(The above video links to Facebook and requires a free FB account to view. We will try to find a non-FB version of the video and post it here as well)
What: Queer and Chechen: No Place to Hide. Testimony of Russian Activists Involved in Chechen Rescue
When: SATURDAY, JUNE 24, 2017 2-4 PM
Where: CBST, 130 W 30th St, New York, NY
Cost: FREE
Join RUSA and CBST at CBST's offices for Queer and Chechen: No Place to Hide. Testimony of Russian Activists involved in Chechen Rescue. A panel discussion about detentions and killings of LGBT men in Chechnya by activists spearheading the rescue efforts. Moderated by Masha Geesen (in Russian) and with English translation by Anatoli Samochornov
Dozens of men in Russia’s Chechnya region have been held in unlawful detention centers, tortured, and killed as part of a campaign against LGBT people in Chechnya. Russian LGBT organizations, the most vulnerable and persecuted institutions in Russia, were the first to respond and to start rescue operations to get survivors out of Chechnya. Come and listen to the first-hand account of the Russian LGBT activists who have spearheaded the evacuation efforts.
PANELISTS:
- Tatiana Vinnichenko, Chairperson of the Board of the Russian LGBT Network (Moscow). Tatiana is a human rights defender and feminist. She has a Ph.D. in Philology and is a senior lecturer at the Northern (Arctic) Federal University.
- Igor Kochetkov, CEO of the Russian LGBT Network (St. Petersburg). Igor is a public figure, a human rights defender, and is one of the founders of the Russian LGBT Network. He has a doctoral degree in History. In 2014, Igor Kochetkov was a nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize. In addition, he is a member of the St. Petersburg Human Rights Council.
- Olga Baranova, Director of Moscow Community Center for LGBT Initiatives (Moscow). The Moscow Community Center organized an emergency shelter for Chechen survivors of torture and arranged medical and psychological help for them.
- Nina Long, Project Manager, RUSA LGBT (NYC). RUSA LGBT is a U.S.-based network of Russian-speaking LGBT immigrants and their friends, allies, and loved ones. Formed in 2008, RUSA LGBT has welcomed many LGBTIQ immigrants, including asylum seekers, from Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Uzbekistan, and other countries of the former Soviet Union.
MODERATOR:
Masha Gessen is a Russian and American journalist and author. She is the author of ten books of nonfiction, most recently
The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia (Riverhead, October 2017). She is a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times and a frequent contributor to the New York Review of Books, among other publications. She lives in New York City.
Free and open to the public. In Russian with English translation.
The panel is organized by CBST and RUSA LGBT and proudly announced by Yale GALA, Inc.
