ANYA
Incidentally, American men can dance the women’s part so well that our girls are jealous of them. They spin and do the kind of pirouettes that not every kind of ballerina could pull off. They’re more open.
NATA
Anya and I deal with our problems and live through dance. The majority of fights we’ve had over the past seven years have been at rehearsals. There was a time when I was ahead of her in technique. It’s a difficult moment for many dancers when one person in a couple starts developing faster than the other, and the other one has to catch up. We were always fighting.
ANYA
But it’s like a parallel life for us where we resolve our problems.
NATA
We often think about the future. It’s hard to live in Russia when you’re like us. We can’t get married or have kids or dance together. We can’t do anything.
ANYA
When they passed the law on gay propaganda, there were jokes going around on the Internet, like, if a child is raised by a mother and grandmother, does that also count as a same-sex family?
NATA
We laugh, but it’s a serious problem. But our society is probably not ready for any of this. We understand that.
Praise for Gay Propaganda
“This book comes at a really important time. There’s nothing like putting a human face on the struggle for acceptance and equality. Love conquers all.”
“The most potent weapon in the fight against anti-LGBT prejudice is the reality of who we are instead of the caricatures presented by our opponents. The bigots who seek to censor our reality by banning ‘gay propaganda’ understand this. So do Masha Gessen and Joseph Huff-Hannon. Projects like theirs are the most potent weapon in the fight against anti-LGBT prejudice.”
“By shining a much-needed light on the common humanity of those brave gay men and lesbians seeking to go about their daily lives in Russia, or those who have made the difficult choice to leave, this book puts the lie to the malicious stereotypes currently being spewed by the Russian government.”
“Hundreds of straight athletes from around the world have joined the effort to advance LGBT respect and equality. Every one of them will appreciate the importance of this project. This book is much needed and couldn’t come at a better time.”
ABOUT THE EDITORS
MASHA GESSEN is an award-winning journalist and author of many books, most recently Words Will Break Cement: The Passion of Pussy Riot (Riverhead, January 2014). She is a lesbian mother who has left Russia because of the anti-gay laws.
JOSEPH HUFF-HANNON is a celebrated campaigner and writer who has been published in The New York Times, The Guardian, Salon, and elsewhere. He works with the international advocacy group Avaaz.org. He is one of the founding campaigners of global LGBT rights group, All Out.
Copyright
© 2014 Masha Gessen and Joseph Huff-Hannon
Published by OR Books, New York and London
Visit our website at www.orbooks.com
First printing 2014
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher, except brief passages for review purposes.
Cataloging-in-Publication data is available from the Library of Congress.
A catalog record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978-1-939293-35-0 paperback
ISBN 978-1-939293-36-7 e-book
This book is set in the typeface Minion.
Text design by Bathcat Ltd. Typeset by Lapiz Digital, Chennai, India.
Printed by BookMobile in the United States and CPI Books Ltd in the United Kingdom.