Over the past ten years, gender and sexuality have become central to US-Russia geopolitical relations as both countries instrumentalize their respective acceptance and rejection of LGBTQ rights in an ideological competition reminiscent of the Cold War. This competition has had a real-life impact on LGBTQ people in Russia and other countries formerly in the Soviet Union. 

Drawing on ethnographic research with the post-Soviet LGBTQ immigrant community in New York City, Title VIII Research Scholar Alexandra Novitskaya will present research on the effects of the US-Russia geopolitical competition of exceptionalism on the lives of ordinary LGBTQ people who became exiled "queer dissidents." Addressing the significant increase in the migration of LGBTQ people from Russia and other post-Soviet states to the US in the recent years, Novitskaya will discuss the push and pull factors that shape the movement of "queer dissidents," such as anti-LGBTQ policies in the region, and US-Russia geopolitical relations.