A presentation I made on 20 February 2015 at the conference 'Soviet and Post-Soviet Sexualities' (UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies, London UK)

1. ‘Moral’ Russia and the
‘Immoral’ West: the
conceptualisation of LGBTQ in
Russian print media as part of
the search for a new national
identity

2. • June 1993 – homosexuality decriminalised in Russian
Federation
• 2003, 2004, 2006, 2009 – projects of federal law against
“propaganda of non-traditional sexual relationships”
discussed
• June 2013 – federal law against “propaganda of non-
traditional sexual relationships among minors” passed

3. Regional laws against “gay-propaganda”
passed in:
• May 2006 – Ryazan’
• September 2011 –
Arkhangel’sk
• December 2011 – Kostroma
• March 2012 – Saint
Petersburg
• June 2012 – Novosibirsk
• June 2012 – Magadan
• June 2012 – Samara
• June 2012 – Kransodar
• January 2013 – Kaliningrad
• April 2013 - Irkutsk

4. The Rossiyskaya Gazeta
Российская газета (RG):
• started in 1990 by Government of Russian Federation;
• daily broadsheet;
• circulation of 170000 copies

5. The Novaya Gazeta
Новая газета (NG):
• started in 1993 by group of journalists and with help of Mikhail
Gorbachev;
• issued 3 times a week;
• total circulation – around 800000 copies

6. RG contexts
• law (legitimation /
delegitimation);
• prison;
• religion / religious beliefs;
• traditions;
• Family / marriage;
• children / paedophilia;
• Scandals / sensational news;
• Protest / political
opposition;
• Mockery / ridicule

7. NG contexts
• victimhood / victimisation;
• Protest / political
opposition;
• Children / paedophilia;
• Patriotism / nationalism;
• Obscurantism /
homophobia;
• Science / scientific approach
to LGBTQ issues;
• Mockery / ridicule

12. Discursive strategies
• personal reference;
• avoidance and euphemising;
• downplaying;
• negative sameness;
• scapegoating;
• legitimation /
delegitimation;
• topos of threat;
• avoidance;
• devaluation;
• topos of external threat;
• locus terribilis;
• topos of appeal to authority;
• miranda and anti-miranda;
• singularisation;
• portrayal in black and white

13. Examples of lexical units / stylistic devices
(RG)
• people of non-traditional sexual
orientation;
• yammerers;
• deformation of traditional socio-
cultural values;
• rejection of any new “neosexual
values”;
• priviledged legal regimes for
people engaged in homosexual
behaviour;
• sexual minorities;
• Russia is “the light of hope for
the whole mankind” in what
concerns protecting the
traditional family;
• satanist values;
• LGBT-lobby;
• dictatorship of materialism
against dictatorship of spirit;
• LGBT-movement… [is] social evil

14. Examples of lexical units / stylistic devices
(NG)
• non-traditional sexual
orientation;
• sexual minorities;
• LGBT-activists, who traditionally
come to the event, as well as the
other left movements;
• suicidal risks;
• “We don’t want a child from a
family like this [same-sex family]
to be kicked to death”;
• adoption rights for same-sex
families is a more than
precarious experiment;
• “Civilised world” wants fewer of
us [Russians];
• “If we allow once again to abuse
gay people, Jews, the poor and
the deprived…”;
• “It was the first time I have seen
a gay CSKA supporter”

15. Conclusions
• lack of reference to the whole spectrum of alternative
sexualities;
• consistent link between LGBTQ and protest movements;
• connection between LGBTQ agenda and issues related to
children;
• lack of genuine factual information on homosexuality,
bisexuality and transsexuality