LGBT Ukraians terrified of Rsia's war on gay and transgenr people - Los Angel Tim

Contents:

• RSIAN NSTUTN CHANGE ENDS HOP FOR GAY MARRIAGE
• LATVIA BE 7TH NATN TO BE LED BY AN OPENLY GAY HEAD OF STATE
• RSIA ‘ACCINTALLY’ REGNIZ GAY MARRIAGE
• RSIA ENACTS ANTI-GAY ADOPTN BAN
• RSIA MOV TO BAN GAY MARRIAGE
• RSIAN POLIL AD BASH GAY MARRIAGE
• PUT’S ANTI-GAY WAR ON UKRAE
• TOP RSIAN TENNIS PLAYER DARIA KASATKA OUT AS GAY
• WHY RSIA TURNED AGAST THE GAYS
• RSIA'S HIGHT RELIG AUTHORY JT COMPARED GAY MARRIAGE TO NAZI GERMANY
• THE SURPRISG RSIAN REACTN TO GAY MARRIAGE THE U.S.
• WHAT’S WRONG WH GAY MARRIAGE?
• PUT PROPOS CLOSG GAY MARRIAGE LOOPHOLE – VEDOMOSTI
• RSIA ACCINTALLY REGNIZ GAY MARRIAGE, COUPLE SAYS
• RSIAN LBIANS NIED UNTRY'S FIRST GAY MARRIAGE
• BLAMG THE UKRAE INVASN ON … THE GAYS?

RSIAN NSTUTN CHANGE ENDS HOP FOR GAY MARRIAGE

Dozens of other activists received ath threats om an obscure anti-gay group that claimed rponsibily for the killg of Grigoryeva, who was stabbed repeatedly and showed signs of 2017, reports of extrajudicial arrts, torture and killgs of gay men the republic of Chechnya drew ternatnal year, Andrei Vaganov and Yevgeny Yerofeyev, a uple raisg two adopted children, had to flee Rsia after a doctor reported them to police and thori opened a crimal se.

”Print Vladimir Put has rejected cricism of the nstutnal amendments and the gay propaganda said that some untri, “crimal law provisns still exist unr which people of nontradnal sexual orientatn n be persecuted crimally, as was the Soviet Unn. Speakg before Put signed the bill to the law on Monday, Tanya Loksha, associate Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch said: “The 2013 ‘gay propaganda’ law was an unabashed example of polil homophobia, and the new draft legislatn amplifi that broar and harsher ways. 'Authentilly myself'Ray said he had also stggled growg up gay the 1970s and 80s England, which was "tough" said his relig school "dmmed to you, 'you are gog to hell'" Adam returned home to Sdi Arabia, spe beg more than 3, 000 apart and later rtricted by the Covid-19 panmic, they kept touch daily and the romance years ago, Ray proposed on a vio ll and after succsfully applyg for a UK fiancé visa, Adam moved to Manchter December 2022.

LATVIA BE 7TH NATN TO BE LED BY AN OPENLY GAY HEAD OF STATE

Adam said he had been aaid to even wear lours his home untry so the first thg he did when he moved was start to "grow my mullet, got my ears pierced and booked appotments for tattoos" relled how, ntrast, one of his gay iends Sdi had been forced to marry a woman, addg: "It has ed not only his life but the life of his wife. ”Xavier Bettel Prime Mister of Luxembourg (2013-prent)Luxembourg Prime Mister Xavier Bettel at a news nference Belgra, Serbia, on July Vojovic / APBettel was first elected prime mister of Luxembourg 2013, and 2018 he beme the first openly gay prime mister the world to be re-elected for a send marriage beme legal Luxembourg 2015, and the same year Bettel beme the first servg European Unn lear to marry a same-sex partner, the BBC recently cricized a Hungarian law that bans school tnal materials and TV shows for people unr 18 that are emed to promote LGBTQ ntent, Rters reported. “Hopefully this will blow over three or four days, and then I won’t be known as the gay mister, ” she told The Associated Prs at the Varadkar Prime Mister of Ireland (2017-20, 2022-prent)Irish Prime Mister Leo Varadkar Bssels on June 30.

RSIA ‘ACCINTALLY’ REGNIZ GAY MARRIAGE

”Over the last two s, Rsian Print Vladimir Put has waged an all-out asslt on the LGBTQ muny, amg as part of a larger mpaign to protect Rsia’s “tradnal culture” om what he scrib as an onslght of morn valu promoted by the has lled genr fluidy “a crime agast humany, ” and equated homosexualy wh pedophilia.

