Despite the intense repression that LGBTQ+ Russians have suffered under Putin’s regime, there are still brave people out there fighting the good fight. Here are just a few (all links are in Russian, though some include English translations—I used machine translations for a lot of it, since my Russian isn’t great yet):

  • Centre-T is a Moscow-based organisation that provides social support, legal help, education, and more to trans people and their allies. They have resources for neurodivergent trans and nonbinary people, too!
  • The Russian LGBT Network (Российская ЛГБТ-сеть) provides emotional, psychological, legal, and community support to queer Russians across the country.
  • Delo LGBT+ (Дело ЛГБТ+/LGBT+ Affairs) is a legal advocacy agency that helps people across Russia.
  • Doxa is an online magazine that devotes a lot of its coverage to the struggles of LGBTQ+ Russians, though that’s not all: Doxa articles include content about creeping authoritarianism around the world, the war in Ukraine, mental health, bullying in schools, and more.
  • Holod (Холод, “Cold”) is similar to Doxa—a lot of LGBTQ+ content along with articles about politics and society.
  • SOS North Caucasus supports LGBTQ+ people in one of the most dangerous parts of Russia: Chechnya.
  • Quarteera, based in Germany, offers support to Russian-speakers, including Russians and Ukrainians. They have a great podcast miniseries, Queer Conversations (Квир-беседы, Kvir-besedy), that features queer people from Russia, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, and more. (I was able to get the gist of what they were saying—and it’s been great practice for my oral comprehension!)
  • Coming Out (Выход/Vykhod) is a nationwide advocacy and support organisation.

If you’re able to send money to Russian organisations, I would encourage you to do so. I can’t do that from over here—our sanctions have made that impossible—but they can use all the help they can get, especially in this hostile climate.