(Either Dietrich’s sound system was too soft or its walls too soundproof.) “We were invisible,“ Debryanskaya said.Īuthorities are unlikely to shutter LGBT nightspots, but they won’t interfere with anyone who does so on their own. Hidden from the main street behind flashy bars like Dyxless and Noor Bar, visitors had to be persistent in the face of challenges like trying to find the right cellar door in an empty and silent courtyard. Russian gay clubs are legal as long as the clientele is over the age of 18. Kozlouvskiy assured her that he only wanted to protect her from unnecessary trouble with the authorities. “My business is legal, why should I be afraid of Petrovka?“ she says she asked Kozlouvskiy at the time. In 1990, she and Roman Kalini held in press conference to declare the beginning of the first LGBT rights movement in Russia and subsequently started the “Association of Sexual Minorities.“ In 2006, she was arrested in front of the Moscow City Hall during a pride parade.ĭebryanskaya, 62, knows the law and said she hesitated to leave the club that night.
Debryanskaya is a leading activist in Moscow’s LGBT community. “You are nobody,” Debryanskaya recalled him saying.
1 of 2016, he was taking over the lesbian bar to start a “natural nightclub.“ĭebryanskaya protested, but Kozlouvskiy replied that as the landlord, he owned everything in the building. There, he told a surprised Debryanskaya that despite their 12-year contract, which was due for renewal on Jan. The next day, Kozlouvskiy called Debryanskaya and invited her to meet him at the McDonald’s on Pushkin Square. Instead, Kozlouvskiy and security guards changed the locks, and took possession of a small fortune’s worth of stereo equipment and alcohol.