News · Культура

‘Rainbow’: St. Petersburg theatre festival changes name over ‘LGBT propaganda’ law

Rainbow, a St. Petersburg international theatre festival, has changed its name to the Bryantsev Youth Theatre International Theatre Festival over the “LGBT propaganda” law recently adopted in Russia, the Theatre magazine reports.

The festival organisers have announced the schedule and start of the application process under the new name. At the same time, rainbow is still included in the website link.

“We don’t want to seem as someone who ‘promotes’ LGBT and, therefore, our team gathered and decided to proactively change the name or temporarily take it down,” festival chief Svetlana Lavrentsova told the magazine.

At the same time, she noted that the final decision had yet to be made.

“On the one hand, we see how absurd it can get around us. On the other hand, it is our brand. The state allocates money to us as Rainbow, and theatres communicate with us as Rainbow. So, we are still thinking about it,” she said.

The festival was established in 2000. It is international and features acts from the US, UK, Germany, France, Belgium, Estonia, Bulgaria, Greece, and many other countries.

Update


Member of Russian parliament Alexander Khinsteyn stressed that rainbows are not banned under the “LGBT propaganda” law if the symbol used has seven colours.

“Our laws in no way ban or cancel rainbows. Under one condition: if a classic seven-colour rainbow is the one depicted and not the ‘castrated’ LGBT symbol that lacks light blue,” he wrote.

Earlier, Mayor of Russia’s Omsk Sergey Shelest slammed the idea to erect multicoloured statues of pigeons on a city embankment as “LGBT propaganda”.

“Firstly, I am confused by the colour scheme of the birds. There’s definitely a reference to LGBT. Secondly, you can see what happens to our monuments that provoke no negative emotions, they are destroyed. So, if these pigeons are there in this colour scheme, I can guarantee that they’ll be soon destroyed, 100%. I don’t want to be a mayor who promotes LGBT,” he said.