Pietarin LHBTIQ+-aktivistien ulkopuolisuudesta ja suhteisuudesta
Keywords:
LHBTIQ -aktivismi, Venäjä, Identiteetti, Kansalaisaktivismi, Subjekti, QueerAbstract
Especially since the 2010s, as the Russian legislation and atmosphere has tightened to suppress minorities and dissidents, Russian LGBTIQ+ (lesbian, gay and bisexual, trans, and intersex and queer-identified) activism has been dominantly described in media and research as a liberal island in neo-conservative Russia. Meanwhile, the networked everyday life between these extremes, intertwined with different power structures, has received less attention. This article focuses on how LGBTIQ+ (lesbian, gay, transgender, intersex, queer identifying) activists discuss and define their intersecting identities in St Petersburg in the late 2010s. I employ ethnographic data, mainly interviews and participatory observations, collected in their everyday settings. I approach my data through content analysis. To grasp the plurality of their activities connected with identities, relations, and spaces, I approach them as open-ended yet intense internal dialogical process through which they form their subject positions. I argue that through mirroring, balancing, and adapting in this nexus, the activists make decisions to take the streets, debate, or step to more private settings in smaller communities, forming their subject positions as activists. This article shows how their backgrounds, such as Soviet legacies in their upbringing, education, and daily navigations in the surrounding society, along with rubbing against identifying as LGBTQI+ activists, combat the prejudice that LGBTIQ+ people would be exotic, incomprehensible, distant, or alien for Russian society.
