Russian activist Mikhail Tumasov talks to Rob Buchanan about the terrible risks LGBT people in his country face every day, and how despite government-endorsed homophobia and its consequences, he still loves his country.

Mikhail Tumasov is the founder of the LGBT rights group, Avers, in Samara, the sixth largest city in Russia. Samara has been at the forefront of the Russian gay witchhunt, having actually passed the ‘gay propaganda’ law a year earlier than the country’s federal parliament did. There are regular ‘family values’ marches in Samara, where hate speech and threats of violence against gays are commonplace.

In a city of a million residents, Avers has only 15 active members, although there are over 800 less publically visible members online.

Mikhail was in Dublin last month at the invitation of BeLonG To and GLEN, and I met him after he spoken in Outhouse, the LGBT centre. I’d expected a hardboiled, cynical activist, given what’s going on in his country right now, but Mikhail (Micha to his friends) is a soft-spoken man with an undeniable and infectious air of optimism about him. He and his partner recently moved to St. Petersburg to work at the Interregional Movement of the Russian LGBT (MRLGBT) Network. If the name of the movement seems a mouthful, there’s a reason. In order not to fall foul of laws that make advocacy for LGBT civil rights dangerous, or being declared “foreign agents”, the movement must remain “interregional” in name, not national. The movement, however, stretches across the vast expanse of Russia.

Micha believes that there are many layers to why the Russian national psyche has turned so homophobic. “It’s very complex,” he tells me. “It’s a two-sided problem. We have internalised homophobia, where people are rightly afraid to be themselves and then we have the outward homophobia, where groups feel they can scapegoat gays and commit crimes against us with impunity. It’s not just a tragedy for LGBT people; it’s a tragedy for all civil society and democracy. A lot of people in Russia are suffering because of this new conservatism and restriction. I love Russia, and this is so sad.”

The MRLGBT Network is attempting to counteract some of the psychological, legal and financial damage that is being done to victims of the anti-gay laws.

“We are trying to reach out to people to offer them help and advocacy,” Micha explains. “We are a public movement so we receive no funding. It’s entirely voluntary. We cover 63 regions so far, across all of Russia and run a hotline, which is available 24 hours a day. Finally we have regional initiatives which work locally to develop dialogue and tackle grassroots issues. Everything from children’s custody rights to monitoring discrimination, looking at strategic litigation and international advocacy.

Micha gives a few examples of the vital advocacy work the Network engages in, such as sending lawyers to the regions to help an individual in crisis.

“Professionals of all types who are sympathetic to our cause, often straight, unite to help using their skills,” he says. “You can imagine the relief when one of our people travels out to help someone who has nowhere to turn, in a faraway corner of Russia.

“People feel besieged and lonely, and this can lead to mental health issues. When LGBT people in Russia suffer from depression or anxiety and they go to a doctor, they can sometimes find themselves pathologised, as if homosexuality is the disease to be ‘cured’ rather than the stress and depression caused by discrimination and facing daily threats. The Network’s psychologists are not trying to cure people of their homosexuality. Instead they counsel them.”

The website and Facebook page for the Interregional Movement of the Russian LGBT Network are two shopfronts for a largely secretive cause. They are windows to a world of hope, which can be anonymously accessed. And they are also places were the International community can check in on the realities of what’s going on in Russia. There is an English language version of the site, which Micha encourages Irish people to look at.

Another Russian LGBT organisation working on the frontlines is Children-404, which offers support to LGBT teens and is linked with BeLonG To. Its founder, the Russian journalist Elena Klimova, who won the 2014 GALAS International Activist of the Year Award in Ireland, fell afoul of the ‘gay propaganda’ law earlier this year, for trying to assist young people who are desperately in need. The name of the project is a reference to the Internet code “404 page not found”, highlighting the enforced invisibility of LGBT youth. The organisation seeks to help teens in crisis while also offering support to parents, and it works in tandem with the MRLGBT Network.

Mayor Ed Murray of Seattle in the US, who I interviewed in the same week as Micha, suggested that sanctions were having an effect on the persecution of LGBTs in places like Russia and Uganda.

“They are causing inflation, so there are definitely some results,” Micha says. “But I think our saviours, when it comes to changing these unjust laws, will be Russian women. Women are also finding their rights are being curtailed in this new Russia. There is so much talk about family values and marriage. But the institute of marriage in Russia is under construction. There are no real traditional family values; so many single mothers and grandmothers are raising children.

“Recent surveys had over 90 percent of Russian people saying they were members of the Russian Orthodox Church, but only 30 percent believed in God. It’s crazy.”

While governments can impose sanctions, it’s very difficult for individuals to figure out what to do in support of Russian LGBTs, and to protest the legislation that oppresses them.

“Just be yourselves, be proud,” says Micha. “Do not allow your governments to silence you. What has happened in my country can show you how governments can go wrong, and it can feel like it happens overnight. Everything changes. Freedom is fragile.

“You must be vigilant, you must vote and protest and be brave. You need to come out. Actually a lot of people in Russia came out when the law was passed. I want all Irish LGBTs to go out and vote when your marriage equality referendum takes place. Don’t leave it up to other people to decide your future.”

Ireland, where we can vote for gay marriage, seems a million miles away from Russia, however, where the government introduced legislation that has had major repercussions on the lives Russian LGBTs.

“We face terrible risks,” Micha says. “We have to move between safe houses, we live in fear of raids and arrests. We lose our jobs; we have to leave our homes. When we try and get financial help we cannot get it from the government. When we try and go elsewhere we can be labeled foreign agents and get in to big trouble. We are not allowed to protest in big groups, so we have to stand out alone. We had poison gas sprayed on us at the recent Queer Fest, which was a peaceful meeting with music and parents. Poison gas, sprayed by men in balaclavas who were not even arrested.”

Despite this, there’s a sense that Micha retains a strong sense of himself. “Life is not all bad,” he says as our meeting comes to an end. When he sees the surprise on my face, he adds, “I am happy. I am not living a lie.”

Find out more about the MRLGBT Network here