Belarusian queer/LGBTI history has been, until recently, a neglected subject of research. Uladzimir Valodzin is among the few researchers to look for traces of this 'invisible history', approaching the subject both as a historian and an activist. In Soviet times, homosexuals were brandmarked as criminals, or mentally ill, and as such, subject of juridical scrutiny or'sexopathologists'. Only recently, statistics have been revealed about the number of people sentenced for "sodomy" in the Soviet Union. Oral history gives a chance to complement these official sources and enables us to reconstruct the everyday lives of gay and queer people under the Communist regime. Uladzimir Valodzin will talk about the outcomes and challenges of his research conducted in today's Belarus and will present an "underground" publication on Belarusian queer history that he recently edited. The publication will be distributed free of charge in Belarusian, Russian and English.

More information on the project is available here:

https://belarusianqueerstory.noblogs.org/