Chechen War Against LGBTQ+ People
In July 2020 HBO has released a film “Welcome to Chechnya” that narrates what gays in Grozny go through daily: how government security forces are trying to find and torture them to death, and how parents murder their sons and daughters for just being gays. The film made a huge impact: Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov was blacklisted by the U.S. government on which his response was to post pictures on IG holding guns and saying “The U.S. can rest easy, I haven’t gotten the order yet to march on American soil. [...] I'm proud to be persona non grata to the U.S. intelligence agencies. Actually, the U.S. can't forgive me for devoting my life to the fight against foreign terrorists, including some groups nurtured by American intelligence agencies.” A few of the Russian celebrities like Nikolay Baskov and Fyodor Bondarchuk showed their loyalty to Ramzan Kadyrov by starting a flashmob “Kadyrov is a Russian patriot” and posting pictures with this hashtag. Vladimir Putin awarded him a title of major-general of Federal National Guard Troops Service. Basically, sanctions against Russia helped tension between countries to grow, but unfortunately, gays didn’t benefit from the situation at all.
“Welcome to Chechnya” film reveals the truth about what is going on in this region that is a part of the Russian Federation, but even after watching I still have had a lot of questions: why all these things even happen? Why nowadays? Why in Grozny? For example, the Dagestan republic that has one border in common with the Chechnya republic does not have such a cruel regime against the LGBTQ+ community. For some reason, the violence anti-gay behavior was not so bad until 2017 - what changed? I desperately needed all these answers, so, I’ve talked to people: Chechen victims of homophobia, activists, and volunteers that help them escape the country, main characters of the film, and even the director of the film David France per se. Even though I spoke with only a few people, what they said shocked me to the bottom of my heart and erased all my stereotypes about Chechnya. A lot of people that I met told me that we have to remember that Chechnya is part of Russia and I need to admit I have always forgotten about it before.
This video is not about cruel Islamic region with its violent homophobic people, it’s about Russia and how everything that we have been posting, saying, and doing since the First Chechen war until any hashtag we come up with, impacts people’s lives. The more we look inside ourselves, the more we will understand the situation in Chechnya.
I changed some characters’ voices and names. I really appreciate everyone who agreed on the interview. Especially, I am thankful to “Dozhd” TV Channel and Anna Nemzer for consulting me and also for giving fragments of “The banished Memory of Chechen Wars” film • Запрещённая память чеченских войн / T... . I am sending many thanks to David France, the director of the “Welcome to Chechnya” film for talking to me and sending materials.
Special thanks to the voice and adaptation actors:
Vera Kuzmina: / vkuzmina
Pavel Komarov: / pavel_francovich
#LGBTQ #Chechnya #Kadyrov
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00:00 Intro.
2:15 Kidnapping people.
7:20 Tortures.
10:45 Homosexuality as a disease. Islamic exorcism.
12:30 The whole world found out.
15:10 How it all started.
17:50 Survivors: why do they come back to Chechnya?
23:17 Escaping the region.
27:13 Does Islam allow kinks?
32:38 What is “adat”? Specifics of Chechen culture.
45:05 Scars of Chechen wars.
52:16 Why Chechnya is unique? Nothing like this happens in Dagestan.
57:31 Chechnya is not Russia.
1:01:01 If there is any hope for a bright future? And what activists live like?
1:03:55 Self-acceptance as a Chechen gay.
