Why Is Rsia So Homophobic? - The Atlantic</tle><meta name="scriptn" ntent="Communist-era jtifitns for bigotry don't make sense anymore. What's behd lawmakers' opposn to gays?"/><meta property="kx:tle" ntent="Why Is Rsia So Homophobic? - The Atlantic"/><meta property="kx:scriptn" ntent="Communist-era jtifitns for bigotry don't make sense anymore. What's behd lawmakers' opposn to gays?"/><lk rel="nonil" href="><lk rel="image_src" href="><meta property="article:thor" ntent="><meta name="thor" ntent="Olga Khazan"/><lk rel="ia:markup_url" href="><meta property="article:publisher" ntent="><meta property="article:opn" ntent="false"/><meta property="article:ntent_tier" ntent="metered"/><meta property="article:tag" ntent="ternatnal"/><meta property="article:sectn" ntent="Global"/><meta property="article:published_time" ntent="2013-06-12T19:52:17Z"/><meta property="article:modified_time" ntent="2013-06-13T13:18:30Z"/><meta name="robots" ntent="x, follow, max-image-preview:large"/><meta property="og:tle" ntent="Why Is Rsia So Homophobic?"/><meta property="og:scriptn" ntent="Communist-era jtifitns for bigotry don't make sense anymore. What's behd lawmakers' opposn to gays?"/><meta property="og:url" ntent="><meta property="og:type" ntent="article"/><meta property="og:image"/><meta property="twter:rd" ntent="summary_large_image"/><lk rel="alternate" type="applitn/rss+xml" tle="The Atlantic" href="/feed/all/"/><lk rel="alternate" type="applitn/rss+xml" tle="Bt of The Atlantic" href="/feed/bt-of/"/><meta name="referrer" ntent="unsafe-url"/><meta name="apple-mobile-web-app-pable" ntent="y"/><meta name="apple-mobile-web-stat-bar-style" ntent="black"/><meta name="apple-mobile-web-app-tle" ntent="The Atlantic"/><meta name="keywords" ntent="gay rights, St. Petersburg, ocsnal Put mpaigners, gay rights activists, gay pri events, Stalist anti-gay polici, homosexualy, Rsians, propaganda ban, St. Petersburg lawmaker" emID="#keywords"/><meta name="news_keywords" ntent="gay rights, St. Petersburg, ocsnal Put mpaigners, gay rights activists, gay pri events, Stalist anti-gay polici, homosexualy, Rsians, propaganda ban, St. Petersburg lawmaker"/><meta name="" ntent="ternatnal"/><meta name="" ntent="Olga Khazan"/><meta name="" ntent="2013-06-12T19:52:17Z"/><lk rel="preload" as="font" type="font/woff2" href=" crossorig=""/><lk rel="preload" as="font" type="font/woff2" href=" crossorig=""/><lk rel="preload" as="font" type="font/woff2" href=" crossorig=""/><lk rel="preload" as="font" type="font/woff2" href=" crossorig=""/><lk rel="preload" as="font" type="font/woff2" href=" crossorig=""/><script type="applitn/ld+json">{"@ntext":","@type":"NewsArticle","headle":"Why Is Rsia So Homophobic?","alternativeHeadle":"Why Is Rsia So Homophobic?","scriptn":"Communist-era jtifitns for bigotry don't make sense anymore. What's behd lawmakers' opposn to gays?","url":","datePublished":"2013-06-12T19:52:17Z","dateModified":"2013-06-13T13:18:30Z","isAccsibleForFree":false,"hasPart":{"@type":"WebPageElement","isAccsibleForFree":false,"cssSelector":".article-ntent-body"},"publisher":{"@id":"},"maEntyOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"},"thor":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Olga Khazan","sameAs":"}],"articleSectn":"Global"}</script><meta name="next-head-unt" ntent="61"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="style"/><lk rel="stylheet" href=" data-n-g=""/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="style"/><lk rel="stylheet" href=" data-n-p=""/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="style"/><lk rel="stylheet" href=" data-n-p=""/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="style"/><lk rel="stylheet" href=" data-n-p=""/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="style"/><lk rel="stylheet" href=" data-n-p=""/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="style"/><lk rel="stylheet" href="><lk rel="preload" href=" as="style"/><lk rel="stylheet" href="><noscript data-n-css=""></noscript><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/><lk rel="preload" href=" as="script"/></head><body><div id="__next"><div data-tegory="story page"><div></div><nav class="Nav_root___6bX9" aria-labelledby="se-navigatn" data-tegory="Se Nav" data-event-module="se nav" id="ma-navigatn"><div class="Nav_maNav__yofcm"><a href="#ma-ntent" class="Nav_skipLk__Evjjd">Skip to ntent</a><h2 id="se-navigatn" class="Nav_visuallyHi__AbSDF">Se Navigatn</h2><div class="Nav_flexContaer__Q3LKQ"><ul class="Nav_leftContaer__cPQgJ"><li class="Nav_navListItem__cEyWT Nav_visuallyHiOnMobile__hxCGG"><a href=" class="Nav_navLk__5SUAA"><svg xmlns=" viewBox="0 0 87.83 134" class="Nav_bigA__XvGGC"><tle>The Atlantic

russia is so gay

Communist-era jtifitns for bigotry don't make sense anymore. What's behd lawmakers' opposn to gays?

