I've been in the army for 13 years: four years in an army college, and
nine on active duty service. Only seven years to go and I'll be eligible for
pension. I don't have any problems at all with being a gay army officer. Some
of the other officers know, some don't, but nobody ever gives me any trouble
about it.
I was married for a number of years, and have two kids. My wife knows I'm gay
-- I told her myself -- but we still have a very good relationship, and I see
the kids all the time.
Tolya
Kostya and I do things together with the kids. They come over to our house,
or we take them places. Tomorrow we're supposed to go to the youth theater
with them.
Kostya
Tolya and I have been together for two years, and live together now, so my
children know him well. He and I first met at a meeting of
"Parus"("Sail"), an organization for gay men in Omsk, where we live.
Tolya
In Omsk, the gay community is more organized than in Novosibirsk, probably
because the city itself is much more compact, while Novosibirsk is spread out
over a huge area. "Parus" meets every Thursday, and we usually have anywhere
from 30 to 60 men...
Kostya
We use the office of the government AIDS Center for our meetings. The
director of the AIDS Center is a straight man, but he is sympathetic to our
cause, and even lets us use the center's computer for keeping records. The
computer is really old, though, so we keep all the information in written
form, too.
Tolya
Another reason we keep things in written form is because we don't want to put
all the information into the computer for privacy's sake. For example, one of
the services we offer is an introduction service. We put all the information
about each person into the computer, except his name, address and telephone
number. It's not our computer, and so we can't be completely sure of privacy,
which is obviously a big concern for our members.
