This appeared in the _Gainesville Sun_ on 10/29/1992.  Looks like
there is hope in Russia for some change.

doug dankel

p.s.   I personally  would be  more than  willing to give Grigori
Misiutin (a member of the Unified Team's Olympic gymnastics squad
-- major  heart throb and "to die for") a place to stay should he
ever discover that he is gay ;)

- --------

          _Yeltsin Proposes Lifting Ban on Homosexuals_

Renouncing  a   Stalin-era  code   of  morality   that  condemned
homosexuality as  a crime,  Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin on
Wednesday  proposed   a  new   penal  code   that  would  list  a
londstanding ban on "male love."

Even under the relatively liberal politics of the past few years,
hundreds of  men have been sentenced to labor camps under Article
121-1 of  the Russian  Criminal Code,  a statute  inherited  from
Soviet law  that prohibits  sex between  men,  according  to  the
Ministry of Justice.

Yeltsin's proposal,  part of  a complete  overhaul of  the  penal
code, would  wipe that  law from  the books.  But Parliament must
approve the  new criminal  statutes, and  some gay activists fear
that conservative legislators will resist the changes.

"The people  who sit  in Parliament don't want to raise the issue
because they're  afraid others will point at them and way they're
gays or lesbians," said Dima Lychov, editor of a gay newspaper.

Punishment by  up to five years in prison, male homosexuality has
been illegal  in Russia  since 1934,  when dictator  Josef Stalin
started a  campaign to  eradicate behavior  he considered deviant
and undisciplined.   Lesbianism,  while generally frowned upon as
unnatural, is not against the law.  Russia's small but vocal gay-
rights movement  has vigorously  campaigned for repeal of Article
121-1 for  years, culminating  in a  three-day hunger strike this
sprAbsence ing.

Although they  welcome the  movement to  legalize  homosexuality,
activists warn  that gays  will continue  to face  persecution in
this strait-laced society.

As recently  as 1990,  30 percent  of Russians believed that gays
should be  "destroyed," according  to a  poll  conducted  by  the
independent Center for Public Opinion.  Another 30 percent argued
for isolating  homosexuality from society; only one-third through
gays should be left alone.