Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Gay flight attendant told to marry the straight way or lose job

BY NATASHA BARSOTTI - If gay flight attendant Maxim Kupreev was going to continue flying the friendly skies with Russian airline Aeroflot, he had to get hitched -- the heterosexual way, Gay Russia reports.

Kupreev was allegedly forced into a union with a former school friend at the end of last year after he went public with his intention to form a group within the airline to fight for the rights of gay employees, according to the Gay Russia website.

It gets more bizarre.

Kupreev ended up marrying Sofia Mikhailova, who -- get this -- had to divorce her husband, Grigoriy Andreykin, so she could tie the knot with the 25-year-old flight attendant.

Gay rights activist Nikolai Alexeyev told Xtra by email Jan 31 that Kupreev has known his new wife "since the age of 6 as a schoolmate" and that she "had to divorce her husband in Siberia to enter into this marriage to help him. He basically faced an ultimatum."

"Aeroflot effectively broke a real marriage and created a sham one," Alexeyev alleges.

He told Xtra it was "a deal" for the couple. "She live in far away Siberia and now she can travel to Moscow for very very cheap by Aeroflot as much as she wants. He got the chance to continue his work and Aeroflot is happy cause they will not have to answer questions about the LGBT group anymore," Alexeyev wrote.

"The creation of an LGBT group in Aeroflot was announced on June 20, 2011," Gay Russia states. Kupreev, the founder of the group, said it would "fight for the direct inclusion of discrimination ban on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity into internal documents of Aeroflot," as well as "for the recognition of same sex partners of the employees," the report indicates.

A spokesperson for the airline reportedly denied the existence of the group.

Alexeyev says the group has now been put on ice. In the meantime, there is a call to boycott Aeroflot.

"We applied for the rally in front of Aeroflot office in downtown Moscow," he says. "We haven't got the answer from the authorities yet. But I expect a denial this week. With high probability they will ban the whole protest. Then we will go and organize without the permit. We already have a terrific plan."

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Comments

Wednesday, February 1, 2012 2:35 PM

Sad about the ultimatum but Happy they are fighting for what is naturally right or should be right! I agree the airline should have a boycott against it. Makes me crazy to think that sometimes it seems like the world is so slow to realize we(LGBTs) are not going away, Accept it and lets move on to tackling other worldly problems. How about the Aids epidemic in 3rd world countries,starving children, school bullying or my next impossible dream World Peace!(just a few that come quickly to mind...)

Alan ca



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