Cannes Film Festival Makes Pro-LGBTQ Statement for Chechnya
Addison Herron-Wheeler is OUT FRONT's co-publisher and editor-in-chief and friend…
Six jurors at the Cannes Film Festival in France made a statement about treatment of gay and bisexual men in Chechnya by holding up protest signs during an event.
According to LGBTQ Nation, six of the jurors at the festival held up signs protesting the human rights violations n Chechnya. The signs all featured upside-down pink triangles, and contained the phrases “Chechnya,” “No More,” “Enough,” “Silence = Death,” “Unified,” and “Still?!”
This happened at the premier for 120 Beats Per Minute, a movie about HIV and AIDS in ’90s Paris and the activism involved in helping those diagnosed.
The protesting was in response to reports that men in Chechnya are being beaten, killed by police, or turned over to their families in order to be killed by their loved ones. Activists have been fighting to get gay men out of the country and to bring attention to the horrors happening.
Statements like this are more than just cleverly-placed publicity stunts and use pop culture and art to call attention to serious LGBTQ issues happening across the globe.
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Addison Herron-Wheeler is OUT FRONT's co-publisher and editor-in-chief and friend to dogs everywhere. She enjoys long walks in the darkness away from any sources of sunlight, rainy days, and painfully dry comedy. She also covers cannabis and heavy metal, and is author of Wicked Woman: Women in Metal from the 1960s to Now and Respirator, a short story collection.