April 23, 2017 | Sex & Society

Chechen purge of gay men worsens

Britain’s deputy foreign secretary, Sir Alan Duncan, has claimed that the lives of gay men in Chechnya may be at even greater risk than originally believed.

Reports surfaced last week that the country was rounding up gay men, detaining them, and subjecting them to torture. Several men were killed. Further investigation revealed that actual concentration style camps were being created to hold these men.

Ramzan Kadyrov, Head of the Chechen Republic, denied the claims. He even argued that gays were not an issue in his Muslim-dominated country because no homosexuals even lived there. His ally, Vladimir Putin, has shown little interest in pursuing the issue any further.

Duncan, Britain's Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, said things are about to get a lot worse.