Prisons may have far-reaching effects on culture, especially where incarceration is widespread. Russia has high rates of both imprisonment and homophobia. 66% of Russians don’t want gay neighbours. That’s increased from 58% in 1999. Almost everywhere elsewhere in Europe, homophobia has fallen. What explains Russian exceptionalism?

An important new paper by Maxim Ananyev and Michael Poyker suggests that Russia’s prisons may have fermented homophobia. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4227900

Trigger warning: this piece discusses physical and sexual torture.

Substack: https://draliceevans.substack.com/p/did-gulags-turn-russians-anti-gay