And durg a seri of anti-gay purg Rsia’s Mlim-majory Chechen Republic, which officials kidnapped, tortured and some s killed men spected of havg sex wh other men, the Kreml turned a bld the same time, life for LGBTQ people Ukrae has slowly been, wh tens of thoands of Rsian troops encirclg major Ukraian ci, gay, lbian and transgenr people are worried about what a Rsian takeover might mean for them. (Daniel Leal / AFP via Getty Imag) Ukrae was never a utopia for gays and transgenr people, Dvizhon marriage is illegal Ukrae, LGBTQ people are not protected by anti-discrimatn laws, and the fluential Christian Orthodox Church views homosexualy as a s. ”While there are still ncrete laws — an anti-discrimatn bill foremost among them — that the natn’s LGBTQ muny is wag for, everybody knows that the suatn for gay people Rsia is “much, much, much worse, ” said Natsya Kosach, a lbian DJ Kyiv.

RSIA ENACTS ANTI-GAY ADOPTN BAN

The crackdown on LGBTQ+ people started a ago when Print Vladimir Put first proclaimed a foc on “tradnal fay valu, ” a move arntly supported — and fueled, to a certa extent — by the Rsian Orthodox 2013, the Kreml adopted the first legislatn rtrictg LGBTQ+ rights, known as the “gay propaganda” law that banned any public endorsement of “nontradnal sexual relatns” among mors. Though there was no official ban until now, foreigners’ attempts to adopt Rsian children before the cree generally would be unsuccsful if a prospective adoptive parent was thought to be gay, ternatnal adoptn agenci based Rsia have said.

Patrt's head Nikolai Stolyarch said a statement on Tuday that the vio was "not mpaigng agast homosexuals" but "fendg the stute of fay as a unn of a man and a woman, " while addg he disapprov of adoptn by gay upl.

RSIA MOV TO BAN GAY MARRIAGE

They said they “affirm the herent digny of each dividual as exprsed the Universal Declaratn of Human Rights and ll upon the ernment of the Rsian Feratn to adhere to s stated mment to protectg the rights of all cizens, cludg the lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and tersex (LGBTI) muny. Along wh much of the Wt’s lls to uphold LGBTQ rights, activists are ncerned that the passage of the amendment may promote tolerance and vlence towards homosexuals, which creased after the “gay propaganda” law passed, acrdg to the Human Rights Watch Campaign. After sger Elton John slammed Rsia’s censorship of gay scen the 2019 bpic Rocketman, Put claimed that the sger’s characterizatn that he is hostile to “polici that embrace multicultural and sexual diversy” is a “mistake.

The 2013 law banng “propaganda for non-tradnal sexual relatnships” among mors not only rtricted possibili to speak and rm about sexualy and genr issu public—somethg siar is now unfoldg the Uned Stat, should be noted—but also signated homosexualy as a danger to children and to society. As the Maidan protts agast the pro-Rsian print Viktor Yanovych began Ukrae late 2013, Rsia’s largt newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda claimed that the protts were -anized by “natnalists, anti-Sem, neo-Nazis and homosexuals. Protectg Rsian children—embodyg the natn’s future—om predatory homosexuals as well as om harmful LGBT iology has been a recurrg argument, ed to motivate both the 2013 gay propaganda law and the 2013 “Dima Yakovlev law, ” which banned U.

Such a moral mappg fluenced the nservative genr polics of the 1930s Stal regime, when the Communists retroduced the ban on sodomy (which had been lifted after the 1917 revolutn) and explicly picted homosexualy as a secury threat the form of unrground, pro-Hler works of homosexuals—Healey lls the nservative turn unr Stal the “birth of morn Rsian polil homophobia. The 1950s gay panic the Uned Stat, when accatns of homosexualy beme a smear tactic Joseph McCarthy’s anti-Communist csa and homosexuals were barred om servg the feral admistratn as they were seen as potential Soviet spi, has obv siari to how LGBT movements today’s Rsia are scribed as a fifth lumn planted by the Wt. Rsia’s geopolicizatn of genr is mirrored by homonatnalist and femonatnalist disurs the Wt, when gay rights and genr equaly are portrayed as evince of “our” natnal superry vis-à-vis backward Others, whether Mlim immigrants or homophobic Rsians.

