In this article, Jardar Alai explains the hardships of LGBTQIA+ people living in Chechen, Russia.
Photo Credit : Time Magazine
Chechnya is an autonomous region of Russia where majority of their people are Muslim and are ethnic Chechen. Russia does not tolerate the LGBTQIA+ community. There, the members of the LGBTQIA+ experience prison sentence, torture and are targeted of hate crimes but in the region of Chechnya, the atrocities against the LGBTQIA+ is to a different level.
Chechnya is a pretty conservative Muslim country and if you come out as Gay or Transgender your family will disown you and they would report you to the authorities. The LGBTQIA+ Community faces unfair prison sentence and in prison they face torture like electric shock, conversation therapy and exorcism.
BBC has reported that they have also been killed because of their sexuality or gender. After the news spread about discrimination of LGBTQIA+ community in Chechnya, Amnesty International demanded that the Russian government should investigate the claims about discrimination. The Chechen president Ramzan Kadory told President Putin that these claims are fake and there are no gays in Chechnya. Putin believed Kadory's claim, and he did not investigate further. While it may sound uncanny that Russian President believed Kadory’s claim but it is a visible fact that Russia does not respect the LGBTQIA+ community either.
2019 BBC interviewed one former gay prisoner who imprisoned in Chenchen prison. He told his story anonymously, the BBC called him Ruslan. He said that he was tortured in prison and he also talked about life in prison, in general.
This interview was made in 2019 but after the interview came out many people talked about the prevalent Homophobia and Transphobia in Chechnya. Unfortunately, after a while the trend died off. It is sad that people stopped caring about freedom and justice and I think we should continue the fight for Justice for the LGBTQIA+ community around the world.
Sources: BBC Chechnya LGBT: Dozens 'detained in new gay purge'
BBC Gay Chechens flee threats, beatings and exorcism
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