Caution as a survival strategy: what the ComingOut and Sfera report reveals about LGBTQ+ people in Russia in 2025
A joint study by two human-rights organizations, based on 6,124 questionnaires, records not improvement but the entrenchment of a crisis. Over the year, violence affected more than 40% of respondents, self-censorship became an almost universal practice, and transgender people and minors remain the least protected group. The authors attribute the fall in certain indicators not to an easing of conditions but to people concealing themselves ever more carefully.
The LGBTQ+ group Coming Out (Vykhod) and the Sfera Foundation have released their annual report on the situation of LGBTQ+ people in Russia, covering 2025. It is based on an online survey conducted between 30 November 2025 and 16 February 2026, which gathered 6,124 questionnaires (down from 6,403 a year earlier). Censorship and website blocking made it difficult to distribute the survey widely, so the sample is skewed toward large cities: a quarter of respondents live in Moscow and a further 17% in St. Petersburg. The authors state this limitation plainly — the real scale of discrimination and violence is likely higher than what was recorded.
The report's central finding is that 2025 brought neither marked improvement nor sharp deterioration. In place of change, the researchers describe an entrenched survival model: heightened caution, selective openness, the avoidance of contact with state institutions, and — for some — emigration.
The legal backdrop
The position of LGBTQ+ people in Russia is shaped by a series of laws passed in recent years. In late 2022, the ban on "LGBT propaganda" was extended from information aimed at minors to any audience. In the summer of 2023, gender transition was effectively prohibited: both changing one's gender marker in documents and the medical interventions associated with transition. In November 2023, the Supreme Court designated the "international LGBT movement" as extremist — a ruling that lawyers and rights advocates read as grounds for the arbitrary prosecution of almost anyone connected to LGBTQ+ matters.
A further factor was added in 2025. On 1 September, a law imposing fines for the deliberate searching of "extremist materials" online, including via VPN, came into force (Article 13.53 of the Code of Administrative Offenses, a fine of 3,000–5,000 rubles). Because the "LGBT movement" is on the register of extremist entities, the very act of searching for information on the subject falls under formal risk. The effect of this provision is visible directly in the report's data.
A "decline" that is an illusion
Comparing 2025 with previous years, the authors insistently warn against hasty conclusions. This year's sample is noticeably younger (a median age of 23 against 24), and for the first time it tilts slightly toward women. Since men and older respondents more often report several forms of violence, the fall in some indicators may reflect not a real improvement but a change in who was surveyed. Where the figures do drop — for example, the share who faced discrimination at a doctor's office — the researchers attribute it chiefly to the fact that LGBTQ+ people are coming out less and avoiding risky situations more.
Violence: lower in the figures, not in life
In 2025, 40.9% of respondents (2,507 people) faced at least one type of violence motivated by homophobia or transphobia. By comparison, the figure was 47.8% in 2024, 43.5% in 2023, and 30% in 2022. The authors again link the decline from the 2024 peak to the shift in the sample rather than to a drop in aggression: more than two-fifths of respondents still encounter violence.
Behind the averages lies a broad spectrum of forms. One in five (20%) faced threats of physical violence, 13.5% domestic violence, 6.6% sexualized violence, and 6% physical violence. About 10% experienced blackmail or extortion, and 13.7% threats of denunciation to the authorities. Online persecution stands out for its growth: from 12% to 17% across the sample, and to 24% among transgender people. Online threats, respondents note, frequently spill over into offline life.
The report's key conclusion is that violence is not so much shrinking as changing shape. It is becoming less visible outwardly but more routine, and it increasingly comes not from strangers but from people's immediate circle — partners and former partners, relatives, classmates, colleagues. Among organized sources of aggression, respondents name homophobic groups, in particular the "Russian Community" (Russkaya Obshchina). The threat of denunciation functions as a tool of control in its own right, even when it never leads to real consequences.
Police: a distrust that keeps growing
The report records an extremely low level of trust in law enforcement. Among those who faced a hate crime, only a handful turned to the police: just 0.8% of all respondents (47 people) filed a report. About half of those reports were accepted, and 9% — four cases — reached court.
