Gay Rights and Putin’s Olympics
In Vladimir Putin’s Russia—official Russia—there is no controversy about the rights of gays and lesbians. Controversy suggests a serious clash of ideas and opinions; controversy suggests points of view that are in opposition and, potentially, subject to change. This is not the case when it comes to the human rights of homosexuals in Russia. In the Kremlin, in the parliament, in the courts, in the hierarchy of the Russian Orthodox Church, and on television there reigns a disdainful and intimidating unanimity: homosexuals are a threat to morality, to the family, and to the state. In the words of Masha Gessen, a journalist and longtime activist, “They want to throw us back in the closet.”
In June, the Russian parliament, the Duma, passed a law barring “propaganda” about “nontraditional sexual relations” without a single dissenting vote. (Some local legislatures, including those of Ryazan, Arkhangelsk, and St. Petersburg, had already approved versions of their own.) The national law is an extraordinary expression of hysterical and vindictive homophobia. The law defines the offending “propaganda” as “the purposeful and uncontrolled distribution of information that can harm the spiritual or physical health of a minor, including forming the erroneous impression of the social equality of traditional and nontraditional marital relations.” It effectively prohibits gay-rights demonstrations, opens the door to implicitly sanctioned discrimination, and inflicts second-class citizenship on gays and lesbians in Russia.
Putin claims that the law does nothing to infringe on the lives and rights of homosexuals (“They’re people, just like everyone else”); he insisted that the Russian people supported the legislation and, thus, must have it; he also says he is concerned that homosexuality is contributing to the country’s low birth rate.
Activists find this disingenuous at best. The law insures discrimination and provides a xenophobic regime with an Other to rally against. The activists also contend that the legislation is part of a larger ideological and legislative effort in Russia that seeks to stigmatize nongovernmental organizations as “foreign agents” and the West, in general, as a threat. The leadership invokes an anti-gay rhetoric reminiscent of the way Soviet leaders used to denounce Jews as “internal enemies,” the agents of foreign capital and spy services. Human-rights groups and L.G.B.T. organizations in Russia say that the law has opened the door to real misery: this year alone, they have documented hundreds of acts of violence, including murders, against gay men and women; workplace discrimination; and hateful (and sanctioned) rhetoric in the official media.
much, much more...
