The Wolverine XXX Parodytestimonials of gay and bisexual men recently targeted, detained, and tortured in Chechnya are nothing short of harrowing. When read by queer Russian refugees granted asylum in the U.S., they're filled with even more emotion.
In a new video titled "#EyesOnChechnya," created by U.S.-based advocacy organization Human Rights First, gay men from Russia read personal accounts of abduction and violence from survivors of torture in Chechnya. The video was produced in partnership with the Russian-Speaking American LGBT Association, and has helped spread awareness of the situation on social media.
SEE ALSO: Vladimir Putin HATES this meme so much Russia banned it"The stories coming from those lucky enough to survive and make it out are harrowing," Shawn Gaylord, Human Rights First advocacy counsel, told The Huffington Post.
"We felt that by sharing them, we could put this nightmare in perspective for the many people that have only read about it in a newspaper. The world needs to act," he said.
Reports of violence against men perceived as gay or bisexual in Chechnya first surfaced in on April 1. Russian newspaper Novaya Gazetafirst reported that 100 men were abducted and tortured in concentration camps. The newspaper also reported three gay men were found dead in the region, with more killings likely.
"They stripped me naked. One filmed me on his cell phone," a man says in the video. “Three of them beat me up. They kicked me, broke my jaw."
LGBTQ people have long been under threat in Chechnya. Same-sex relationships are taboo in the conservative republic of Russia, leading many to live closeted lives. Honor killings are also an accepted practice in the region, and are often not prosecuted or "understood" by government officials.
"Three of them beat me up. They kicked me, broke my jaw."
Earlier this month, the United Nations condemned the abduction, detention, beating, and killing of men who have sex with men in the region.
"The arrested men are subjected to physical and verbal abuse, torture including with electric shocks, beatings, insults, and humiliations," U.N. experts said. "They are forced to give contact details of other gay people and threatened with having their sexual orientation disclosed to their family and community -- a move which could put them at risk of 'honor killings.'"
A spokesperson for Ramzan Kadyrov, Chechnya's leader, told Interfaxearlier this month that the reports were "lies," claiming "you cannot detain and persecute people who simply do not exist in the republic."
"If there were such people in Chechnya, the law-enforcement organs wouldn't need to have anything to do with them because their relatives would send them somewhere from which there is no returning," the spokesperson said.
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Though men have come forward with testimonials like those featured in this video by Human Rights First, Russian authorities have called claims of abuse a "distortion of reality" and "merely a defamation."
"We do not know yet that this data is in some degree confirmed," Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said in a statement translated by Russian news network RT.
Topics LGBTQ Social Good
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