The reasons for not reporting are doubt about its effectiveness (83%) and fear of the police themselves (71%); 63% feared the outing that might follow a visit to a station. These fears, judging by respondents' accounts, are well founded: 3% reported police violence (twice as often in the North Caucasus), and the police frequently act not as protectors but as a source of pressure — from psychological coercion and threats of charges for "propaganda" and "extremism" to demands to sign a military contract.
Censorship has become almost universal
The report's highest figure is self-censorship. Some 94% of respondents said they are forced to restrain themselves on matters related to LGBTQ+ topics (six percentage points more than a year earlier). More than half (57%) said they cannot freely access the information they want on the subject.
The new law on "searching for extremist materials" produced a measurable chilling effect: 59% of respondents changed how they search for information online. Most often, this adaptation amounts to technical self-defense — 82% installed a VPN. A separate problem is the forced rollout of the state messenger MAX: some respondents report being required to install it by employers or educational institutions, while distrusting how their data is handled. One participant summed up the year's atmosphere in three words: "darkness and fear."
Medicine, the economy, emigration
This distrust extends to basic social institutions. More than a third of respondents (35%) declined to see a doctor at least once during the year out of fear of discrimination — six percentage points more than in 2024; among transgender people, the figure is 57%. The formal decline in the share who faced direct discrimination from medical staff is explained by the same mechanism: people come out less and seek help less often, which in itself endangers their health.
Their economic situation remains precarious. About a quarter of respondents (23%) can afford only food and live on the edge of poverty, and a further 4% in extreme poverty; among transgender people these shares are higher (31% and 8%). A substantial part of the sample (41%) lives with their parents, indirectly indicating economic dependence, partly tied to the sample's younger profile.
Emigration persists as a significant safety strategy, and the decision to leave is increasingly final: the share who do not consider returning to Russia rose from 55% to 63%. At the same time, the experience abroad is mixed — 38% of those who left faced discrimination over their orientation or gender identity in their host country.
The most vulnerable: transgender people and minors
The report consistently singles out two high-risk groups. Transgender respondents face almost every form of violence more often than others, along with discrimination in medicine, in the labor market and in services, as well as economic hardship that many tie directly to being transgender. The mismatch between appearance and documents, after the ban on changing the gender marker, becomes an additional barrier — when seeking work, in a hospital, at the post office.
Minors prove especially defenseless because of their dependence on family and the school environment. They are twice as likely to suffer physical violence (12%), and more often face threats (34%), domestic violence, online persecution and damage to their property. More than half of teenagers (55%) report pressure at their place of study.
The geography of risk
Regional differences remain stark. The most severe situation is consistently recorded in the North Caucasus, which leads on most forms of violence: it has the highest share of victims of physical violence (15%), threats (32%) and conversion therapy (10.6% — five times the national average). Elevated risks are also typical of southern Russia and the Far East. Even the traditionally more open capitals offer no stability: in St. Petersburg, the level of openness has fallen for the second year running.
War as a constant backdrop
Some 83% of respondents said Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine had affected them personally — more than in previous years. The war weighed most heavily on psychological well-being (88%), the ability to travel abroad (73%) and the ability to speak openly about themselves (65%). About 2% faced threats or blackmail involving being sent to military service precisely because they are LGBTQ+ — from enlistment offices, relatives and online contacts.
What the report demands
The study closes with a set of recommendations. It urges the State Duma to repeal Articles 6.21 and 6.21.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses on liability for "propaganda" and to establish a legal procedure for changing the gender marker. It calls on the Prosecutor General to ask the Constitutional Court to review the ruling that designated the "LGBT movement" as extremist. It asks the Ministry of Health to issue guidance on the impermissibility of denying care on the basis of orientation or gender identity and to develop standards of care for people with a diagnosis of "transsexualism." And it calls on international institutions to recognize the persecution of LGBTQ+ people in Russia as mass persecution and to apply the principle of non-refoulement, not returning such people to the country.
The report "The Situation of LGBTQ+ People in Russia in 2025" was prepared by Coming Out and Sfera; the text was written by Nina Pavlova. Both organizations provide LGBTQ+ people with free legal and psychological assistance and monitor discrimination, operating under conditions in which such advocacy is criminalized in Russia.
