Photographer Misha Friedman photographed gay and lesbian people in Russia’s hinterlands, where life is rough and becoming rougher as the country’s anti-gay campaign takes hold.
He reached out to BuzzFeed after reading this story, which details the brutal abuse and violence faced by gays and lesbians in those cities. By chance, among those he photographed were two of the story's subjects: Konstantin Golava and Mikhail Tumasov.
Konstantin Golava is a 22-year-old environmental activist in Tolyatti.
©Misha Friedman/Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting
Since coming out, he has been beaten by unidentified thugs, fired from his job, and vilified by national and local media as having desecrated the memory of Soviet victims of WWII by deliberately placing condoms near the city’s eternal flame
©Misha Friedman/Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting
Golava stands at the entrance to Tolyatti's main park, where he was attacked in broad daylight last year after holding a news conference to explain the eternal flame incident.
©Misha Friedman/Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting