a persecution situation. The demand for psychological assistance due to constant pressure, raids and news about extremism has grown.

Petersburg remains the least homophobic region of Russia

Every year, researchers call Petersburg the most open region of Russia. 56 % of the LGBT city respondents replied that they did not hide their identity in front of most friends, 16 % to relatives and 22 %-to colleagues and classmates.

Researchers note that LGBT people from St. Petersburg and Moscow composed most of the emigrants who participated in the survey.

What else to read:

• Good news: more and more women go to work in Smolny. Bad: almost none of them becomes the leader.
• Less trust, more violence. How homophobic laws over the year changed the life of LGBT people and how Petersburg “distinguished” .

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