Coming Out among LGB People in Russia

A 2019 Levada Center poll found that 39% of respondents felt neutral or indifferent toward LGBT people, while 56% felt mostly negative. At the same time, 47% agreed that gay men and lesbians should have the same rights as other citizens, the highest share since 2005.

In 2020, another Levada survey reported that 50% would prefer to eliminate or isolate gay men and lesbians from society. The Sova Center recorded the highest number in seven years of violent incidents in 2020, including killings, assaults, and death threats.

Pew Research Center in 2019 registered 14% acceptance of homosexuality among surveyed Russians (22% in 2002). WCIOM notes a shift: the share of those who say sexual orientation is a private matter rose to 31% (24% in 2004).

Russia ranks 46th out of 49 on an index rating how laws and policies affect LGBT+ lives; Malta, Belgium, and Luxembourg lead.

Within Russia, people in the Northwestern Federal District and Saint Petersburg report living most openly; the most tolerant cities are Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, and Moscow.

Coming out is the voluntary sharing of one's sexual orientation and/or gender identity. In 1965, Evelyn Hooker noted in Male Homosexuals and Their Worlds that gay men referred to this debut disclosure as "coming out." Her work helped support the removal of homosexuality from the U.S. psychiatric diagnostic manual.

Mary "Ski" Hunter notes that in the 1960s–1970s researchers treated coming out as a one-time event. From the 1970s to the 1990s it came to be viewed as a process with stages and interacting psychological and social factors. Some authors (J. Grierson, A. Smith) argue that many sexual identity development models are built around coming out.

Not every LGB person will see their path in a specific model or sequence; the frameworks are maps rather than rules. Cass (1979) describes stepwise identity integration. D'Augelli (1994) presents identity development across the lifespan with components that can occur in different orders. Weinberg's bisexual identity model (1994) includes a stage of doubt and uncertainty about bisexuality. Manning's basic coming-out model (2016) spans multiple processes at three levels.

Lesbian, gay, and bisexual people most often come out to close friends and acquaintances. For bisexual men and women, the next most frequent recipients are their partner, husband, or wife.

Within families, lesbians are more likely than gay or bisexual respondents to come out to their fathers and mothers, while bisexual men are the most likely group to disclose to a sibling.

The average age of first coming out is similar across groups: 19 for lesbians, 20 for gay men and bisexual women, and 21 for bisexual men.

In most cases, coming out among LGB people is emergent—a disclosure made spontaneously when the moment feels right or circumstances allow.