Last week, Pope Francis spoke out in defense of same-sex unions. According to him, representatives of sexual minorities must be legally protected.“Homosexuals have the right to a family. They are children of God. We need laws on civil unions to protect their rights in this way, ”was the speech Francis made in the new documentary Francesco, which premiered at the Rome Film Festival on October 21st.The results of the annual survey of the human rights organization "Russian LGBT Network" showed that in 2019 in our country 64.4% of respondents from the community faced discrimination, violation of rights or violence.

Difficulties at work

Among the main problems - psychological violence (56% reported it), illegal use of personal data (16%) and discrimination at work or study (13%), follows from the data of the Russian LGBT Network. 0.31% faced dismissal, another 0.85% were forced to quit, 1% of those surveyed were refused employment and 10.5% were forced to provide incomplete information about themselves when hiring. Most often, homosexual people faced layoffs and other types of discrimination.37% of Russian entrepreneurs are not ready to hire a representative of the LGBT community.

They stated that this could be a deciding factor in hiring, such data are provided in a joint study by Inc. and Omnibus agency, which was attended by 321 representatives of small and medium-sized businesses from 32 regions of Russia. As part of the survey, 51% of businessmen said they were ready to hire LGBT people, 8% answered that everything depends on the position, and 4% found it difficult to comment on the problem. Based on the fact that 97% of the interviewed entrepreneurs stated that there are no LGBT representatives in their company, it follows that people do not risk disclosing such information.

“For many of us, being closed is still a security issue. Nevertheless, there are host groups and supportive colleagues, and we believe that there will be more and more of them, ”emphasizes the Russian-language media about LGBT culture“ Open ”in the article“ How to come out at work ”.

Only 1% of surveyed Inc. and Omnibus of entrepreneurs know that the company has LGBT people.

Nikolai Alekseev , the founder of the Moscow Gay Pride movement, told Gazeta.Ru that the employment situation in Russia depends on many factors - on which company a person gets a job, what position, what is the essence of the job, what the candidate looks like , whether it is possible to draw a conclusion from it what orientation it is.

“If an employer is interested in a skilled workforce, he is not interested in what orientation the employee will be, but in who will bring the company more profit,”

- says Alekseev. He noted that in recent years there were indeed cases when people were not hired because of their gay orientation, but not so many of them are known, because most people do not want to talk about it.

“Now it's easier to forget about it and find another job. If they (the minorities - Gazeta.Ru) knew for sure that the court would protect them, we would know more about such cases. There are few cases now to outline the boundaries of this problem, but this does not mean that it does not exist. The conflict is hushed up for various objective reasons, ”explains the LGBT activist.

Informal refusals

Recruiting services interviewed by Gazeta.Ru noted that formally such a reason as sexual orientation cannot be a reason for refusing to hire. It is prohibited by law to prescribe discriminatory conditions in job advertisements, that is, direct or indirect restriction of rights or the provision of benefits depending on any qualities not related to the business characteristics of the employee, hh.ru noted.

“If the practice of refusing candidates because of their sexual orientation exists, it is informal. According to our surveys, there is a dependence: the larger the company, the less often it pays attention to such features that are not related to the business qualities of applicants, such as the zodiac sign, orientation, religion, etc. "

- explained in the press service of the service.

The personal life of an employee should not be the object of the employer's attention if it does not interfere with the performance of his official duties, emphasized Yulia Sanina, HR and Organizational Development Director of the Rabota.ru service. She also points out that any manifestation of discrimination, including questions about sexual orientation, is prohibited by law.

“Unfortunately, in some companies, the discrepancy between the marital status and the employer's expectations may result in the refusal of employment, promotion or transfer of an employee to another position. However, from the point of view of the Labor Code, the employer cannot refuse a candidate for reasons not related to business qualities. This is considered discrimination in the world of work, ”says Yulia Sanina.

She advises an applicant who is faced with this kind of questions to think about whether he is ready to work in this company. Practice shows that when choosing a place of work, in addition to salary, one should pay attention to the corporate culture. If it does not coincide with the views of the employee, most likely he will not stay there for a long time or will not be fully satisfied with the work, the expert warns.

The head of the SuperJob Research Center Natalya Golovanova cites research data, according to which employers pay attention to the personal life of candidates in about a third of cases. Thus, the marital status influences the decision on hiring in 41% of cases if the applicant is a woman, and in 29% of cases if a man is hired. In every fifth company, married women with children have priority over other applicants, and women who are not married and have no children - in every 11 companies.

LGBT people and the brain drain

The report “Putin's Exodus: A New Brain Drain,” prepared by the Atlantic Council research organization in 2019, states that more and more Russians, in particular the LGBT community, are resorting to political asylum in the United States.

“More and more Russians are resorting to political asylum. Many of them are indeed refugees who have experienced persecution, ”says a report presented early last year in Washington. At the same time, the NGO Civic Assistance Committee, which provides assistance to migrants, emphasizes that it is difficult to assess the data on the immigration of LGBT people and name the reasons that forced them to leave.

“Official statistics on LGBT refugees are kept very rarely and by no means always reflect reality, since representatives of the LGBT community often seek asylum on other grounds,” reads the memo “LGBT refugees in Russia and the world”. Community members from Russia most often seek refuge in Germany, France, Spain and the Nordic countries, according to the organization. Sexual orientation can be the basis for asylum, such a decision was made by an EU court in 2013.

Russia is taking a course opposite to the West when it comes to same-sex relationships. In July 2013, a law on responsibility for “promoting non-traditional sexual relations among minors”, better known as the prohibition of “promoting homosexuality”, came into force in the country. Also, in the amendments to the Constitution adopted in the summer of 2020, the clause on "protection of the institution of marriage as a union of a
man and a woman" is enshrined . In February of this year, Vladimir Putin announced that while he was president, same-sex unions would not be legalized in Russia.

“As for 'parent # 1 and parent # 2" - I have already spoken publicly once, I will repeat it again, until I am the president , we have one and two parents - we will have a father and mother, "Putin commented on the mentioned amendment at a meeting with the working group. His words are quoted by Interfax.

Same-sex couples made attempts to officially start a family in Russia: for example, at the beginning of 2018, two Russians received a stamp from the MFC confirming their marriage registered in Copenhagen. After making the story public, both passports were invalidated, and the citizens themselves left Russia. Also, the criminal case initiated by the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation against gays who had children with the help of the services of surrogate mothers continues . The defendants are charged with an article on trafficking in children. As RBC wrote, the deputy head of the State Duma committee on family, women and children Oksana Pushkina has already stood up for them , who sent a letter to Prosecutor General Igor Krasnov because of plans to arrest single fathers and take their children away. Read more via Gazeta