Last Tuesday, journalist and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer activist Masha Gessen and professor of history at Smith College Sergey Glebov discussed discrimination in Russia at a panel discussion titled "Exploring Xenophobia and Intolerance: Spotlight on Russia," an event sponsored by the Brandeis-Genesis Institute for Russian Jewry.

The two panelists discussed recent anti-gay laws in Russia that ban anything considered gay propaganda.

According to Prof. Irina Dubinina (GRALL), who moderated the panel, discussing Russia gives people the opportunity to compare it to other countries as the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi approaches. "Homophobia is part of xenophobia, so it is important to have these discussions," Dubinina said in an interview with the Justice. "Russia has been in the news a lot lately, and it's good to learn about why from different perspectives."

According to Glebov, there are many questions to ask about the discriminative policies. Glebov suggested that the following questions be assessed: "Is racism and anti-gay propaganda peculiar to Russia? Is it related to policies of the Russian regime or are we dealing with larger social forces and processes to which the regime responds and attempts to right?"
Gessen said there are many misconceptions about the policies. "The misconception that the anti-gay campaign is a popular phenomenon is easy to debunk," she said. "The will of the people has [had] no mechanism in Russia for a good number of years."

She said another misconception is that the Russian government is using the anti-gay campaign to distract the public from "real" issues like the economy. However, according to Gessen, Russia's xenophobia is the issue.

According to Gessen, the Russian government thought that the gay community was an isolated minority that would be easy to target and did not expect a worldwide response.

Glebov said the Russian government was looking for "the ultimate other" to single out. He said mainstream Russian politics has seen the West as an enemy for a while and that the gay and lesbian population was a part of the West that could be isolated. "They thought they were the only minority you can beat up on without the world beating up on you," he said.

Because of the same anti-Western sentiments, Russia has seen a lot of anti-immigration attitudes, as well.

Dubinina asked a question about why flamboyant "gender-bending" performers can still have sold-out concerts in Russia when ordinary gay people are ostracized there.

"We've seen this phenomenon throughout history," said Gessen. "We've seen the gender-bending performer playing a prescribed role as long as they are not able to blend into society. They see it as okay as long as a gender-bending individual is separate and there's no possibility of integration."

An audience member asked how today's Russian homophobia relates to the area's anti-Semitism in the past. Glebov said that although it's hard to make parallels, "the Soviet understanding of different groups makes an impact and continues to make impact on Russian reality."