In 2013, Russia enacted the so-called “gay propaganda” law – a censorship legislation banning LGBTQ-related content from circulation and LGBTQ activists from organising public events. This discriminatory legal act increased levels of prejudice and deeply affected the LGBTQ community. The Russian authorities do not recognise homophobic hate crimes and do not monitor them. Research by Dr Alexander Kondakov, Sergey Katsuba and colleagues used online public databases of court rulings to find cases of violence against LGBTQ people and generate statistics on them. The data that were generated by the project are the only reliable data on such violence, and the method is applied on a continuous basis.
The research project has established that homophobic violence is on the rise in Russia after the “gay propaganda” law. Between 2010 and 2020 the research managed to identify 1056 hate crimes committed against 853 individuals, with 365 fatalities. The number of crimes after the “gay propaganda” law was enacted is three times higher than before.
These findings are being shared through academic articles, citations by global and national news agencies, cooperation with international organisations, international conferences and workshops, art, and a designated website.