This article addresses themes of violence and psychological well-being. If you need support, free help from a psychologist or lawyer is available through Coming Out (comingoutspb.org) and the Sfera Foundation (spherequeer.org).
The LGBTQ+ group Coming Out (Vykhod) and the Sfera Foundation have released their annual report on the situation of LGBTQ+ people in Russia, covering 2025. It is based on an online survey conducted between 30 November 2025 and 16 February 2026, which gathered 6,124 questionnaires (down from 6,403 a year earlier). Censorship and website blocking made it difficult to distribute the survey widely, so the sample is skewed toward large cities: a quarter of respondents live in Moscow and a further 17% in St. Petersburg. The authors state this limitation plainly — the real scale of discrimination and violence is likely higher than what was recorded.
The report's central finding is that 2025 brought neither marked improvement nor sharp deterioration. In place of change, the researchers describe an entrenched survival model: heightened caution, selective openness, the avoidance of contact with state institutions, and — for some — emigration.
The legal backdrop
The position of LGBTQ+ people in Russia is shaped by a series of laws passed in recent years. In late 2022, the ban on "LGBT propaganda" was extended from information aimed at minors to any audience. In the summer of 2023, gender transition was effectively prohibited: both changing one's gender marker in documents and the medical interventions associated with transition. In November 2023, the Supreme Court designated the "international LGBT movement" as extremist — a ruling that lawyers and rights advocates read as grounds for the arbitrary prosecution of almost anyone connected to LGBTQ+ matters.
A further factor was added in 2025. On 1 September, a law imposing fines for the deliberate searching of "extremist materials" online, including via VPN, came into force (Article 13.53 of the Code of Administrative Offenses, a fine of 3,000–5,000 rubles). Because the "LGBT movement" is on the register of extremist entities, the very act of searching for information on the subject falls under formal risk. The effect of this provision is visible directly in the report's data.
A "decline" that is an illusion
Comparing 2025 with previous years, the authors insistently warn against hasty conclusions. This year's sample is noticeably younger (a median age of 23 against 24), and for the first time it tilts slightly toward women. Since men and older respondents more often report several forms of violence, the fall in some indicators may reflect not a real improvement but a change in who was surveyed. Where the figures do drop — for example, the share who faced discrimination at a doctor's office — the researchers attribute it chiefly to the fact that LGBTQ+ people are coming out less and avoiding risky situations more.
Violence: lower in the figures, not in life
In 2025, 40.9% of respondents (2,507 people) faced at least one type of violence motivated by homophobia or transphobia. By comparison, the figure was 47.8% in 2024, 43.5% in 2023, and 30% in 2022. The authors again link the decline from the 2024 peak to the shift in the sample rather than to a drop in aggression: more than two-fifths of respondents still encounter violence.
Behind the averages lies a broad spectrum of forms. One in five (20%) faced threats of physical violence, 13.5% domestic violence, 6.6% sexualized violence, and 6% physical violence. About 10% experienced blackmail or extortion, and 13.7% threats of denunciation to the authorities. Online persecution stands out for its growth: from 12% to 17% across the sample, and to 24% among transgender people. Online threats, respondents note, frequently spill over into offline life.
The report's key conclusion is that violence is not so much shrinking as changing shape. It is becoming less visible outwardly but more routine, and it increasingly comes not from strangers but from people's immediate circle — partners and former partners, relatives, classmates, colleagues. Among organized sources of aggression, respondents name homophobic groups, in particular the "Russian Community" (Russkaya Obshchina). The threat of denunciation functions as a tool of control in its own right, even when it never leads to real consequences.
Police: a distrust that keeps growing
The report records an extremely low level of trust in law enforcement. Among those who faced a hate crime, only a handful turned to the police: just 0.8% of all respondents (47 people) filed a report. About half of those reports were accepted, and 9% — four cases — reached court.
The reasons for not reporting are doubt about its effectiveness (83%) and fear of the police themselves (71%); 63% feared the outing that might follow a visit to a station. These fears, judging by respondents' accounts, are well founded: 3% reported police violence (twice as often in the North Caucasus), and the police frequently act not as protectors but as a source of pressure — from psychological coercion and threats of charges for "propaganda" and "extremism" to demands to sign a military contract.
