About Us

“Urania” is a media project about the history and present of LGBT people in Russia and around the world, as well as LGBT politics and queer theology. By this we mean the lives and experiences of people whose sexual orientation or gender identity does not fit common social norms.

This website was originally created by Russian authors, and all articles are translated from Russian.

We try to write for readers without special training, while still using reliable academic sources. The texts on this site are written by people trained in history and related humanities fields. Every article includes references to sources—scholarly works, documents, memoirs, and other materials—so readers can check the facts and, if they want, explore the topic in more depth.

The name “Urania” comes from an ancient Greek myth about Aphrodite, the goddess of love. In Plato’s dialogue The Symposium, it is said that there are two Aphrodites: Aphrodite Pandemos (“of all the people”) and Aphrodite Urania (“heavenly”). In Plato, Aphrodite Urania stands for “heavenly” love between men, based mainly on spiritual closeness and a shared mind, rather than physical desire. We use the name of this “heavenly” Aphrodite for our media project.

Contacts

• Telegram (in Russian): @urania_institute. Telegram posts may include a translation for Premium users. You can also follow the channel in Russian: new posts include links to the website, where you can switch the language. Most new articles will usually be published with the translation right away.
• Email: uraniarossica@gmail.com (you can write to us in any language).