Coming Out

LGBT organisation “Coming Out” with the support of the Russian LGBT
Network ran a series of seminars in Oct-Dec 2009 for journalists,
human rights activists and teachers of St. Petersburg.

The main questions on the agenda were related to gender and sexuality:

* What is gender and what is its difference from biological sex?
* Is homosexuality an illness?
* Who are bigenders and intersexuals?
* What is gender identity?
* Who can become a victim of homophobia?

It is step by step that a human being becomes aware of his or her difference from the others. At first he or she is afraid of being different, but then becomes proud of it. These are the traits of a normal person. The world is moved by phobias towards any demonstration of differences, and step by step the human being does one thing only: he or she destroys phobias. And the more fears of the different a person vanquished, the more of the inexplicable he or she accepted in his or her life, the more civilized this person is.

What’s a gay pride? When, where and why did it appear? Here is the question. How does it influence the general public’s attitude to LGBT-community? Is it worth holding gay pride in Russia? These and other issues are becoming now the subject not only for discussions inside the LGBT-community, but also for the public discourse in wide sense.

АThe importance and urgency of these questions, the absence of definite answers and the diversity of opinions called forth a discussion within the project “ComingOutInfo”. The discussion was organized by the Petersburg LGBT-organization “Coming Out” on Saturday, May 30th.

[ 30/05/2009; 18:00:00 to 21:00:00. ]

Dear friends,

ComingOutInfo will take place on 30th May (Saturday) at 18.00, which will be dedicated to gay-pride. We are going to listen the following reports: “Gay-pride from the point of view of the civil society. Gay-pride in Europe and Russia: the newest history”. We will have an opportunity to listen “pro” and “contra”, discuss the gay-pride importance to LGBT-movement progress, and explore the western and Russian experience.

Dear friends,

we invite you to ComingOutInfo on Saturday, March 7, 2009, at 6 p.m., where we are going to discuss the topic: “The impact of queer cinema on LGBT activism”.

In the discussion, Mikhail Trofimyenkov - a film reviewer famous in Russia and abroad, director of the international film festival “Kinotavr” and one of the organizers of the international film festival “Liki lyubvi” (”Faces of love”, Moscow 1995-1996) is going to participate.

The ComingOutInfo on topic “Is it difficult to be a homosexual family?” was conducted by Mark Kusherov, who is a psychotherapists and a Candidate of Medical Science, on February, 21.The workshop looked like a discussion. Guests compared their notes and answered the questions Mark asked. Then the psychotherapist supplemented information obtained with results of his own investigation and summarized things said.The following topics were discussed.

Dear friends,

This Saturday, February 21, we are going to discuss the following issue:” Is it hard for a same-sex family to survive in our society?” at the ComingOutInfo workshop. Dr Mark Kucherov, who is the famous psychiatrist and PhD in medicine, will help us to deal with the problem.

We are going to talk about myths that surround same-sex couples, joys and hardships of their lives, raising children, ups and downs in relationships, family crises, relatives, neighbors, parents, colleagues, friends and so on.

Sorry, but this post is not available in English

On Saturday, February 7, 2009, ComingOutInfo (InfoVyhod) takes place on the topic: “Russia’s LGBT-community of the 19th and early 20th century: characteristics of the epoch and outstanding personalities”.

Russia’s LGBT-community has a history. We mustn’t forget about that. Especially now, when voices are heard that “homosexuality is an infection brought from the West”. Non-heterosexuals have always formed a stable minority in Russia, such as in any other culture. Furthermore, when social norms were more liberal there was less homophobia in society. Only by knowing our past we can live confidently in the present and build our future. LGBT are people with history!

You are invited to the ComingOutCinema (KinoVyhod) on January, 31 (6 p.m.) to see the film “Passion for Marina” (Russia), 2004, 55 min. Director: Andrei V. Osipov.

“Passion for Marina” (“Strasti po Marine”) is a biographical documentary of Tsvetaeva Marina’s life. The film is an artistic re-creation of one Human’s life and one Poet’s fate, it is a kaleidoscope of old photographs, poems, letters and newsreels of past years.