Out in Russia
ST ★ RS
AN
A \
I I O L I
Activist talks about being gay in the Soviet Union
M A l I
PRESEN I S
by Matt Bailey
t a Himly-lit table in an upstairs cor
ner of Hobo’s, Roman Kalinin ner
vously turned a glass ashtray over
and over in his hands. Small and
boyish at 25, the stylishly-dressed
Kalinin on the first evening of his first visit to
Portland hardly looked the part of a revolutionary.
But a revolution is what he and a handful of
followers have unleashed in the former Soviet
Union, a coun
try where gays
and lesbians
have routinely
been jailed for
consensual sex
and where a third
Among other things, according to Kalinin,
of the populace
said in a recent ______________________ activists are working to repeal Article 121 of the
Russian penal code under which gays and lesbi
survey that “ho- — —
ans can be jailed for engaging in consensual sex.
mosexuals’.’ should be executed.
“Currently, it is more dangerous to be gay in
“We must be more visible if we are to over
come homophobia and fear and ignorance,” said the Soviet Union than it is to sell drugs,” said
Kalinin, who is generally credited with founding Kalinin, in reference to the lighter sentences often
and leading the fledgling Soviet gay and lesbian given to drug traffickers.
Lack of information on AIDS and safe sex is
civil rights movement “I would say our gay and
also
a major problem in his homeland, Kalinin
lesbian visibility is about where yours was per
said.
haps 50 years ago.”
“Officially, there are 700 AIDS cases in the
Continuing to roll the ashtray in his hands
while carefully considering questions from the Soviet Union, but we know there are many more
local gay press, Kalinin said he did not expect any than that,” he said. “But, about 20 million people
immediate improvements for Soviet gays and are tested for HTV each year against their will or
lesbians just because the old Soviet Union has without their knowledge.” Generally, only gay
given way to a new Commonwealth of Indepen people who read Tema know much about AIDS or
safe sex, he added.
dent States.
Next summer, Kalinin hopes to help organize
“You can change the name of the government
every day of the week, but it really means nothing a conference of gay American business people in
to us,” said Kalinin through his Portland inter Moscow and St. Petersburg to help establish an
preter, Peter Hartikka. “When the shelves are economic base for the Soviet gay and lesbian
empty under communism, they are communist rights movement
empty shelves; when they are empty under the
“Right now, there are no gay bars, no gay
commonwealth, they are commonwealth empty restaurants, no gay establishments where people
shelves.”
can m eet” he said. "That has to change.”
Despite the difficulties ahead, Kalinin points
Kalinin’s visit to Portland was part of an
with obvious pride to what the Soviet gay and American fundraising and public awareness tour
lesbian rights movement has accomplished.
of U.S. cities, which also included stops in Los
“Actually all of our successes are big suc Angeles, San Francisco, Washington, D.C. and
cesses because we have never had any successes New York City. Kalinin plans to return home in
before,” Kalinin declared.
January.
At the top of Kalinin’s list is publication of the
Kalinin said he felt a particular kinship with
first Soviet gay and lesbian newspaper, Tema, Portland gays and lesbians because of the threat
which he edits. Last year, the Moscow City posed by the Oregon Citizens Alliance.
Council officially registered Tema, giving the
“Groups like the OCA would do well to re
newspaper the legal right to exist and do business. member what the Ku Klux Klan did to blacks in
It currently circulates 15,000 copies monthly, your country and what Hitler did to the Jews,” he
mostly in Moscow and St. Petersburg (formerly said. “In our country, the communists were once
Leningrad).
a persecuted minority who went on to become
Kalinin is also proud to be co-founder and themselves the persecutors.”
current president of the Moscow Union of Lesbi
Money raised on Kalinin’s behalf in Portland
ans and Gay Men and to have been instrumental and elsewhere will be channeled to the San
in organizing last summer’s International Gay Francisco-based International Gay and Lesbian
and Lesbian Symposium and Film Festival in Human Rights Commission for use by the Soviet
Moscow and St. Petersburg. He is also encour- gays rights movement, said Terry Bean, a loc*l
aged by the amount of coverage the gay and organizer of Kalinin’s Portland visit. Bean said
lesbian rights movement has received in the So Kalinin’s travel expenses were covered by private
viet straight press.
donation.
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