LGBT Activist Publicly Shames Bigoted Trolls By Posting Their Faces And Identities Online

An outspoken LGBT activist has found a way to fight back against the vicious cyberbullying she receives online as a result of her support group for Russian LGBT teenagers.

According to BuzzFeed, Elena Klimova runs Children-404, a Facebook community where she posts letters and messages from Russian youths struggling with discrimination due to their sexual preference or identity. Because of her work as an LGBT activist, Klimova receives volumes of hate from other users online who disapprove of the LGBT community.

Elena has started using the hate mail to help her cause by publicly shaming those who have sent her hateful messages, raising awareness of the discrimination LGBT people face. She started an album on the Russian social network site Vkontakte dedicated to showing the real faces and identities of cyberbullies who send her vicious and violent messages about the LGBT community. It’s titled “Beautiful People And The Things They Say To Me.”

Global Voices has provided translations of the hateful messages the users sent to the LGBT activist. The faces below have been blurred, but Klimova leaves their full identities exposed in her own album as an attempt to hold the trolls accountable for their hurtful words.

“I, for one, think you’re a stupid b****. You think you’re helping anything with this holy crusade?? Go and f***ing kill yourself before they come for you!!! People like you should be locked up!”

“You f***ing sl**! Why the f*** are you propagandizing f**s? Sure, nobody wants to f*** you, but that’s your problem. Just close this disgusting group. Or else I’ll go and catch myself one of these f**s, and I’ll beat the s*** out of him. ? And on his stupid f***ing face, I’ll inscribe the name of your group, and the whole thing will be YOUR fault!”

“They’re gonna lock you up any day now. What you’re doing can’t go unpunished. I hope you burn in hell a long time in agony for propagandizing the homosexuals! Die, you s****y scum. Leave our country, you piece of s***. Sooner or later, you’re gonna pay for this!”

“Lena, I hate you. You are disgusting and, if I had the power, I would shoot you dead. I hope they ban your project and ostracize you from society. Nobody needs you, except freaks like you.”

The point of the shaming is to expose the trolls for who they are on the inside while showing them in their everyday lives, smiling and hanging out with friends. The album exhibits both the dark side that some people contain behind a friendly exterior and the cruelty that comes about through internet anonymity.

For more on LGBT activists and issues, read about the family who allowed their 5-year-old daughter to live her life as a boy.