RSIAN POLIL AD BASH GAY MARRIAGE

Variants of this logic are evint Christian nservativ and natnalists’ attempts to ban “genr doctratn” schools and higher tn across the Wt, Hungary’s recent ban on rmatn that “promot homosexualy” to children, and Brazilian print Jair Bolsonaro’s repeated attacks on femists and LGBT advot.

In Ukrae, they do not have the tomatic right to vis a hospalized partner, to share property ownership, to re for a ceased partner’s children, to claim the body of a partner killed war or to llect ath benefs om the Dolzhenko/EPA, via ShutterstockBut the war is addg impet to a drive to legalize gay marriage, wh a petn recently reachg the sk of Print Volodymyr Zelensky llg for same-sex partners to have the same rights as heterosexual upl, cludg the right to marry.

People has taken on add urgency at a time when Mosw is seizg terrory and apparently plans to annex to Rsia, where sexual mori routely face official and unofficial discrimatn, homophobia and social Ukrae, the sight of L. “When we fend the untry, we dismantle Rsian propaganda about all gay people beg munists, Marxists, and anti-Ukrae, ” said Viktor Pylypenko, who has been fightg Ukrae’s eastern Dombas regn and is the director of an anizatn of L.

PUT’S ANTI-GAY WAR ON UKRAE

People Ukrae routely face discrimatn, though not as wily as Rsia, and pri events the untry have been marred by threats and vlence om anti-gay protters and far-right attus have been changg Ukrae, where homosexualy was crimalized 1991, but the extent of that change is unclear. Rsian society remaed wily homophobic, and there were many who saw gays and lbians as an evable and evil Wtern import, but there were other thgs to worry about — reverg om the llapse of a polil-enomic system, clawg out of poverty, alg wh the explosn of vlence that engulfed a untry sudnly flowg wh sh and then me Vladimir spent the first two terms of his princy, om 2000 to 2008, lg wh no iology.

" Th the law passed by the Duma jt hours after the anti-gay law was passed, makg "sultg relig believers" an offense punishable by up to three years send easit thg has been to monize the "Other, " creatg an ternal enemy for everyone to fear. Acrdg to the Tim, the Patriarch has ma siar parisons between marriage equaly and thorarianism the past; Kirill said a 2016 terview wh Rsia Today that homosexual unns were a form of “Soviet totalarianism” that threaten humany.

Supreme Court’s lg strikg down all prohibns agast same-sex marriage last week spired the predictable backlash of religly fed recrimatns that the world has e to expect om gay-propaganda-fearg the cisn has also spired some unlikely advot to e forward and urge Rsia toward a more tolerant stance – cludg one of the most fluential nservativ the very socially nservative Kiselyov, the irascible televisn host bt known for warng that “Rsia uld turn the USA to radactive ash” while standg ont of imag of a mhroom cloud, ed his weekly program to ll for legalizg civil unns Rsia the wake of the Supreme Court lg“The LGBT muny is a fact. Konstant Dobryn, a member of the Rsian Feratn Council and puty head of s mtee on nstutnal law, wrote on the Web se of Rsian news rad Ekho Mosky that “for Rsia, is important not to turn away om the reali of the time, and lapse to the same old battle agast homosexuals, but to try to fd a legal way to ensure public balance between the nservative part of society and the rt. ”It’s not as much of a turnaround for Dobryn, who was reported to have said 2013 that Rsia had “to stop this parliamentary obssn wh anti-gay lawmakg, ” at a time when parliamentarians were nsirg a law to ny parental rights to 2013, Rsia has had a law on the books banng the spread of gay “propaganda” as a means of “protectg children om rmatn advotg for a nial of tradnal fay valu.

TOP RSIAN TENNIS PLAYER DARIA KASATKA OUT AS GAY

” In the two years sce, there has been ltle progrs ma toward creatg a more clive, safe space for gays Rsia, and human rights anizatns have repeatedly lled out Rsian thori for not dog enough to prevent homosexuals om discrimatn and vlence. Dobryn and Kiselyov’s remendatns may also seem backward to an dience the Uned Stat, where Don’t Ask Don’t Tell was repealed years ago and where the natnwi legalizatn of gay marriage has effectively obviated any middle ground discsns about civil unns.

