Did Aeroflot Force a Gay Flight Attendant to Marry a Woman?

A gay male flight attendant with Russia’s Aeroflot Airlines says he was forced to marry a woman in order to keep his job.

The Gay Star News reports that LGBT activists are calling for a boycott of the airline after the company attempted to silence Maxim Kupreev for trying to create an LGBT employee rights group within the organization.

“Gay activists in Russia are planning to ask air passengers to boycott Aeroflot, Russia’s leading airline, and not to use its services until the creation of equal conditions for all workers,” states the article.

The group alleges that Kupreev was forced to marry his former high school girlfriend, Sofia Mikhailova, who first had to end her legitimate marriage to husband Grigoriy Andreykin.

“Aeroflot effectively broke a real marriage and created a sham one,” Nikolai Alekseev, founder of Moscow Pride, told Gay Star News.

In exchange for the marriage, Mikhailova reportedly received a substantial discount of Aeroflot flights.

A spokeswoman for the airline told French news agency AFP that Aeroflot had no LGBT group because “one should separate personal and professional life.”

Read the full story here.