How Queer Studies Are Being Erased in Russia
Since June 2025, Russia has intensified its crackdown on academic research related to LGBTQ+ topics. That month, the FSB issued formal warnings to 15 university professors across the country, accusing them of spreading “LGBT propaganda” allegedly on behalf of the banned Oxford Russia Fund. One academic has already been fined.
This is the latest wave in a broader campaign of repression that escalated after the 2022 law banning “LGBT propaganda” and the 2023 classification of the LGBTQ+ movement as an “extremist organization.” Journalists from 7x7 have documented a systematic assault on students, postgraduate researchers, and faculty members working in gender and queer studies: dismissals, blocked dissertation defenses, journal censorship, and a pervasive climate of fear.
Researcher Yana Kirey-Sitnikova, who studies transgender issues, filed a lawsuit against the Bekhterev Review of Psychiatry and Medical Psychology after it rejected her article on the depathologization of trans identities. Officially, the rejection was tied to the Health Ministry’s refusal to adopt the ICD-11 classification. However, in its court response, the journal outright accused her of “promoting trans interests.”
According to Kirey-Sitnikova, widespread self-censorship now dominates academic life. Since the 2023 ban on hormone therapy and gender-affirming surgeries, medical and psychological professionals have largely stopped engaging with trans-related topics. Those who persist are often forced to publish abroad.
Researcher Elena confirms this trend, having faced rejections as early as 2020—before the harshest laws took effect. Journals cited fears of “getting in trouble.” Since 2023, she has also been excluded from academic conferences.
Some support still exists. Researcher Angelina, for instance, managed to publish several articles in Russian journals. However, she notes it depends entirely on the “human factor”—individual editors or advisors willing to take a risk.
Queer studies have never been formally recognized as a distinct academic discipline in Russia. Even in the relatively free 1990s, they remained marginal. Today, university dependency on the state, the foreign agents law, and institutional homophobia have made systematic development impossible.
Historian Dmitry Dubrovsky remarks that any professor openly supporting LGBTQ+ rights can only survive by remaining completely silent and steering clear of activism. He recalls how even a dissertation board chair couldn’t help his own son defend a thesis mentioning LGBTQ+ themes—they had to publish a monograph and involve experts from Moscow instead.
Since the adoption of anti-LGBT laws, the climate has deteriorated further. Scholars like Gosha from Tyumen were mocked by their supervisors and forced to leave both graduate school and the country. Even relatively liberal institutions like the Higher School of Economics have changed course: their gender studies program was renamed “Men’s and Women’s Studies,” and students were told to remove the word “queer” from their thesis abstracts.
Censorship extends beyond academia to the courtroom. In Perm, linguistics experts used sources laced with homophobic rhetoric to craft official indictments against social media users—showing how distorted academic discourse directly impacts real lives.
Yet some scholars persist. Kirey-Sitnikova, though internationally qualified, remains in Russia, compiling data to eventually challenge the legal ban on “gender transition.” Angelina is studying in Europe but dreams of one day returning to teach gender studies in Russia. Elena continues to write, fully aware of the risks—“If I’m going to be imprisoned anyway,” she says, “I’d rather know what for.”
In a country where the state defines the boundaries of legitimate knowledge, queer studies have become a forbidden science. This not only destroys academic freedom but robs society of empathy, understanding, and evidence-based policy for issues affecting millions.
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This is the latest wave in a broader campaign of repression that escalated after the 2022 law banning “LGBT propaganda” and the 2023 classification of the LGBTQ+ movement as an “extremist organization.” Journalists from 7x7 have documented a systematic assault on students, postgraduate researchers, and faculty members working in gender and queer studies: dismissals, blocked dissertation defenses, journal censorship, and a pervasive climate of fear.
Researcher Yana Kirey-Sitnikova, who studies transgender issues, filed a lawsuit against the Bekhterev Review of Psychiatry and Medical Psychology after it rejected her article on the depathologization of trans identities. Officially, the rejection was tied to the Health Ministry’s refusal to adopt the ICD-11 classification. However, in its court response, the journal outright accused her of “promoting trans interests.”
According to Kirey-Sitnikova, widespread self-censorship now dominates academic life. Since the 2023 ban on hormone therapy and gender-affirming surgeries, medical and psychological professionals have largely stopped engaging with trans-related topics. Those who persist are often forced to publish abroad.
Researcher Elena confirms this trend, having faced rejections as early as 2020—before the harshest laws took effect. Journals cited fears of “getting in trouble.” Since 2023, she has also been excluded from academic conferences.
Some support still exists. Researcher Angelina, for instance, managed to publish several articles in Russian journals. However, she notes it depends entirely on the “human factor”—individual editors or advisors willing to take a risk.
Queer studies have never been formally recognized as a distinct academic discipline in Russia. Even in the relatively free 1990s, they remained marginal. Today, university dependency on the state, the foreign agents law, and institutional homophobia have made systematic development impossible.
Historian Dmitry Dubrovsky remarks that any professor openly supporting LGBTQ+ rights can only survive by remaining completely silent and steering clear of activism. He recalls how even a dissertation board chair couldn’t help his own son defend a thesis mentioning LGBTQ+ themes—they had to publish a monograph and involve experts from Moscow instead.
Since the adoption of anti-LGBT laws, the climate has deteriorated further. Scholars like Gosha from Tyumen were mocked by their supervisors and forced to leave both graduate school and the country. Even relatively liberal institutions like the Higher School of Economics have changed course: their gender studies program was renamed “Men’s and Women’s Studies,” and students were told to remove the word “queer” from their thesis abstracts.
Censorship extends beyond academia to the courtroom. In Perm, linguistics experts used sources laced with homophobic rhetoric to craft official indictments against social media users—showing how distorted academic discourse directly impacts real lives.
Yet some scholars persist. Kirey-Sitnikova, though internationally qualified, remains in Russia, compiling data to eventually challenge the legal ban on “gender transition.” Angelina is studying in Europe but dreams of one day returning to teach gender studies in Russia. Elena continues to write, fully aware of the risks—“If I’m going to be imprisoned anyway,” she says, “I’d rather know what for.”
In a country where the state defines the boundaries of legitimate knowledge, queer studies have become a forbidden science. This not only destroys academic freedom but robs society of empathy, understanding, and evidence-based policy for issues affecting millions.
Link to full article