Okay, comrades, let's punish Elton John too, why don't you?
We've had quite a debate around here the other day about the frightening prospect of people marrying donkeys, dogs laying with cats, and all that apocalyptic stuff that obviously scares the shit out of some people. Well, some in the audience might've felt shocked and appalled by some of the responses, and they may have found themselves scratching their heads in dismay, wondering where did all that homophobia suddenly come from in some particular societies.
So let's try to put this into perspective, and maybe we could take a step slightly closer to the answer.
At the end of May, the deputy director of the regional airport in the Kamchatka peninsula in the Russian Far East was attacked by unidentified individuals and fatally stabbed multiple times. The local police started an investigation, their primary version about the motivations for the assault being the "non-traditional sexual orientation" of the 38 year old man. Just a few weeks earlier, a similar case had happened in Volgograd, where a 23 year old man was tortured and brutally murdered because of his sexual orientation. Now, the LGBT community is blaming this alarming trend on Russian politics and Russian politicians (among other things). And indeed, things have been moving into an awkward direction for quite a while, as far as gay rights in Russia are concerned - the "advocating in favor of the gay threat" now being officially a crime, and hatred for gays and lesbians being encouraged among the general populace by the very people of power themselves.
The most recent example of all that is of course the latest bill that was adopted as law just a few days ago by the Russian Duma. It prohibits all public statements related to "non-traditional sexual orientation". Before it was voted, the chairlady of the Commission of Family Policy at the Duma, Elena Mizulina clarified that the purpose of the new law was to protect children and young people from the gay threat. The bill says that there shall be punishment for anyone who attempts to present homosexuality in a positive light, or even to explain to the Russian children and adolescents that love between two men or two women has the "same social value" as that between a man and a woman. Which, as it turns out, it does not - because either God, or His earthly proxy, a.k.a. Dear Leader said so.
The penalty fees that the above bill includes for these transgressions vary between 100 euro (for private persons) and 23,000 euro (for companies and organizations). In case the "homosexual propaganda" has used the media for its purposes, the penalty fee increases 20-fold. For example if someone writes in their internet blog (like LJ) that they don't consider homosexuality to be a crime, they'd now risk being subject of prosecution under this new law, and be fined with up to 2000 euro. And mischievous firms and organizations could be even shut down for a 90-day period. But the story doesn't end there. Foreign nationals temporarily residing in Russia would also be punished. What's more, foreigners could be detained for up to 15 days, and then extradited from the country, and banned from ever returning.
Undoubtedly, Russia has visibly increased the pressure on gays and lesbians for the last year or so. There's a mounting list of cases where the authorities would ban the gatherings of LGBT activists who want to protest against discrimination; and protesters being detained just because they've expressed disagreement with the new law.
But you'd be dead wrong if you thought this is just a top-down phenomenon. In fact the most recent polls suggest that the Russian society has developed an increased intolerance to homosexuals. According to data from the Moscow institute "Levada", in April nearly half (47%) of the Russians believed that curbing the rights of homosexuals would be the right thing to do. In comparison, just a year earlier their share had been 40%. Meanwhile, 3/4 of the polled believe that the state ought to do its best to prohibit any public protests of homosexuals.
Of course Putin is conveniently leaning upon these polls to explain his drastic policies. The laws he crafts, you know, simply reflect the prevalent attitudes among the majority of the Russian society. During the Russia-EU meeting in Yekaterinburg, Putin even stated that the Russian legislation was "too liberal" regarding gays and lesbians. You see, in Russia they weren't subject to any discrimination in any shape or form. You foreigners know nothing, you're just imagining things.
Naturally, the EU begged to differ. They urged Moscow to withdraw the controversial bill against "homosexual propaganda". Various representatives of international human rights organizations took a firm stand on the matter as well. Even Mikhail Fedotov, the speaker of the Council of Human Rights at the Russian presidency, categorized this law as "unnecessary; as homosexuality is not a crime".
But Russia is not too impressed by the criticism. And the political persecution of homosexuals has reached grotesque proportions these days. It came to a point where Madonna and Lady Gaga were fiercely criticized for their appearance at their gigs in St.Petersburg, and for voicing their support to gay rights (Madonna was even sued for "moral damages" by some conservative groups in Russia). The Orthodox church wanted to anathematize Madonna's promoters, and the government appointed a special commission which concluded that access to the concerts should be barred for youngsters below 18 years of age. In order to protect their innocent souls, that is.
So when another performer, British pop star Elton John arrives to Russia later in July for his gig in the southern city of Krasnodar, the controversial law might already be fully implemented. And it's not like Elton John is hiding his homosexual orientation. Now, it's highly unlikely that he'd be punished by the Russian authorities, but some politicians are already seriously calling for him to forget about his extravagant scenic costumes for a while and put something "more decent" on. Maybe he should put a festive Cossack uniform or something (although some of the more extreme homophobes might argue that even that looks too gay). Or why not an Udmurtian folk costume, just like Gerard Depardieu did. After all, he's now Dear Leader's best buddy, is he not?
