Story

Crimea’s Gay Community Moves Out as Russian Homophobia Sets In

October 15, 2014 | Time
By
Simon Shuster

Yegor watches as Bogdan teaches Timur to swim at their home in Sevastopol. Image by Misha Friedman. Sevastopol, 2014.

Timur is playing with a watergun in the backyard of his home in Sevastopol. Image by Misha Friedman. Sevastopol, 2014.

Not different from other modern parents, Bogdan uses an iPad with cartoons to ease mealtimes with Timur. Image by Misha Friedman. Sevastopol, 2014.

Last minute packing for their move to Kiev from Sevastopol. Image by Misha Friedman. Sevastopol, 2014.

Packing only the bare minimum as their Kiev rental is a lot smaller than their home in Crimea. Image by Misha Friedman. Sevastopol, 2014.

Driving in Ukraine with a Crimean license plate can be treacherous, as is driving in Crimea with Kiev plates. Image by Misha Friedman. Sevastopol, 2014.

Last evening at home in Sevastopol. Image by Misha Friedman. Sevastopol, 2014.

A 4 a.m. departure to avoid large queues at the border. Image by Misha Friedman. Sevastopol, 2014.

Yegor hugs his parents goodbye before going on a twelve-hour drive to Kiev. Image by Misha Friedman. Sevastopol, 2014.

Bogdan is Ukranian, Yegor is Russian but they never argued about the decision to leave Crimea after it was annexed by Russia. Image by Misha Friedman. Sevastopol, 2014.

Breakfast after crossing the de facto border. Yegor is messaging friends and family to say that despite queues and bureaucratic harassment by border guards, they made it through. Image by Misha Friedman. Kiev, 2014.

Bogdan explaining their trip to Timur. Image by Misha Friedman. Kiev, 2014.

Two-year old Timur is oblivious to the fact that his happy family is illegal in Russia. Image by Misha Friedman. Kiev, 2014.

First evening in their Kiev rental, Bogdan taking a picture of Yegor and Timur. Image by Misha Friedman. Kiev, 2014.

Bogdan is feeding Yegor, trying to convince Timur to eat his dinner. Image by Misha Friedman. Kiev, 2014.

Outside their apartment in central Kiev. Image by Misha Friedman. Kiev, 2014.

(Simon Shuster is a staff writer for Time. Photojournalist Misha Friedman is a Pulitzer Center grantee.)

The Qbar was always an awkward fit in the nightlife of Sevastopol. It was the only place in the Ukrainian city to host the occasional drag show, and certainly the only place where the all-male waitstaff wore booty shorts beneath their aprons. In other parts of Europe, and even many cities in mainland Ukraine, the camp décor would have raised few eyebrows. But Sevastopol is a macho place. It houses the Russian Black Sea naval fleet, and its streets are studded with the homes and memorials of veterans from Russian wars going back to the 18th century. So even before Russia decided in March of this year to annex the city from Ukraine along with the rest of the Crimean peninsula, the locals, both Russian and Ukrainian, looked at the Qbar with a bit of suspicion.

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