Prominent Russian LGBT activist Irina Fet was beaten up near her home in central Moscow on Monday night by unknown people who shouted discriminatory insults at her, Fet wrote on her Facebook account.
“They attacked me from behind, I only heard 'Fag,'” Fet wrote in a Facebook post.
Fet said that she escaped with cuts and bruises, and did not call an ambulance or go to a hospital. She posted pictures of her bruised and bleeding face, but said she did not go to the police “for obvious reasons.”
In May, most Russians told the independent Levada pollster that they despise, are irritated by or are suspicious of LGBT people. Thirty-seven percent of respondents said that being gay was a condition that should be treated, and a further 18 percent said they should be prosecuted.
The poll was conducted among 800 people with a margin of error not exceeding 4.1 percent.
Fet said Moscow has turned into a city where you can be beaten “for your unusual haircut, strange tattoo or rainbow bracelet.”
Fet and her partner Irina Shipitko married in Canada after failing to get permission in Russia, where gay marriage is not recognized by the authorities.
In 2013, President Vladimir Putin signed the so-called gay propaganda law that bans the promotion of “non-traditional sexual relations” to minors. Rights activists widely criticized the law as an effort to marginalize Russia's gay community.
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