Users of Russia’s leading social network, Vkontakte.ru (also known as VK.com), can now list a person of the same sex as their partner under the rubric “family situation.”
The move – a personal decision by site founder Pavel Durov – is particularly notable in a country that formally decriminalized homosexuality only in 1993, and where some regions are adopting controversial legislation against “propagandizing homosexuality.”
The decision came earlier this month after a network user named Oleg – one of Vkontakte’s 150 million patrons – sent a request to the site’s technical support to let him mention his male partner on his profile. The site staff initially suggested that Oleg “change his sex,” referring to the Russian legislation which does not recognize same-sex marriage.
In response Oleg revealed this alleged site-user discrimination to the press and to the Rainbow Association (Raduzhnaya Assotsiatsiya), a Moscow-based gay, lesbian, bisexual and transsexual NGO.
An appeal to Vkontakte’s management on Oleg’s behalf was initially answered by the site’s press service with an uncompromising rejection: no same-sex couple status could be introduced, the company’s statement asserted, either then or in the future. But later that same day, Durov responded to the appeal differently in a tweet: “Don’t worry, you’ll get what you want.”
The functional change was introduced the next day – followed by a wave of homophobic comments on the social network and elsewhere.
“By agreeing to the demands of degenerates, [Pavel Durov] is suggesting that children revise their sexual orientation,” blogged Vitaly Milonov, a member of parliament from the ruling United Russia party, referring to the fact that a significant fraction of Vkontakte users are under 18. “I am not sure that certain Vkontakte shareholders will appreciate this kind of atheism,” he added.
EWDN thanks the Rainbow Association for providing information for this article.
