Abstract
Contemporary Russia represents a clear example of a nation whose hegemonic identity is constructed, maintained, and reinforced within a patriarchal and heteronormative framework. Strong heteronationalist sentiments promoted by the political regime, state-supported mass media, and the Russian Orthodox Church have been assembled under the umbrella of an ideology of traditional Russian values and developed into anti-LGBT+ state policies that significantly limit access to sexual citizenship rights and practices for millions of non-heterosexual and transgender individuals in Russia.
Using theories of national identity and its typologies, as well as the concept of sexual citizenship, this thesis examines how the dominant conception of contemporary Russian national identity affects sexual citizenship for LGBT+ people in the country. It begins with setting out the theoretical framework and continues with the explanation of the methodology of this research. I then apply the theoretical framework to the Russian context in order to answer the research question and discuss the findings of the conducted empirical study, for which I analyse the views, lived experiences, and meanings of LGBT+ individuals who live in or left Russia after 2012. The diverse demographics of the participants, as well as the prolonged period of the study and high level of participants’ engagement, allow for demonstrating some unique first-person testimony and in-depth insights with regards to the research topic. Additionally, in order to strengthen my analytical arguments in the chapters on the Russian context, I conducted interviews with current and former LGBT+ NGO leaders in Russia and obtained their professional opinions concerning the issue.
I argue that hegemonic national identity in contemporary Russia is presented in the ideology of ‘traditional Russian values’ and belongs to a cultural type which is reinforced by political means. To a large extent, this reinforcement is focused on the framing of LGBT+ people in the country as internal Others who represent the external Other (the West). The research participants feel strongly affected by the policies reinforcing ‘traditional Russian values’ and by negative societal attitudes that conform to the dominant heteronormative and cisgender political discourse. This impact is manifested in the various forms of oppression and discrimination that the participants experience with regards to their identity-, conduct-, and relationship-based sexual citizenship rights and practices.