Alva Review-Courier -

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) — While World Cup fans pack the St. Petersburg Stadium fantasizing of soccer victory, Pyotr Voskresensky and fellow gay rights activists follow the matches in a quiet gallery across town decorated with beanbags and astroturf. They relish a different dream.

Voskresensky, an anesthesiologist who lost one job because of his homosexuality and fears losing another because he refuses to keep it secret, hopes that hosting this global tournament proves to Russians "that openness and tolerance can be a positive experience," and forces them to rethink hard-line attitudes towa...