Time: 7:00pm-8:45pm.

Location: In-person (UCL) & online.

'In November 2023, Russia outlawed the so-called ‘international LGBT movement’ as extremist. The decision followed a recent anti-trans ban and the extension of the ‘anti-gay propaganda law’ in 2022. These decisions are the result of more than a decade of consistent anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, which scholars have called Vladimir Putin’s ‘war on queerness’.

What does the extremist designation mean for the LGBTQ+ community in Russia? To answer this question, Olga Doletskaya, an anthropologist studying contemporary queer lives in Russia, will contextualise the anti-LGBTQ+ crackdown by looking at Russia’s recent queer history. Is Russia’s homophobia a biproduct of its authoritarianism? How is ‘gay propaganda’ tied to Putin’s claims to power? And, more importantly, what can we learn from a century of repression: are there strategies of resistance that the queer community has developed over the years?'

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ssees/events/2024/feb/queerness-extremism-assault-lgbtq-rights-russia