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The Oyster is also free to get in to at any time (though security is tight and face control is still exercised), which ensures a young and more mixed bunch of people than at Central Station next door.Ī St.
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Inside you'll find few leather daddies though - the bar is actually the favored hang out of a young, slightly more alternative mixed-sex crowd that knocks back the cheap drinks and then throws itself into the sweaty scrum on the dancefloor the most egregious-cum-suicidal of them also climb over the rails of the balcony above the dance floor and hang off it above the crowd, somehow still managing to smoke and drink, while the bouncers look on unperturbed. Next door, a short distance down Ulitsa Lomonosova, is the self-styled "trash bar" the Blue Oyster (Golubaya Ustritsa), its name both a pun on the Russian word for gay (goluboi) and a reference to the notorious leather bar that is the butt of constant jokes in the now rather dated Police Academy movies of the '80s. More typically, the menu features dance shows compered by drag queens, club nights with international DJs and karaoke competitions. Petersburg gay scene and is mainly popular with gay men, though it does have a girls' night (Female Station, on Thursdays), where guys are still welcome, though they have to pay twice as much to get in. The club is very much the center of the St. Inside, there are two crowded bars, a big dancefloor, a VIP room and a dark room. In the summer months crowds of clubbers mill about outside, rubbing shoulders with the largely straight overspill from nearby bars such as Dacha. The biggest and most European-style gay club in town is Central Station, at the end of Dumskaya Ulitsa, a multi-floor fun house of Russian estrada, mainstream pop and house, which is busy nightly throughout the week. While visibility is increasing, nearly all establishments remain somewhat discreet about their nature, so you can still expect good old-fashioned videophone entries and unsigned venues, which just adds to the sense of adventure. Nevertheless, the city's gay scene is surprisingly busy and accessible to all, with four well-established clubs and a smattering of bars and saunas - it differs little from the scene to be found in any other European city. While gay rights groups have become far more vocal in recent years, it's still no exaggeration to say that the political side of the gay scene remains small and rarely visible, even as political protest seems to be returning to St. Many gay people in Russia still consider the mere existence of a gay rights movement a nuisance that will simply serve to turn an intolerant society's attention toward a group of people that the average Russian rarely sees or even thinks about. Like many aspects of Russian civil society that tentatively grew up in the early 1990s, the gay and lesbian movement characterized itself by keeping its head down, not upsetting the authorities and trying hard to avoid creating trouble, a strategy most unlike that used by other, more provocative European gay rights movements. Petersburg's gay scene has never been more visible or felt less threatened than it does today. PETERSBURG - Perhaps what's most surprising amid the homophobic rhetoric and the new law targeting the "promotion" of gay lifestyles is the fact that St. Make friends with a local and take their advice on what’s happening.ST. While the gay scene is growing, it is still intimate enough that everyone sort-of knows each other. Petersburg’s largest and most popular gay venue. No doubt Central Station has become the hub as it is St. No cameras or recording equipment are allowed for fear of blackmailing clients. Petersburg, though what happens inside bars and clubs stays inside. A sizeable gay scene does exist in both Moscow and St. In short, this is a tough place to be gay, though Russian gays are pretty darn tough, too. Hate crimes are less common but still do occur, though they are more rare in larger cities. In an odd split of opinion, 43% of Russians support re-criminalizing homosexual acts while 43% of Russians support a legal ban on discrimination based on sexual orientation. While homosexuality was removed from the official list of mental illnesses in 1999, there is currently no legal recognition of gay marriage and public support stood at just 14% for such legislation as of 2005. Perhaps the topic area where Russia is most different from its European counterparts is gay rights.