Russia’s first queer museum has closed its doors, after Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday signed the law that significantly expands restrictions on activities seen as promoting LGBTQ rights in the country, Euronews writes.
Pyotr Voskresensky, an LGBT activist and historian from St. Petersburg’s, opened the museum devoted to LGBTQ culture on 27 November.
The museum included three dozens objects, including sculptures, tableware and books, which help tell the repressed story of the LGBTQ community in Russia.
Now following the recently approved anti-LGBTQ laws, Voskresensly’s museum is deemed illegal.
“I plan to send the collection abroad, so that it could be on display independently, or in association with a European queer museum,” Voskresensky said.
Elsewhere, the recent bill will cause drastic changes in other Russian cultural instructions. It will affect online resources, theatre productions, films, video games, books and music festivals – and essentially make the topic of gay sexual orientation taboo in Russia.
