Queer online series meets eager Russian LGBTQ audience

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian film director Andrei Fenochka says his online series about queer young people is important for LGBTQ people in a country that bans gay “propaganda” among minors. Fenochka’s “Here I Come” series that debuted last fall is marked as only available to people older than 18 in accordance with Russian law. Fenochka said Tuesday that “we have met with a very positive, supportive reaction from young viewers because they finally see the presentation of this part of society, not only in English or in Korean, but also in Russian.” Homosexuality was decriminalized in Russia in 1993, but anti-gay sentiment remains widespread. In 2013, Russia adopted a federal law banning “propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations among minors.”