Why Rsia Is So Anti-Gay | Live Science

Contents:

• LGBT HATE CRIM DOUBLE RSIA AFTER BAN ON 'GAY PROPAGANDA'
• WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT RSIA’S SO-CALLED ‘GAY PROPAGANDA’ BILL
• ‘I’M AAID FOR MY FUTURE’: PROPOSED LAWS THREATEN GAY LIFE RSIA
• WHY RSIA TURNED AGAST THE GAYS
• WHY RSIA IS SO ANTI-GAY
• RSIA: THE UNTRY THAT HAT GAY PEOPLE
• Q&A: GAY RIGHTS RSIA

LGBT HATE CRIM DOUBLE RSIA AFTER BAN ON 'GAY PROPAGANDA'

MOSCOW (Thomson Rters Foundatn) - Hate crim agast lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr (LGBT) people Rsia have doubled five years, rearchers said on Tuday, the wake of a law banng “gay propaganda”. “(Offenrs) have bee more aggrsive and ls fearful, ” said Svetlana Zakharova, a board member wh Rsian LGBT Network, the untry’s most proment gay rights mpaign group, which has noted the same trend. Homosexualy Rsia, where the fluence of the socially nservative Orthodox Church has grown recent years, was a crimal offence until 1993 and classed as a mental illns until 1999.

Rearchers said the figur are an unrtimate as many hate crim are not reported, vtigated or ‘gay propaganda’ law, which has been ed to stop gay pri march and to ta gay rights activists, is seen by many as a move by Print Vladimir Put to crack down on dissent and draw closer to the Rsian Orthodox was ranked Europe’s send least LGBT-iendly natn 2016 by ILGA-Europe, a work of European LGBT.

WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT RSIA’S SO-CALLED ‘GAY PROPAGANDA’ BILL

The European Court of Human Rights led 2017 that the 2013 law is discrimatory, promot homophobia and vlat the European Conventn on Human Rights. The urt found that the law “served no legimate public tert, ” rejectg suggtns that public bate on LGBT issu uld fluence children to bee homosexual, or that threatened public morals. 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.

” Some lawmakers have also shown support for an pennt bill that would make any so-lled “gay propaganda” a crimal offense, acrdg to the Associated Prs.

‘I’M AAID FOR MY FUTURE’: PROPOSED LAWS THREATEN GAY LIFE RSIA

Petersburg and Mosw have been marked by state vlence and arrts, while an crease the number of attacks on LGBTQ people throughout Rsia—both by dividuals and by anized homophobic groups—creased after the 2013 law, acrdg to a 2014 report published by Human Rights Watch. In 2017, the European Court of Human Rights led that Rsia’s “gay propaganda law” was discrimatory, promoted homophobia, and vlated the European Conventn on Human Rights and that “served no legimate public tert. ”The anizers had good reason to be wary: Life has been challengg for gay Rsians sce the law passed, as the ernment has treated gay life as a Wtern import that is harmful to tradnal Rsian valu and Rsia’s Parliament is set to pass a legislative package that would ban all “gay propaganda, ” signalg an even more difficult perd ahead for a stigmatized segment of laws would prohib reprentatn of L.

Exprsn wh s ratnale for the war Ukrae, sistg that Rsia is fightg not jt Ukrae but all of NATO, a Wtern alliance that reprents a threat to the Put drove home that argument a speech last week, sayg that the Wt n have “dozens of genrs and gay pri paras, ” but that should not try to spread the “trends” elsewhere.

WHY RSIA TURNED AGAST THE GAYS

Olenichev said that though the police do not track hate crim agast queer people, he and his lleagu have noticed an crease clients who have suffered inty-based attacks sce rhetoric behd anti-gay laws may have dangero nsequenc for gay Rsians, said Vladimir Komov, a lawyer wh the group Delo 2013 law was promoted as protectg children, while the new on “seek to prohib gay propaganda as a danger to the state system, ” fg as extremism, he Lunchenkov said the proposed laws uld leave gay people “aaid to go to medil clics to get treatment or ttg” for sexually transmted diseas. Lawmakers llg gays a danger on a par wh war “is more funny than sry, ” he now, gay Rsians and their alli have found exprsn spe rtrictive laws. As a rult, Svetski and his fellow LGBTQ+ Rsians are forced to advote for Rsia, activists crease their exposure to vlence the more they anize agast homophobia, says Daniel Balson, an advocy director at Amnty Internatnal.

