United Queerdom: Becoming of the first Russian-Speaking LGBTQI+ Community in the UK.

The proposed roundtable presents a journey of the first Russian-speaking LGBTQI+ community in the UK. While the need for such a group was recognised in 2017, the action towards establishing an organisation began in 2019 leading to a growing community of around 270 individuals and a registered company since October 2024 that we see today.  Over the years the group was renamed, transformed, and restructured to represent diversity of people from Eastern Europe, Caucasus, Northern and Central Asia. The Russian invasion of Ukraine presented an urgent need to re/define a Russian speaking LGBTQI+ community and to examine how to create a shared space and find common interests and needs in a region ravaged with conflict and a colonial past. Under the name United Queerdom, a common goal had to be redefined for the community to thrive and maintain a sense of unity, solidarity, and mutual support.

The roundtable will include three to four representatives from the community who will touch on the group’s history and will answer the questions of how the LGBTQI+ migrants from Eastern Europe, Caucasus, Northern and Central Asia living in the UK coexist as a community, and how is a safe and inclusive space made possible in the light of cultural, religious and ethnic diversity. While celebrating the community's achievements, the criticism and the challenges involved in the work and the development of the United Queerdom will also be raised. 

In addition, United Queerdom’s collaboration with Vlad Strukov and Galina Miazhevich from the (Digital) Media and Cultures (DMC) Study Group in the context of the US and UK legal challenges to equality, diversity and inclusion especially in regard to gender and sexuality, will foster further engagement with the group as well as other BASEES members. The planned activities include creative offline workshops for a group of United Queerdom participants, outcomes of which are proposed to be presented at 2026 BASEES conference alongside a workshop on ethics of working with vulnerable queer communities.