LGTB activist from Novosibirsk, standing up for the right to be himself in public.
In Novosibirsk, activist Alexandra Sinko held a single picket on November 28 in the city’s central square against the recognition of LGBT people as an “extremist movement,” as required by the Russian Ministry of Justice.
Sinko came out with a rainbow-colored poster with the inscription “Extremism is the incitement of social discord, propaganda of a person’s inferiority based on his social affiliation. And who is the extremist here?”
The police detained the activist about half an hour after the start of the protest. The officers charge her with an administrative article about “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations” (6.21 of the Administrative Code).
— First, the police checked the documents and found no reason to arrest. [Later] about ten aggressive young men approached, threatening physical violence, to which the police officers did not pay attention. And after some time, the arrest still took place, as “new information appeared from the authorities,” Sinko told the Sibir.Realii correspondent.
Update (15:15 Moscow time). Alexandra Sinko was released with a summons to draw up a report on the propaganda of “non-traditional relationships.” The police confiscated the poster from her.
At the Ministry of Internal Affairs department, according to Sinko , an unknown person tried to attack her, after which the activist was taken to a temporary holding cell.
Alexandra Sinko is an openly trans person. In 2023, she went out on a solo picket in St. Petersburg against the law adopted by the State Duma prohibiting medical and social gender transition. The activist was detained by the police and a report was drawn up against her for “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations” (6.21 of the Administrative Code).
In 2022, Sinko was severely beaten by unknown drunk people who decided that she was gay. The activist, according to her, was diagnosed with a broken jaw. The police refused to open a case against the attackers due to the alleged lack of evidence of an offense.
“I haven’t spent much time as an openly female gender. When I was in a male gender, I often suffered from homophobia. Because of my homosexual orientation, I have lived with physical violence for many years, like many other LGBT people. I was beaten by classmates right at school, I was attacked on the street,” Sinko said in an interview with Radio Liberty in July 2023.
See also:
1) New Persecution of LGBT people in Russia
2) “I’m not afraid of this power.” Desperate fight against transphobic laws