Coming Out

We invite you to join the “Friends against Homophobia” video-event, dedicated to the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (May 17).

We encourage all the LGBT and their friends to make video messages against homophobia. The simplest scenario of such message is: “My best friend is a lesbian, and I want her to live in a world without homophobia!”. You can film your message with a mobile phone, webcam or professional camera - it does not matter.

Dear friends!

We invite you to join the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (the 17^th of May).

On this day in 1990 the World Health Organization under the jurisdiction of the United Nations Organization excluded homosexuality from the list of diseases. According to the statistics about one third of Russia citizens still don’t know that homosexuality is not a disease.

The International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (the 17^th of May) has to draw people’s attention to the problem of homophobia and transphobia in the whole world. In more than 80 countries of the world homosexuality is still a crime. In some cases the law prescribes a life sentence. In seven countries it may be a death penalty. Even in the countries where homosexuality is not prohibited by law, discrimination and physical abuse occur more than just often.

The situation is even worse for transgender people who are more vulnerable, and lesbians who are invisible. In some countries there can be observed some improvements but they are unstable yet. In other countries the situation is worsening year by year.

On April 24 and 25, 2010 there was Day of Silence in Russia. Day of Silence is an international protest against discrimination, harassment and abuse faced by lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgenders (LGBTs) and the silencing of these problems.

This year 31 city participated in the Day Of Silence in one way or another: Abakan, Arkhangelsk, Vladivostok, Volgograd, Voronezh, Vyborg, Glazov, Yekaterinburg, Ivanovo, Izhevsk, Kazan, Kaliningrad, Kemerovo, Kirov, Krasnodar, Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Novokuznetsk, Oboyan, Omsk, Perm, Petrozavodsk, Pskov, Samara, St. Petersburg, Severodvinsk, Syktyvkar, Tyumen, Cheboksary, Chelyabinsk, Cherepovets. For the first time Ukraine took part in the Day Of Silence this year. It was held in Kharkov.

Dear friends,

We invite you to join the third Day Of Silence in Russia!

Attention: Organisation “Coming Out” does not hold a street action in 2010.

Reminder: always check information about Coming Out’s actions on the official web-site of the organisation - http://piter.lgbtnet.ru/ and in the official VKontakte group - http://vkontakte.ru/club2352211

On Saturday, April 24, 2010 St. Petersburg and 20 other cities in Russia will become quieter as they will take part in the Day Of Silence.

How you can participate?

We suggest that you join us in these ways:

St. Petersburg LGBT Organisation Coming Out expresses its condolences to the victims and organisers of the event. We are sorry that people who had no intention to participate in a pride or LGBT event got hurt as a result of misinformation about the event.

We consider the fact that the event was announced as gay-pride without the approval of the organisers to be unethical. At the same time we emphasise that the homophobic attack was a hate crime.

We encourage LGBT community to be cautious: not every event under the rainbow flags is organised by Coming Out. Information about the Coming Out events is always displayed on the official website piter.lgbtnet.ru and the official group VKontakte.

The Saint-Petersburg “Coming Out” LGBT organization held a series of single pickets in Malaya Sadovaya street on April, 11^th. These events were conducted under the motto “We stand for Russia for everybody. We stand for Russia without homophobia” which marked the end of the “Week Against Homophobia”.

7 people participated in the picket, about 40 activists were present and supported the action. The police were making arrangements concerning protection of public order. During picketing there were 2 minor incidents which were efficiently reacted to by the police.

Two-month preparation work is over. Festival took place, time to look back.

SITE.
Club “Arctica” was a nice surprise. The beautiful “Golden Hall”, a separate bar, WC, good hall, back rooms and lobby, everything ready and inviting.
We got a great sound director, Taras Rodichev, who participated in the previous festival.

AUDIENCE.
The most vulnerable part of any festival - few people in the audience. About 70 people.
Was it good or bad?

Bad as it was hard to make ends meet financially, but good as you knew almost everyone in the room. The atmosphere was peaceful and pleasant.

Translation of the article will be made available soon. Please, check back later.

Translation of the article will be made available soon. Please, check back later.

We invite all the inhabitants of Saint Petersburg to come to a series of single pickets which will be the conclusion of the Week against Homophobia campaign.

The picket will take place on April 11, 2010, from 14.00 to 16.00 on Malaya Sadovaya street.

Together we can clearly declare our stand: the unacceptability of homophobia, of insults to human dignity and discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

We expect support from EVERYONE who is not indifferent to the position of various social groups in the society and who understands that homophobia hurts everyone and concerns everyone.