Anti-gay law shames Putin's Russia
Moscow (CNN) -- A friend of mine who grew up in a small Soviet town realized he was gay by age 15. He did not know the word but he could no longer deny that he was sexually attracted to boys, not girls. He had no idea what it meant and felt rather lost. So, he went to see a kind, elderly doctor and hesitantly asked the question. After a stretch of uncomfortable silence, the doctor said quietly, "Take a lot of vitamin C and hopefully it'll get better with time. ... But most importantly, don't ever mention this to anyone."
Homosexuality was a criminal offense under the Soviets, and the doctor was trying to protect his stammering teenage patient. When my friend told me this story many years later, we had a good laugh, agreeing that though things weren't easy for gay people in Russia, you did not have to stay shut in that closet for life. This was before disgraceful homophobic legislation was adopted in June.
The new law bans dissemination among minors of information promoting the "attractiveness of nontraditional sexual relationships" and providing a "distorted notion of social equivalence of traditional and nontraditional sexual relationships."
It does not define "nontraditional" but it is widely understood to mean "homosexual." And it basically means that you cannot publicly say anything positive about being gay or tell a child that there is nothing wrong with being gay or being raised by gay parents.
It seems that the Kremlin underestimated the prominence of the international LGBT rights movement and the damage the law would do to Russia's image, especially with the Sochi Olympics just months
http://www.cnn.com/2013/09/13/opinion/lokshina-russia-gay-persecution/index.html
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