In 2023, Coming Out continued helping everyone who asked for help and fighting discrimination against LGBTQ+ people in Russia.
We have been growing, almost doubling the total number of consultations. However, there were some setbacks, too. For example, the extremism law forced us to cancel support groups and peer-to-peer consulting for trans people.
Every bit of work brings us closer to achieving our mission – to help LGBTQ+ people feel safer in Russia. For example, the psychological support team helps queer people to cope with rising darkness, the legal support provides tools to protect their rights even today, and career consultancy works to improve the living standards of our beneficiaries.
This is also a reason why we are working in the Monitoring and Advocacy area, where our colleagues manage to constantly highlight the problems of homophobia and transphobia in Russia at the international level. Of course, this will not change the policy of the Russian government overnight, but the pressure of international institutions, if not stopping, then greatly slows down the repressive machine.
Finally, we actively cooperate with other LGBTQ+ organizations in the country, and our social media work is aimed at reducing homophobia and transphobia in broader society and attracting new supporters.