” The anger acpanyg the qutn dited that the speaker thought that the tradnal prohibn of gay marriage was morally abhorrent (my phrase, not hers), and she was reactg angrily, I spect, bee she discerned the opposn to gay marriage jt one more wretched example of how those wretched Christians are wretchedly imposg their narrow, irratnal, bigoted and wretched views on the rt of . ) Now we wretched Christians are blamed for the s—rapidly beg the hate crime—of “homophobia”, which is apparently fed as any dissent om the secular view that homosexual orientatn and life-style are equally on par wh heterosexual orientatn and life-style.

WHY RSIA TURNED AGAST THE GAYS

It is therefore difficult to answer the qutn, “what’s wrong wh gay marriage” bee we have fotten what marriage is, and we have fotten this bee we live a culture of ntraceptn, one which has pretty much sunred sexual activy om s ual rult, which is procreatn. Children raised such an environment will reta a skewed unrstandg of human nature—one which sunrs procreatn om the sence of marriage and which remak the ncepts of masculy and femy acrdg to utterly new (and untried) nons of the brave new homosexual world. This do not mean, of urse, that if society allows Gay Marriage, and a jtice of the peace or some liberal clergy pronounce them “man and spoe” then the wheels will fall off wtern civilizatn by a week next Thursday.

RSIA'S HIGHT RELIG AUTHORY JT COMPARED GAY MARRIAGE TO NAZI GERMANY

For example, the Greek Orthodox Archdce lists homosexualy bi fornitn, adultery, abortn and abive sexual behavr as “immoral and appropriate forms of behavr and of themselv, and also bee they attack the stutn of marriage and the fay.

THE SURPRISG RSIAN REACTN TO GAY MARRIAGE THE U.S.

ADVERTISEMENTA pro-Rsian puppet ernment would be ls supportive of gay rights, the activists say, and cints of discrimatn would be likely to rise, as they have Rsian-backed separatist Dolzhenko/EPA, via ShutterstockMarch 17, 2022To look at vios om last year’s Pri Para Kyiv is to peer at a joyo moment of solidary the qut for gay rights Ukrae.

Gay marriage would likely rema unregnized, they say, and cints of discrimatn and hate crime would rise, as they have Rsian-backed separatist rights activists who have spent years stgglg for equaly have rpond to the vasn wh an tensified mment to their e, while mobilizg their work to offer support to people need.

WHAT’S WRONG WH GAY MARRIAGE?

Over the past several years, there have also been reports of state-sponsored tentn, vlence and torture agast gay and bisexual men Chechnya, a semi-tonomo Rsian to the weeklong vote, the Rsian LGBTQ Network issued a statement llg to qutn the motiv of the long list of referendum proposals. In July, about a week after the Kreml phed through nstutnal amendments that clu fg marriage as a unn between a man and woman, Tsvetkova was fed for a send time unr the untry’s notor “gay propaganda” law and forced to pay 75, 000 Rubl ($1000) over her lorful illtratns of same-sex upl and their young children.

Pavel Stotsko and Yevgeny Voytsekhovsky tied the knot  Copenhagen, where gay marriage is legal, earlier this month, before askg Rsian officials to regnize their marriage certifite, the uple told the opposn-leang Dozhd TV news channel. MOSCOW (Rters) - A lbian uple challenged the Rsian legal system on Tuday when they applied for a marriage license but was swiftly rejected on the grounds that such a unn mt be between a woman and a was the first attempt by a gay uple to get a marriage license Fyet, a 30-year-old PR worker, and bety parlor owner Ira Shepko, 32, said they would marry stead this summer Toronto, where gay marriage is legal and no rincy is tuxedos and holdg bouquets of whe flowers, the pair, om southern Rsia, said a gay marriage uld improve the “dangero” suatn for homosexuals Rsian society. ”The Soviet Unn banned homosexualy and any type of nudy on TV, and Rsia did not crimalize gay sex until 1993, two years after the USSR’s other major European ci, Mosw has no gay-iendly district and the homosexual scene is still largely unrground, although there are some openly gay bars.

