Of course, ordinary, non-LGBTQ+ victims of Putin’s regime are treated harshly too, but LGBTQ+ people are likely to face more brutality. What is truly horrifying is the deep-seated hatred and disgust toward LGBTQ+ people in Russian prisons, where individuals accused of “LGBTQ+ extremism” will eventually end up.
It is common knowledge that in Russian prisons, those even suspected of being gay are subjected to dehumanization, humiliation and sexual violence, both from fellow inmates and prison authorities. Vladimir Osechkin, a Russian-born human rights activist, claims that, according to his sources, Kotov, while in detention, was raped and had already been relegated to the ranks of prisoners with “low social status.”
Sexualized violence undoubtedly exists and has existed in penitentiary systems worldwide throughout history. Even before the Soviet Union, in tsarist prisons, sexualized violence among males was quite common: older inmates inflicted sexual violence on younger inmates.
Age, physical strength, prison status and one’s perceived masculine or feminine behavior, as well as resources, dictated who would be sexual prey and who would be sexual predator. If a youthful newcomer was raped by fellow prisoners, he would be rapidly incorporated into the prison’s social system as a “pederast,” at its lowest caste. After this status was set, he would become a prostitute, not to mention an object of attacks and abuse from other prisoners.
These practices continued in the Stalinist Gulag. Sexual violence among males was so widespread, and its role in establishing unofficial prison hierarchies so evident, that Gulag officials, after Stalin’s death, took measures to crack down on prison homosexual activity and homosexual violence.
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In contrast to the late-Soviet and post-Soviet periods, in today’s Russia, sexual violence in prisons does not seem to bother officials much. In fact, not only are they not concerned about it, but they are willing to weaponize and harness it as a means of controlling prisoners and instilling fear in them.
The issue of widespread torture of prisoners, as well as prison authorities’ encouraging and condoning of sexual violence among male prisoners, gained prominence in Russia after Osechkin started to attract public attention to the issue. In 2012, the businessman-turned-human-rights-activist set up Gulagu.net, which has become a unique social networking site, where the relatives of abused prisoners can register their complaints, share information and seek assistance.
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From what I’ve gathered, not just prisons. When you legitimize hate, then of course violence increases as it’s now acceptable.
Same thing is happening in many parts of the US as states start revoking ID and birth certificate gender changes, labeling books and other media that even mentions LGBTQ+ people as “sexual content” and banning all “sexual content” from children, etc. And is likely to even seep into more progressive areas if congress passes the promised anti-LGBTQ+ laws they have planned to prevent enforcement of laws against certain types of hate speech and discrimination as they redefine the criteria of protected classes to exclude women, LGBTQ+ people, immigrants, or whatever they can get away with.