King's College London

Dr Anna Khlusova discussed the marginalisation of queer culture in Russia by state actors since the turn of the century and its fight for acceptance and visibility both ongoing and into the future in her seminar, (In)visible Queerness: LGBTQ Politics and Media in Russia, held on 18 February.

The struggle for visibility, Dr Khlusova explained, is borne out of hostility towards the LGBT community from the government, which has marginalised queer culture. A law was passed in 2013 which banned the “propaganda of non-traditional relations to minors” and state-owned media, which dominates the airwaves in Russia, has also ensured the community has been kept out of programming.

In her seminar, Dr Khlusova looked at the reasons behind the public support for anti-LGBT laws in Russia and offered new perspectives on how government officials had sought to reshape national identity and debate towards more traditional values, to the exclusion of communities deemed ‘non-traditional’.

The seminar ended with a look to the future and opened discussion for the audience to think about how queer visibility can be encouraged and empowered in the Russian media.