There is no "gay community." Not just in Russia but worldwide. There is no such thing as a unified gay community.

Homosexual & bisexual Russians tend to keep to themselves and don't do that weird cult shit as much. I'm not part of any "russian gay community" because there is none - at least, not one that won't be inherently guarded and shunned from outside because it's likely a very sexual thing. I've talked to quite a few Russians who claim to be homo/bisexual and not one has said that they are "oppressed" let alone at risk of dying. The worst I've ever seen is young teenage Russian girls who spend too much time with Western internet and start identifying as trans "men."

I also talked to one gay guy who LIVED in Chechnya online. He said to me, it's all fake - it's generally not a good idea to go around advertising yourself as gay so openly or sexually (but it's also not a good idea to do that anywhere else. I'd be more scared to reveal my sexuality in liberal countries than in Russia. Sorry but I feel like my own country is less likely to see me as a clown or poster child and tear down my self esteem.) but also he has had relationships with no problem, that he knew many other gay/bi males and he had multiple partners over his life and that it's nowhere near as bad as the media makes it seem. He also said that you can look for those camps and random murders everywhere, but "you won't find them, because they're not real."

And he was right. I have searched extensively in the two languages I know, not a single piece of evidence beyond "This LGBT organization said" or "This witness told this LGBT organization but we can't tell you more because of privacy."

I mean sure, I'm not disagreeing that religiously controlled areas are generally horrible all around, but my point is there is literally no proof of these "death camps" whatsoever. There is no source. Other atrocities in the world have tons of sources and witnesses, this? There is nothing. The only "witness" was a video of a supposed Russian man who escaped & learned to speak English in 6 months, miraculously with a perfect American accent. A little strange considering I've been speaking English for over 15 years and my accent hasn't morphed into perfect American or British English.

It's literally propaganda. It's funny how Americans can see that Russia is full of propaganda & will cry about it aimlessly, but the minute it's propaganda seemingly in THEIR favor they believe it even with obvious holes in the claim and no proof. "Chechnya/Russia in general is mass killing gay people" is the new "Trans women gave gay men their rights." It just gets parroted around with no claims and it's utterly ridiculous.