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Article: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2746643-lgbt-fans-to-be-warned-about-holding-hands-in-public-in-russia-during-world-cup

As we know, Russia, the host of the 2018 World Cup, is not the most LGBT-supportive nation, and now at least one group is putting together information for fans wanting to attend, including warnings about public displays of affection between gays and lesbians in the country. How do you feel about this? Should LGBT fans feel safe attending this event? What does it say that Russia continues to be selected as host country for numerous sporting events despite the fact that it may place LGBT fans attending in danger?

Article: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2746643-lgbt-fans-to-be-warned-about-holding-hands-in-public-in-russia-during-world-cup

As we know, Russia, the host of the 2018 World Cup, is not the most LGBT-supportive nation, and now at least one group is putting together information for fans wanting to attend, including warnings about public displays of affection between gays and lesbians in the country. How do you feel about this? Should LGBT fans feel safe attending this event? What does it say that Russia continues to be selected as host country for numerous sporting events despite the fact that it may place LGBT fans attending in danger?

World cup. That's soccer right? FIFA? It's not like they have a stellar track record on caring about human rights abuses in general. If I remember correctly the were dragged hard for partnering with a country that was using forced labor to build a stadium. But I could be wrong on that.

As for lgbt fans in Russia, I think it's a safe bet that it's not safe to be lgbt in Russia in general. Although I've spoken woth a few folks who say that it's more of an ethnic issue and that travellers are usually left alone whereas native Russians are targeted because they "sully their homeland."

Reminds me of when I went to Jamaica last year. It was pretty obvious that Chris and I were together but as long as we said we were old college buddies and didn't do anything overt people mostly left us alone.

IIRC, Russia is a bit of an odd one with the LGBT community. A lot of Russians don't like the idea of it, and some outright attack them. During the Soviet era, people who used violence against gays were generally arrested, albeit it just being a way to keep order. In Russian Federation times, the general attitude of the police is mostly the same as in Soviet, albeit I do believe it is less seen, especially with Putin's anti-LGBT media law.

Edit: After a bit of research, it seems several Russians have stated that Russians living in Russia do not really care about gays, as long as it's not in public showing. Now one might think it is still bad, Russians are not very open about sex in general, especially since kissing in public was apparently illegal in Soviet times.