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(Ban Depardieu! He's wearing skirts!)
So let's try to put this into perspective, and maybe we could take a step slightly closer to the answer.
At the end of May, the deputy director of the regional airport in the Kamchatka peninsula in the Russian Far East was attacked by unidentified individuals and fatally stabbed multiple times. The local police started an investigation, their primary version about the motivations for the assault being the "non-traditional sexual orientation" of the 38 year old man. Just a few weeks earlier, a similar case had happened in Volgograd, where a 23 year old man was tortured and brutally murdered because of his sexual orientation. Now, the LGBT community is blaming this alarming trend on Russian politics and Russian politicians (among other things). And indeed, things have been moving into an awkward direction for quite a while, as far as gay rights in Russia are concerned - the "advocating in favor of the gay threat" now being officially a crime, and hatred for gays and lesbians being encouraged among the general populace by the very people of power themselves.
The most recent example of all that is of course the latest bill that was adopted as law just a few days ago by the Russian Duma. It prohibits all public statements related to "non-traditional sexual orientation". Before it was voted, the chairlady of the Commission of Family Policy at the Duma, Elena Mizulina clarified that the purpose of the new law was to protect children and young people from the gay threat. The bill says that there shall be punishment for anyone who attempts to present homosexuality in a positive light, or even to explain to the Russian children and adolescents that love between two men or two women has the "same social value" as that between a man and a woman. Which, as it turns out, it does not - because either God, or His earthly proxy, a.k.a. Dear Leader said so.
The penalty fees that the above bill includes for these transgressions vary between 100 euro (for private persons) and 23,000 euro (for companies and organizations). In case the "homosexual propaganda" has used the media for its purposes, the penalty fee increases 20-fold. For example if someone writes in their internet blog (like LJ) that they don't consider homosexuality to be a crime, they'd now risk being subject of prosecution under this new law, and be fined with up to 2000 euro. And mischievous firms and organizations could be even shut down for a 90-day period. But the story doesn't end there. Foreign nationals temporarily residing in Russia would also be punished. What's more, foreigners could be detained for up to 15 days, and then extradited from the country, and banned from ever returning.
Undoubtedly, Russia has visibly increased the pressure on gays and lesbians for the last year or so. There's a mounting list of cases where the authorities would ban the gatherings of LGBT activists who want to protest against discrimination; and protesters being detained just because they've expressed disagreement with the new law.
But you'd be dead wrong if you thought this is just a top-down phenomenon. In fact the most recent polls suggest that the Russian society has developed an increased intolerance to homosexuals. According to data from the Moscow institute "Levada", in April nearly half (47%) of the Russians believed that curbing the rights of homosexuals would be the right thing to do. In comparison, just a year earlier their share had been 40%. Meanwhile, 3/4 of the polled believe that the state ought to do its best to prohibit any public protests of homosexuals.
Of course Putin is conveniently leaning upon these polls to explain his drastic policies. The laws he crafts, you know, simply reflect the prevalent attitudes among the majority of the Russian society. During the Russia-EU meeting in Yekaterinburg, Putin even stated that the Russian legislation was "too liberal" regarding gays and lesbians. You see, in Russia they weren't subject to any discrimination in any shape or form. You foreigners know nothing, you're just imagining things.
Naturally, the EU begged to differ. They urged Moscow to withdraw the controversial bill against "homosexual propaganda". Various representatives of international human rights organizations took a firm stand on the matter as well. Even Mikhail Fedotov, the speaker of the Council of Human Rights at the Russian presidency, categorized this law as "unnecessary; as homosexuality is not a crime".
But Russia is not too impressed by the criticism. And the political persecution of homosexuals has reached grotesque proportions these days. It came to a point where Madonna and Lady Gaga were fiercely criticized for their appearance at their gigs in St.Petersburg, and for voicing their support to gay rights (Madonna was even sued for "moral damages" by some conservative groups in Russia). The Orthodox church wanted to anathematize Madonna's promoters, and the government appointed a special commission which concluded that access to the concerts should be barred for youngsters below 18 years of age. In order to protect their innocent souls, that is.
So when another performer, British pop star Elton John arrives to Russia later in July for his gig in the southern city of Krasnodar, the controversial law might already be fully implemented. And it's not like Elton John is hiding his homosexual orientation. Now, it's highly unlikely that he'd be punished by the Russian authorities, but some politicians are already seriously calling for him to forget about his extravagant scenic costumes for a while and put something "more decent" on. Maybe he should put a festive Cossack uniform or something (although some of the more extreme homophobes might argue that even that looks too gay). Or why not an Udmurtian folk costume, just like Gerard Depardieu did. After all, he's now Dear Leader's best buddy, is he not?
(Ban Depardieu! He's wearing skirts!)