Russia’s police hunt for gays, but find clowns

Homophobic raid busts up Russians’ annual costume party in search for ‘LGBT propaganda’

Russia’s cruel crackdown on its LGBTQ citizens has reached buffoonish extremes.

The latest anti-gay police raid targeted a community costume party in Tomsk, Siberia, Russia.

Hunting for gays, they instead found acrobats and people dressed as clowns.

The publication Novaya Gazeta Europe tells the tale:

Russian security forces detained seven people after raiding a costume party in the city of Tomsk, in Siberia, Telegram news channel Ostorozhno Novosti reported on Saturday [Nov. 8].

News channel Baza said the popular annual Sabbath party had a circus theme this year, with guests appearing in clown costumes, and female acrobats performing on the dance floor. The party had been going for several hours before riot police officers arrived and put an abrupt end to proceedings. Police spent over two hours searching attendees and checked 17 rooms on the premises before allowing people to leave, Baza said.

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Eyewitnesses said that the police ordered party-goers not to film the raid and demanded that any footage already taken be deleted, according to Ostorozhno Novosti. The police came after receiving an anonymous tip-off that the law banning so-called ”LGBT propaganda” was being broken, Baza said.

Last month, Moscow police raided a self-styled “kissing party” at a nightclub in the eastern part of the Russian capital in another instance of the authorities cracking down on what they deem to be “non-traditional” events. The city’s once world-famous nightlife scene has changed dramatically in recent years amid an increase in raids on “non-traditional venues” and the growing persecution of queer people since Russia’s Supreme Court outlawed the “international LGBT movement” in 2023.

Armed police have been known to terrify revellers, forcing them to lie face down on the floor, sometimes for hours at a time, and in several cases, beating and humiliating party-goers while checking their documents and phones.