A cat, in St Petersburg, Russia has lost her human female guardian, Yelena Grigoryeva, 41, an outspoken and prominent LBGTI activist in the city because she was stabbed to death in a targeted attack on this prominent and outspoken woman.
A fellow activist, Dinar Idrisov, writing on Facebook confirmed that Lena had been threatened leading up to her murder.
The tender and humane aspect of the story is that Lena had asked a friend to take care of her cat if she was murdered:
Idrisov said: “I learned today that Lena asked a mutual friend to take care of her cat in the event of her death when she was threatened with murder,” – FB post.
Lena had campaigned with the Alliance of Heterosexual and LBGT for Equality organisation. Apparently she also worked for other civil society groups. It is said that she had been targeted on a website which had drawn inspiration from a horror movie series, “Saw” and which targeted LBGT people.
Lena’s name was on the website which collected and published personal information on people like Lena i.e. activists, and on which they published names, photos and even addresses.
The website called on people to ‘hunt’ down the people listed on the website. The site was subsequently taken down by Russian authorities last week. However, it had been on the Internet since 2018. The fact that it had been on the Internet for such a long time is a clear indication of the attitude by the authorities towards LBGTI citizens in Russia.
Comment: I remember seeing on the television a programme about right-wing groups in Russia. They were extraordinarily right-wing, intolerant, bigoted and violent. They absolutely rejected diversity of any kind it seemed to me. It appears that Russia is very intolerant of gender diversity and identity. Gender diversity is completely normal. It is highly reactionary and unpleasant to reject it. It is said that the authorities are sympathetic towards these people and that they will not do anything about catching the people or person who hunted down and stabbed to death this good woman. I sincerely hope that her cat finds a good new home and gets over her loss as quickly as possible.
People must understand that humans can’t and should not pigeon hole others into a binary gender constraint. With respect to sex and gender, there is a huge spectrum of people on the planet . They must all be accepted and respected as normal because it is normal. Put aside religious bigotory and ignorance, please.