Censorship has become almost universal
The report's highest figure is self-censorship. Some 94% of respondents said they are forced to restrain themselves on matters related to LGBTQ+ topics (six percentage points more than a year earlier). More than half (57%) said they cannot freely access the information they want on the subject.
The new law on "searching for extremist materials" produced a measurable chilling effect: 59% of respondents changed how they search for information online. Most often, this adaptation amounts to technical self-defense — 82% installed a VPN. A separate problem is the forced rollout of the state messenger MAX: some respondents report being required to install it by employers or educational institutions, while distrusting how their data is handled. One participant summed up the year's atmosphere in three words: "darkness and fear."
Medicine, the economy, emigration
This distrust extends to basic social institutions. More than a third of respondents (35%) declined to see a doctor at least once during the year out of fear of discrimination — six percentage points more than in 2024; among transgender people, the figure is 57%. The formal decline in the share who faced direct discrimination from medical staff is explained by the same mechanism: people come out less and seek help less often, which in itself endangers their health.
Their economic situation remains precarious. About a quarter of respondents (23%) can afford only food and live on the edge of poverty, and a further 4% in extreme poverty; among transgender people these shares are higher (31% and 8%). A substantial part of the sample (41%) lives with their parents, indirectly indicating economic dependence, partly tied to the sample's younger profile.
Emigration persists as a significant safety strategy, and the decision to leave is increasingly final: the share who do not consider returning to Russia rose from 55% to 63%. At the same time, the experience abroad is mixed — 38% of those who left faced discrimination over their orientation or gender identity in their host country.
The most vulnerable: transgender people and minors
The report consistently singles out two high-risk groups. Transgender respondents face almost every form of violence more often than others, along with discrimination in medicine, in the labor market and in services, as well as economic hardship that many tie directly to being transgender. The mismatch between appearance and documents, after the ban on changing the gender marker, becomes an additional barrier — when seeking work, in a hospital, at the post office.
Minors prove especially defenseless because of their dependence on family and the school environment. They are twice as likely to suffer physical violence (12%), and more often face threats (34%), domestic violence, online persecution and damage to their property. More than half of teenagers (55%) report pressure at their place of study.
The geography of risk
Regional differences remain stark. The most severe situation is consistently recorded in the North Caucasus, which leads on most forms of violence: it has the highest share of victims of physical violence (15%), threats (32%) and conversion therapy (10.6% — five times the national average). Elevated risks are also typical of southern Russia and the Far East. Even the traditionally more open capitals offer no stability: in St. Petersburg, the level of openness has fallen for the second year running.
War as a constant backdrop
Some 83% of respondents said Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine had affected them personally — more than in previous years. The war weighed most heavily on psychological well-being (88%), the ability to travel abroad (73%) and the ability to speak openly about themselves (65%). About 2% faced threats or blackmail involving being sent to military service precisely because they are LGBTQ+ — from enlistment offices, relatives and online contacts.
What the report demands
The study closes with a set of recommendations. It urges the State Duma to repeal Articles 6.21 and 6.21.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses on liability for "propaganda" and to establish a legal procedure for changing the gender marker. It calls on the Prosecutor General to ask the Constitutional Court to review the ruling that designated the "LGBT movement" as extremist. It asks the Ministry of Health to issue guidance on the impermissibility of denying care on the basis of orientation or gender identity and to develop standards of care for people with a diagnosis of "transsexualism." And it calls on international institutions to recognize the persecution of LGBTQ+ people in Russia as mass persecution and to apply the principle of non-refoulement, not returning such people to the country.
The report "The Situation of LGBTQ+ People in Russia in 2025" was prepared by Coming Out and Sfera; the text was written by Nina Pavlova. Both organizations provide LGBTQ+ people with free legal and psychological assistance and monitor discrimination, operating under conditions in which such advocacy is criminalized in Russia.
This article addresses themes of violence and psychological well-being. If you need support, free help from a psychologist or lawyer is available through Coming Out (comingoutspb.org) and the Sfera Foundation (spherequeer.org).