In North-Western European dominant public discussions, Russia is often situated in a semi-periphery that employs its ‘second-hand’ colonial practices towards the former Post-Socialist countries, yet at the same time it is subject to exploitation (Boatca 2006, Tlostanova & Mignolo 2012). Today, the dominant depictions of the gender policies and sexual citizenship have aided in re-creating the divide between the so called “progressed” North-Western Europe and its “backward” East European other (Altman& Symons 2016), latter invited to “catch up” with the former.

In my paper, while keeping above described discussion in mind, I take a closer look at the discussion of gender and sexuality among to the trans-local (Hannerz 1998) St Petersburg queer communities. By employing my ethnographic participant-observations (years 2013-2018), I ask how queer and gender non-binary activists in St Petersburg, while inevitably involved in transnational LGBTQI networks, orient themselves in both transnational and local human rights scenes through dialogues and activities. More in detail, I ask how these activists localize, domesticate and assemble the ideas of queerness within their collective art communities (Kangas & Salmenniemi 2016).

I analyze these attempts by using Juri Lotman’s (1992) concept of border in cultural semiotics, where something “alien” that is out of space, chaotic and possibly dangerous , may become a meaningful “our” in the established culture. These dynamics include mutual tensions of internal structures and external influence that is neither isolated process nor passive sphere of external influences. At the same time, these processes create concrete and abstract utopias of queerness (Muñoz 2009) through distilling the past sufferings and imagined future. As a result, the relational, situational and collective queer communities question the big evolutionist narratives of both Russian LGBT activism and Euro-American-centric transnational LGBTQ+ activism. What kind of possibilities for the queer future do these St Petersburg queer activities create through their localised concepts and activities?

I’m an early state researcher at the doctoral school of Social and Cultural encounters at the University of Eastern Finland (2018-2021). I have actively participated in LGBTQI+ activist movement in St Petersburg and today further critically observe and study the impacts of its transnational actors.

Recently, since 2016, I have also initiated several activities in Helsinki, enhancing the activities of Russian and Finnish grass-roots civic activists especially on issues connected to feminism and LGBTQI+ issues. Prior to my PhD research, I worked at an NGO ‘Kehys’ (Helsinki), where I cooperated activities aiming at sustainable development and cooperation between Russian, Finnish and Swedish CSOs. I hold a Master degree (2016) in Social Anthropology at University of Tampere, Finland.

There are no co-authors in this paper.