Kaleidoscope Trust: Hate attacks have increased in Russia since the passing of anti-gay laws
The Kaleidoscope Trust says there’s been an increase in violence against LGBT people in Russia following the passing of anti-gay legislation.
It prescribes fines for providing information about homosexuality to people under the age of 18 – ranging from 4,000 roubles (£78) for an individual to 1m roubles (£19,620) for organisations.
Speaking to PinkNews.co.uk at Saturday’s central London demonstration against the laws, Alistair Stewart, the assistant director of the Kaleidoscope Trust, said: “Certainly our feeling and the feeling of our [Russian] partners seems to be that it’s getting worse in the sense these laws add to a climate of fear and also work to justify a range of abuses against LGBT people.
“Our partners in Russia are recording an increase level of violence: both spontaneous violence but also quite disturbingly premeditated and arranged violence.”
Along with several other international LGBT campaign groups, the Kaleidoscope Trust opposes a boycott of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.
“There are a number of tools to be used and sometimes those tools seem to act in opposition to each other,” Mr Stewart said to PinkNews.co.uk. “The calls for a boycott I think are inevitably placing pressure on the International Olympic Committee to make a stronger stand than they have already, and also I think its placing pressure on the Russian Government as well.”
Mr Stewart added: “However, we as an organisation are not calling for a boycott; we are following the lead of our partners in Russia that are largely arguing for a large LGBT presence at the Games – and we think the Games will be an amazing platform to have this issue heard on the international stage.”
