Messaging apps like Telegram have provided new ways for Russian gay men to build such networks, as well-run group chats can create a sense of togetherness and inclusivity. The group chats are the lifeblood of the society, members said, where they can exchange memes and memories, photos and suggestions, as well as bear news. Medvezhatniki, or bear gatherings, include group trips to the banya, café meet-ups, walking tours and film nights, and are organized over a handful of closed Telegram groups comprising upwards of 220 members. The society is about inclusivity and friendliness above all,” he said. But, if someone thinks he is a bear, we consider him to be a bear. Like all the men interviewed for this story, he asked for his surname to be withheld.Ī 'bear,' explained Anton, who is 47 and sports a golden-ginger beard, should have four key features - hairiness, bulk, friendliness and, crucially, masculinity. Petersburg’s gay scene through social and cultural events.

“I have created my own bear state,” said Anton, who founded BEARsBURG in July 2021 as a grassroots society to bring together the larger, hairier men of St.

It’s a party behind an unmarked door in a country that has seen hate crimes against the LGBT community increase since the 2013 introduction of a law banning “gay propaganda among minors.”

As the credits start to roll, the viewers scatter and make way for the highlight of the evening - a boozy session of belting bear karaoke, which breathes new and deeper-voiced life into the 90s ballads of Russian singer Tatiana Bulanova. On a Thursday night in November around twenty men have gathered to watch “Dance of the Forty-One,” a historical film based on a queer scandal involving cross-dressers at the highest level of early 20th century Mexican society. Petersburg’s secretive BEARsBURG society - a modern Russian incarnation of a gay sub-group which originally developed in the United States toward the end of the 1970s as a reaction against effeminate stereotypes of queer men. The location is the perfect hideaway for St. There are no signs, windows, grand entrances or bouncers at the back of the defunct industrial complex housing its long, black, neon-lit bar and dance floor. PETERSBURG - If you didn’t know Club Malevich existed you would never find it.

Gay bears telegram