Last November, an LGBTQ+ nference Mosw had to be nceled followg homophobic month, the untry was slapped wh a 42, 500 ro fe by the European Court of Human Rights for refg to allow LGBTQ+ anizatns Rabow Hoe, the Movement for Marriage Equaly, and the Sochi Pri Hoe the right to register as official associatns. The Human Rights Campaign, which tracks anti-LGBTQ+ hate groups abroad, reports that eight Amerin extremist activists have been active Rsia recent years: Stt Lively, Benjam Bull, Jordan Sekulow, Peter LaBarbera, Pl Cameron, Brian Brown, Larry Jabs and Janice Shaw Croe, all famo for their anti-LGBTQ activism, have poured money and time to the Lively, print of the Massachetts-based Abidg Tth Mistri, claims cred for Rsia’s gay propaganda law, statg he proposed 2007, acrdg to HRC. As vehemently anti-gay polici have creasgly failed the Uned Stat, those anizatns began to export their money and iologi abroad to plac like Uganda, Kenya, and Rsia.

WHY RSIA IS SO ANTI-GAY

“The Amerin dollar n go a long way other untri, pecially terms of what they see as trag nservative movement lears and that so-lled movement that foc on fay valu, ” says 2013, Benjam Bull went to Mosw on behalf of ADF and met wh Yelena Mizula, the archect of the gay propaganda law. Peter LaBarbera print of Amercians for the Tth About Homosexualy, also backed the law, while Pl Cameron has repeatedly trekked to Rsia to ph his anti-LGBTQ+ rights advot acce the Tmp admistratn of further fuelg a culture of impuny the untry by refg to nmn the homophobic attacks and closg U. Borrs to LGBTQ+ refuge fleeg the 2017, more than 200 LGBTQ+ people have reportedly been round up Kreml-backed Chechnya’s anti-gay purge, wh as many as 26 murred.

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. It also grows spicn of the liberal opposn, prented as fundamentally "un-Rsian" as they stand up creasgly for gay rights amid Put's growg crackdown.

RSIA: THE UNTRY THAT HAT GAY PEOPLE

And fally, allows Rsia to do what do bt the days: prent self as Not The is no accint that Rsia is strippg away gay rights as (popular and legal) support for gay marriage the U. As Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Rsian Orthodox Church, recently put : gay marriage is a "dangero apolyptic system" that leads a natn "on a path of self-stctn. "I thk the most ridiculo qutns e up durg the y of an empire, " said Anton Krasovsky, a proment Rsian journalist recently fired for beg gay, when asked why the "gay qutn" had sudnly emerged Rsia.

Nearly three-quarters of Rsians believe that homosexually is morally unacceptable, more than disapprove of other hot-button issu such as extramaral affairs, gamblg and numbers e om newly released data om the Pew Rearch Center, which surveyed Rsians on their moral attus sprg 2013.

Jt eight months before the gam, Rsia's ernmental body, the Duma, passed a law makg illegal to distribute homosexual "propaganda" to mors, which clus stagg gay pri events and advotg for gay law also bans foreign same-sex upl om adoptg Rsian the openg day of the Olympics (Feb. [5 Myths About Gay People Debunked]History of anti-gay attusUnrstandg Rsia's wispread gay sentiment requir a look back, said Tatiana Mikhailova, a senr stctor of Rsian Studi at the Universy of Colorado, Boulr. Tradnal genr rol fell to revolutnary iology, and the fay stcture was seen as outdated, she the revolutn, Czarist Rsia was hardly iendly to gays.

Q&A: GAY RIGHTS RSIA

In 1716, homosexualy among ary men was ma punishable by floggg, rape and forced labor, acrdg to Dan Healy, a profsor of Rsian history at Oxford Universy. In 1835, Czar Nicholas I extend the ban on male same-sex relatnships to revolutnari threw out the Czarist legal and drew up their own, which did not crimalize homosexualy.

Joseph Stal, who nsolidated power over the 1920s, and his secret police appotee, Genrikh Yagoda, drafted a new law penalizg homosexuals, whom they portrayed as spi and sundrels. "Where gays are allowed, pedophilia will soon flourish, " says Rsian Orthodox prit Sergei Rybko a new BBC documentary, "Hunted, " released this month, that explor vlence toward Rsian Rsian Orthodox Church is a major driver of anti-gay public opn, Mikhailova said, but there is a paradox at most untri, religsy is lked to anti-gay attus.

Among Amerins, 74 percent of nonrelig people approve of gay marriage, pared wh only 23 percent of whe evangelil Prottants, acrdg to a Pew survey. Few Rsians say relign is central to their liv; the untry sr on par wh many Wtern European untri terms of lack of religsy, but only 9 percent of Rsians say homosexualy is acceptable the new survey.