Gay, deaf Russian ‘ecstatic’ to be co-grand marshal of New West Pride march
Updated: August 14, 2013 | 12:07 am
By Kate Webb
Metro
Andrey Samstov could hardly believe his eyes on Aug. 4 when he saw, for the first time in his life, hundreds of thousands of people openly and joyously celebrating the diversity of the LGBTQ community in Vancouver’s West End.
Less than two weeks earlier, the 28-year-old, who is gay and deaf, had stepped off a plane at the Vancouver airport from Russia, where in 2011 he was arrested after unfurling a rainbow flag at a Pride parade in Moscow that turned into a riot.
“I kept thinking I was going to get arrested,” he said of his first Pride experience in Vancouver, during an interview on Tuesday facilitated by an interpreter.
“I thought ‘the police are going to grab me’ because I’ve been arrested before, and it’s a sense of freedom here, so the fact that I’m here in Canada, I’m just so proud. It’s just so different.”
Samstov said he is also ecstatic to have been asked to serve as the co-grand marshal at this Saturday’s Pride Festival and Hills and Heels Walk in New Westminster.
He has been living in New West in a shelter for immigrants while pursuing a claim for refugee status.
His warm reception in B.C. over the past few weeks stands in stark contrast to the difficult journey that brought him here.
In Russia he says he was socially ostracized, physically abused by police, and threatened with expulsion from high school because of his sexual orientation.
His father threw him out of the house and disowned him when he was 22 after discovering tell-tale signs he was gay on his computer.
“You’re fearful that you’re going to get killed, you’re fearful that you’re going to get persecuted,” he said of his adolescent years.
“It wasn’t a matter of coming out, it was a matter of being found out.”
The law President Vladimir Putin passed in June outlawing gay “propaganda” for “non-traditional sexual relations” under threat of steep fines or jail time was the final straw that pushed him to decide to leave Russia for good.
His lawyer, Rob Hughes, says he has a strong case for claiming asylum in Canada, given the hostile political climate in his homeland.
Samstov said he hopes to receive a work visa soon so he can get a job as a computer specialist and eventually afford a place to live.
For now, though, he is just thrilled to be greeted with smiles instead of insults.
“I think because of who I am and my identity I don’t really have a future in Russia, and so coming to Canada was really an exciting way to celebrate freedom.”
