The issue with Russia and LGBTQ people should be repression-NOT the country imposing it.
Russia is now just another country. When it takes repressive measures, they should be opposed in exactly the same way as any other country taking the same measures should be. There is no difference between Russia passing antigay measures and between countries like Uganda or Nigeria doing.
It isn't WORSE because its being done in Russia. And we aren't entitled to be more sanctimonious or inflammatory about it because its being done in Russia. African gays are just as worthy of our concern as Russian gays(and vice versa).
And justified criticism of Putin's anti-gay measures must NEVER be allowed, even for a moment, to sound like any of the rhetoric this country used in the Cold War.
Nothing our leaders said about "tyranny" in the old USSR ever did the people there any good. Every time our country got MORE confrontational with the Soviets, the result was always greater internal repression...and greater risk of nuclear immolation.
It's fine to be against Putin's repression because it's repression...it's NOT fine to be against it in the name of arguing for keeping a large nuclear stockpile in Europe(or adding to it)OR to argue for a bigger war budget or anything at all that's a revival of the Cold War era.
