Under Threat in Russia, Some Russian Gays Look To Europe For Asylum

Asylum seekers can spend years waiting for a decision, and there were no known cases of gay Russians being granted refugee status in Germany.

Radio Liberty – (Berlin) – Pavel had been openly gay for 10 years before he left his native Novosibirsk last year.
But when the 27-year-old Russian doctor, who now goes by Pavel instead of his given name to protect his family’s privacy, arrived in Germany to ask for asylum in April 2013, he knew he needed to get back in the closet. Among conservative Afghans and Chechens in the asylum dormitory in the northern city of Kiel, Pavel was certain he was the only one whose request to stay in Europe was based on sexual orientation.
“If anyone at the center had found out, I would have gathered my belongings and left,” he says.
Activists and friends advised Pavel to seek other avenues to leave Russia. Asylum seekers can spend years waiting for a decision, and there were no known cases of gay Russians being granted refugee status in Germany.Last fall, Pavel became the first.
Although there is little in the way of official statistics, activists say an increasingly antigay environment, backed by legislation prohibiting gay “propaganda” — which effectively bans public shows of affection among same-sex couples or the promotion of gay rights — has caused interest in asylum among Russia’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community to rise sharply.
A ruling in November by the European Court of Justice (ECJ), which said gays could not be advised to be more discreet in their home countries as an alternative to asylum, has given new impetus to asylum seekers from gay and lesbian communities.
Regina Elsner, an activist with Quarteera, an NGO that provides support for gay Russians in Germany and helped Pavel find a lawyer, says her organization previously received requests for information about asylum from Russians abroad about once every two months. Now, she says, the requests come two to three times a week.
Still, despite November’s ruling, whether the law grants Russians a statutory right to asylum in Europe is murky.
The court’s ruling, which was brought about by three gay men from countries in Africa with much harsher rules, applies to those whose sexual orientation may realistically result in criminal prosecution at home.
In Russia, those found guilty of propagating “nontraditional sexual relations” can be punished by a fine of up to 200,000 rubles ($6,060). Several activists have been detained and fined after protests, but criminal prosecution under the law, which Russian President Vladimir Putin signed into law in June, is so far unlikely.
Joel Le Deroff,  who works on asylum issues at the Brussels-based International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA), says the ruling says little on threats to gays outside of official actions by state authorities.
“It basically said that to be sure that there was persecution, you have to find that you have criminal sanctions and that those sanctions are actually applied in practice,” Le Deroff says.
In Russia, activists say, it is not the law itself but the message it sends that has spread fear through the LGBT community.
Last summer, a string of videos of gay men being violently abused and humiliated spread online. Many appeared to be the work of vigilante groups associated with an “Occupy Pedophilia” movement.