Biography
Born into an Ashkenazi Jewish family in Moscow, in 1981 Gessen moved with her family to the United States, returning in 1991 to Moscow, where she lives now. She holds both Russian and US citizenship. Her brother is Keith Gessen.
Gessen is openly gay and an activist for the rights of sexual minorities. She served as a member of the board of directors for the Moscow LGBT rights organization "Triangle" from 1993 to 1998. Gessen has two children: a boy Vova and a girl Yolka; both are US citizens. The boy, born in 1997 in Russia, was adopted by her from an orphanage in Kaliningrad. The girl was born to her in the US in 2001. In 2004 she was married in the US to Svetlana Generalova, a Russian citizen who was also involved in the LGBT movement in Moscow.
Read more about this topic: Masha Gessen
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