Yelena Grigoryeva, a Russian LGBT activist was recently found stabbed to death near her home. Image from The Moscow Times via Dinar Idrisov on Facebook
Prominent LGBT activist Yelena Grigoryeva was found dead near her home in St. Petersburg, possibly because she was featured on a now-blocked website that encouraged people to hunt down non-heterosexual people by offering the killer prizes, according to The Moscow Times.
Grigoryeva was active in the pro-LGBT scene and fought for equality by tackling multiple issues, sometimes resulting in being detained for protesting against things such as the unfair treatment of LGBTQ people. She ended up, unfortunately, on a “Saw”-like website that has since been blocked that told people to kill LGBTQ people. It’s very frightening to me that such a website existed and it’s nothing short of modern-day eugenics.
Grigoryeva reported to the police that she had received multiple death threats but she was ignored as the police did nothing to protect her. Because of that, she was stabbed at least eight times and died in St. Petersburg. The suspected murderer has been detained thankfully, but this should not have ever happened.
I can’t claim to know much about the state of LGBTQ people in Russia but I do know that they are frequently treated unfairly as a result of the Russian government banning “homosexual propaganda” towards minors, which may be why the police didn’t protect Grigoryeva. I hope that positive attitudes towards LGBTQ people will increase in Russia, because nobody deserves to die, let alone for something as natural as sexual orientation.
Source: The Moscow Times
