Unfortunate Population Control

"Problems. How? There are no problems. Not any problems. You can see for yourself.
"Cabaret Mayak has been working ten years already. We are the first gay club that has lasted so long. We do not disturb anybody. Nobody disturbs us. And thank God.
"Let the Olympics happen every year, for you to come to see us more often. There were not so many foreigners here in the past. Now there are more of them coming and life is more interesting."
Miss Zhuzha, Cabaret Mayak, Sochi

Vancouver councillor Tim Stevenson attends the drag queen performance at Cabaret Mayak, one of the 

gay bars in Sochi, Feb. 2, 2014. Stevenson is in Sochi to meet with IOC to negotiate the charter to include 

sexual orientation in the Olympics. (MARK YUEN/POSTMEDIA).

"This is alarmism on the part of the West. They don't quite understand the dynamics here. They take things at face value.
"Certainly horrible homophobia exists here, but it exists in Canada, too. My personal view is that there is not a serious problem in Russia with gay rights. (But) nobody denies that Russia is not in the same place as western Europe for social progress.
"I personally do not think that Putin is a militant homophobe. He has used such remarks to get support when he is politically weak. He probably realizes he went too far because real homophobes came out of the woodwork."
Olda Childs, Moscow lesbian, Sochi

Gays, lesbians and heterosexuals crowded into Sochi's gay bar seem undisturbed over the furor President Vladimir Putin's statements and anti-propaganda gay laws have provoked in the West. They are unperturbed to the point of being oblivious of their questionable legal status in Russia. Comporting themselves blissfully as though they were located in Norway, Denmark, Sweden.

Located a brief walk from a park where Vladimir Lenin's statue stands close to an immense hospitality tent ready for Olympic photographs, the bar brims with colour and noise and cheer.

Cigarette smoke hangs over the dance floor. A large screen TV plays music videos. Sushi is being served to Club Mayak patrons. A campy floor show is on view. Not too sophisticated, but exceedingly in-your-face and meriting huge applause. The are no exterior signs reading 'gay club'. Club Mayak is located on a narrow lane opening up to a park facing the Black Sea. It is equipped with surveillance cameras. Entry is strict, with a large steel door to ensure only recognized faces are permitted entry.

A Vancouver city councillor, Tim Stevenson, also a gay United Church minister, sat in for a performance at Club Mayak. Later he met with members of the International Olympic Committee, who confided to him they were considering a pride house in Rio for the 2016 Summer Games. In response Mr. Stevenson informed them he had spoken "to Russian activists and their word to me is that it is indeed very difficult (for Russian gays and lesbians) and these laws that have been instituted have made it far worse".

Vancouver councillor Tim Stevenson attend the drag queen performance at Cabaret Mayak, one of the 

gay bars in Sochi, Feb. 2, 2014. Stevenson is in Sochi to meet with IOC to negotiate the charter to include 

sexual orientation in the Olympics. (MARK YUEN/POSTMEDIA)

Sochi has Russia's second-largest gay and lesbian population; only Moscow's is larger. Miss Zhuzha, born and raised in Sochi, insists she is a huge supporter of the Winter Games. Although most Olympians competing in Sochi have yet to arrive, Western gay rights activists are in town, criticizing President Putin's statement that his country needs to "cleanse" itself of homosexuality, to raise the Russian birthrate.