It shows four Russian men viciously beating up what appears to be a transgender woman and attempting to make her sit on a bottle. In August, a video similar to the one apparently shot in Novosibirsk emerged on VKontakte, Russia's biggest social-networking website. The assault, however, takes place against the backdrop of an aggressive campaign directed at members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community in Russia.Īlthough Russia decriminalized homosexuality in 1993, homophobia is still rampant in the country and attempts to hold Gay Pride parades in Moscow have been brutally crushed by both police and antigay activists.Ī recent law banning the "propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations" to minors has triggered a fresh wave of assaults, both verbal and physical, on LGBT people.Ī new bill proposes to take children away from homosexual parents. Police in Novosibirsk say they are not aware of the case.Ī police spokesman for the Novosibirsk region told RFE/RL no such attack had been reported in the past. RFE/RL has seen the video, but was unable to independently verify its authenticity or the identities of those involved. The Russians told us he was a pedophile, which he denied. "We then questioned him and he confessed to everything. "Russian guys caught him and called us to say they had a gay Uzbek," the self-proclaimed author of the video said. The vigilantes then allegedly handed him to the city's Uzbek community. He says the man was first detained by a group of Russian antigay vigilantes who lured him to a fake date through a social-networking website. There will be no respect for us otherwise."Īccording to the purported assailant, the attack took place on September 11 in Novosibirsk, where he himself is a student, and all the participants were ethnic Uzbeks. We live and work here, we are in contact with people of different nationalities. "We did this to protect the dignity of Uzbeks. "We made him sit on a bottle so that he repents for his sins and comes to reason," he told RFE/RL's Uzbek Service. The Uzbek-speaking source, speaking from Russia, confirms that the victim was targeted because he is gay.
RFE/RL was able to track down a man who claimed to have taken part in the attack. Viewers on WhatsApp overwhelmingly praised the violence as a well-deserved punishment. The man, visibly terrified, weeps throughout much of the ordeal. Ultimately, he is forced to sodomize himself by sitting on a bottle, which is then pushed with a bat. He is then handcuffed, beaten, insulted, and threatened with a gun. He is asked to identify himself and is stripped of his clothes, which are later burned.
#Gay men video rough series#
The series of short clips, making the rounds on the mobile-phone application WhatsApp show the victim, who seems to be an ethnic Uzbek, being bullied into confessing that he is gay. A video depicting a man being raped with a bottle has surfaced on social media, in what appears to be the latest assault on Russia's beleaguered homosexual community.