"Homophobia, racism, and xenophobia are still common occurrences — and not only in Russia. But there is a part of Russia where it is especially frightening.

In the North Caucasus, 100 percent of queer women experience psychological and physical violence in their families and 29 percent experience sexual violence in their families. We can change that. This is something that should not be in a healthy society."

"I work a lot with the survivors and refugees. And the only achievement for me is when I meet them two years later and realize that they are totally different people now. ‌

They become more open-minded, they start to think that they have a right for this, a right for that... And I think: 'Why should I be scared?' If we gave someone a chance to live a totally different life and they use that chance — this makes me very happy."

"Trust yourself, choose yourself, love yourself, be yourself."

Rainbow Railroad played a key role in the events depicted in Welcome To Chechnya: Working on the ground directly in partnership with the Russian LGBT Network, Rainbow Railroad helped many victims of the 2017 purge escape to Canada and other safer countries — and continues to do so to this day.

"Every single time they would beat me, spit on me or humiliate me, trying to destroy me as an 'enemy of the state,' I felt my queer spirit fading away. I felt completely detached from the country that 'gave' me a birth but was happy to bury me alive. I felt betrayed. I felt angry. I felt hopeless.

‌Above all this, I had lost hope; it would 'get better in time' they say, but I did not have that strange and ephemeral substance — 'time.' Time was working against me."