Bodyguard for Moscow's Gay Scene

Available for over a year

Russia is not an easy place at the moment for people who are gay or transgender. Things have got a lot worse in recent years - and a night out on the town can come with the threat of physical violence. Tapir works as a bodyguard protecting events for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people - and has quite an extraordinary personal story himself. He identifies as gender queer - somewhere between male and female - though he's happy to use the masculine pronoun. He's been telling us about the kind of trouble activists can face at their events. We take a ride in a very unusual auto-rickshaw in Bangalore. The motorised three-wheeled taxi is bright yellow and green, it's driven by Abdul Khader, and it's a kind of moving encyclopaedia... Our reporter, Mary-Rose Abraham, hitched a lift. This is a story about an extraordinary woman and her love for her boat. Their relationship started in 1989, when British sailor Tracy Edwards was making a bid to be the first skipper of an all-female crew to complete the punishing Whitbread Round the World Race. And she was looking for a yacht to make the journey in... Photo Credit: Olga Maltsev, AFP, Getty Images