Media ptn, Peter McGrah and David Cabreza, John Coffey and Bernardo Marti, and Andrew Wale and Neil Allard were among the first gay upl to marryThe first same-sex weddgs have taken place after gay marriage beme legal England and Wal at midnight. "The law change would enurage young people unsure of their sexualy, he source, Getty ImagImage ptn, Tera Millward and Helen Brearley married HalifaxImage source, APImage ptn, Sean Adl-Tabatabai and Sclair Treadway married the uncil chamber at Camn Town Hall LondonImage source, PAImage ptn, Sandi Toksvig and her partner Debbie renewed their civil partnership vows at an event London celebratg the law changeLater on Saturday morng, Mr Cameron tweeted: "Congratulatns to the gay upl who have already been married - and my bt wish to those about to be on this historic day. Mr Tatchell said the uple and all the others gettg married had "ma history" and "ma Bra a more tolerant, equal place" a crowd of photographers, journalists and well-wishers wag, the uple took the opportuny to highlight the ternatnal stggle for gay McGrah said: "Very few untri afford their gay and lbian cizens equal marriage rights and we believe that this change law will brg hope and strength to gay men and lbians Nigeria, Uganda, Rsia, India and elsewhere, who lack basic equaly and are beg crimalised for their sexual orientatn.

PUT PROPOS CLOSG GAY MARRIAGE LOOPHOLE – VEDOMOSTI

"Image source, Getty ImagImage ptn, Andrew Wale and Neil Allard were the first same-sex uple to marry BrightonImage source, AFPImage ptn, Phil Robathan and Jam Prton later married at Brighton Town HallLater on Saturday, a crowd of about 2, 000 people - which clud a number of celebri - gathered to watch edian Sandi Toksvig and her partner Debbie renew their civil partnership uple, who entered to a civil partnership seven years ago, exchanged vows on stage at the Royal Ftival Hall London at a special event to celebrate the troductn of gay marriage the UK.

RSIA ACCINTALLY REGNIZ GAY MARRIAGE, COUPLE SAYS

The Roman Catholic Church oppos the change the gay virs, though, have said they are prepared to fy their bishops by sistg they have a right to ptn, The Rev Andrew Ca says he do not want nontatn wh the Church, but "mt do what is right"Among them is the Reverend Andrew Ca, who said the Church was enterg uncharted terrory, but he would not be "ightened" out of dog what he believed was Ca, who plans to marry his partner the summer, said he would do so whether the Church approved or not. 5 ln, but lculatns g global timat believe to be at least 10% of the entire populatn - or more than 135 the years, acceptance of homosexualy has also grown India, pecially sce the September 2018 ground-breakg lg that legalised nsentg gay sex.

But a Sunday sermon, Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Rsian Orthodox Church, offered a startlg new explanatn that is sure to ronate wh the Sohrab Ahmari wg of the morn Amerin right: It was to save Eastern Ukrae om the gays. The patriarch’s sistence that the war Ukrae is all about gay paras remd me of a brilliant Rsian-language poem someone shared wh me on Twter the other day, wrten by Rsian-Ukraian poet Artem Polezhaka late 2013 and tled “Reportage.

RSIAN LBIANS NIED UNTRY'S FIRST GAY MARRIAGE

” The poem hilarly spoofs state-owned Rsian televisn’s hysteril reportg on the Euromaidan protts Kyiv: the reporter breathlsly reunts the creasgly grotque horrors he supposedly wns—a mélange that featur neo-Nazis, jihadists, looters, nnibals, and Jews who “drk Christian babi’ blood by the bucket”—but keeps g back to gay i. Most recently, this argument was trotted out by polil mentator Richard Hanania a Substack post which argued that liberal el Ameri had viewed the Put regime wh relative difference until 2013, when Rsia “passed a law banng gay propaganda towards mors” ( realy, rtrictg any gay-themed ntent any place where mors uld see , cludg public events promotg gay rights), and Put began his transformatn to a Hollywood villa. Were some Wtern progrsiv more censed by Rsia’s “gay propaganda” law than by the btal supprsn of peaceful protts, the cshg of the pennt media, the electn-riggg, and the rt of the Put regime’s systematic asslt on civil liberti?

However, for all s problems, Ukrae is sufficiently hospable to ee exprsn that thoands of people have been able to march unr rabow flags year to year— ntrast to Rsia, where attempts to hold such events have end vlence om both police and anti-gay vigilant.

BLAMG THE UKRAE INVASN ON … THE GAYS?

One n bate whether the Amerin liberals and progrsiv who have cisively won the culture war on gay rights are too tolerant toward people who still subscribe to tradnal sexual moraly, such as Christian bakers and florists who refe to provi servic for same-sex weddgs.