Homophobia has long been rife in the Russia. The introduction of laws to limit the LGBT community have been brought in by President Vladimir Putin and are driving a kind of state-sanctioned attack. First it was the infamous Gay Propaganda law that uses protection of children to hide the blatant homophobia. More recently, the Russian state explicitly ruled out same-sex marriage through a constitutional amendment.

One phrase sums up life for LGBT people in Russia today – “You can be gay in Russia, but you can’t talk about it openly”. These words are from Andzej Gavriss, the Latvian director of the short film ‘We Will Become Better’. He joined us with a dancer from the film, Max Avdeev.