Transnational HIV-AIDS Action and Citizen Diplomacy in the Late Soviet Union, 1988–1991

met in Moscow to sign the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, sixty-nine North American lesbian and gay activists arrived in Leningrad to partici pate in the International Gay and Lesbian Symposium and Film Festival. 1 The symposium was the first event of its kind to be held in the USSR.Across ten days, participants attended workshops, discussion sessions, film screenings, and demonstrations in both Leningrad and Moscow.At one Leningrad session dedicated to discussing AIDS, an HIV-positive delegate from the United States was delivering a presentation about his diagnosis when Soviet gay activist Roman Kalinin spontaneously pushed a man called Gennady Roshchupkin onto the stage. 2At that moment, Roshchupkin dis closed his HIV-positive status, becoming the first Soviet citizen to do so publicly in the presence of journalists.