Contents:

RSIA TO GAYS: SHUT UP AND DISAPPEAR

Close to 75 percent of Rsians say beg gay is morally unacceptable, a new survey fds. * russia is so gay *

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. As Rsia ntu to flounr Ukrae, wh attempts to pture the small town of Bakhmut turng to a grisly reenactment of the Battle of Verdun, and Kreml propagandists lurchg back and forth between hysteril swagger and the five stag of grief, the Rsian polil tablishment has cid to tackle what’s really important: a natnal “Don’t Say Gay” law.

A bill that outlaws “LGBT propaganda”—fed so broadly as to ver not only gay or transgenr rights advocy but potentially all public exprsns of “nontradnal” sexualy or genr inty—passed the State Duma on November 24 and was approved by the upper hoe of Rsia’s fake legislature, the Council of Feratns, last Wednday. ) But do rell Soviet-era censorship unr which any mentn of Tchaikovsky’s homosexualy was scbbed om books and films about the great poser’s life, while bgraphil prefac to Soviet edns of Osr Wil cloaked the reason for his imprisonment such phemisms as “transgrsns agast moraly. But there uld have been no qutn, for stance, of publishg Jam Baldw’s gay-themed masterpiece Gvanni’s Room, even though Baldw was acclaimed the official Soviet media as a fighter agast Amerin racism; the novel had to wa until 2007 for s first Rsian edn.

WHY RSIA IS SO ANTI-GAY

* russia is so gay *

This is not the first time Put-era Rsian legislatn has gone after “gay propaganda”: A more limed 2013 law add “propaganda of non-tradnal sexual relatns” to a broar law that banned the distributn of “harmful” material to mors. The Duma voted down an amendment that would have exempted “universally regnized cultural products” such as lerature and art om the ban; theory, this means, for example, that Rsian translatns of Vladimir Nabokov’s novel Pale Fire, whose prcipal narrator Charl Kbote is nspicuoly gay, uld fall unr the ax.

Jt last month, the premiere of a play lled The Prcs and the Ogre at a children’s theater Novosibirsk was nceled—or at least layed, sce will apparently open this month after vettg by the Mistry of Culture—bee of an anonymo plat om someone who found too gay. Many Rsian mentators, such as journalist and activist Renat Davletgilyev, believe the new law is a transparent attempt by the Put regime to shore up flaggg support among the Rsian public by appealg to homophobia, stg gays as the menacg “other, ” and monizg not only the Wt but Rsian antiwar liberals as “sexual viants.

A report by journalist Sasha Belaya on the Khodorkovsky Live YouTube channel noted that the Duma’s discsn and passage of the legislatn had been acpanied by an anti-gay mpaign the Rsian state media that explicly targeted liberals and dissints. Fellow TV host Vladimir Solovyov livered his mentary on “this filth, this abomatn, this foulns, and nasts” a bizarre sgsong apparently tend to mimic “gay” mannerisms. In a particularly ironic twist, some propagandists such as Olga Skabeyeva exprsed ncern that the ban on “LGBT propaganda” uld accintally brg the hammer down on homophobic propaganda, bee was unclear what kd of pictns of “nontradnal sexual relatns” were prohibed: Could her own show be slapped wh a fe for showg the Zygar/Shcherbak kiss, albe “wh undisguised revulsn, ” as an exposé of “the liberal public” and of “the Wt and s valu”?

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

Rsia's Gay Lyrics: Rsia's gay / In everyone has AIDS / And they all got om buttsex / Their print fgerbangs them ltle kids / I (I) wa so long (Long) the snow (Snow) for one * russia is so gay *

The gay-bashg for domtic nsumptn uld achieve at least some sire effect a untry where nearly 70 percent of the populatn believ that nsensual same-sex relatns between adults should be illegal and half say they feel personal hostily toward LGBT people.

But is que likely that the current Rsian anti-gay mpaign, cludg the anti–“LGBT propaganda” law, is tend at least part for a Wtern dience—a specific part of , that is. 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.

WHY RSIA TURNED AGAST THE GAYS

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.

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. Another 9 percent say homosexualy is not a moral issue, and 72 percent say beg gay is parison, 69 percent of Rsians say extramaral affairs are unacceptable, 62 percent disapprove of gamblg, and 44 percent say abortn is immoral.

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

[6 Thgs Rsians Thk Are More Acceptable Than Beg Gay]While the average Rsian may not attend church equently or pray fervently, the Orthodox Church still holds sway over public opn, Mikhailova said.

4) that harassment and vlence agast gays, lbians and bisexual and transgenr people Rsia is wispread and may be on the anonymo survey by The Rsian LGBT Network St. 3, a urt eastern Rsia sentenced three men to between ne and 12 years prison each for the beatg and stabbg ath of a man they believed to be gay, one of several recently reported crim allegedly motivated by anti-gay sentiment. In one episo of the highly-acclaimed HBO seri The Whe Lot, a Rsian streamg service changed the word "gay" to "man", eded a towel onto one male character's bare backsi and leted a gay sex scene, jt days after the law was ptn, The book Shattered, about the romance between two men, has been heavily redacted RsiaBooks, too, are beg censored.

The text has been redacted by the publisher, wh whole sectns replaced wh black of the -thors of the law, an openly homophobic natnalist lled Valy Milonov, agre to speak to me via violk. 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.

RSIA’S GAYRUCKA RUCKA ALITRACK 6 ON PROBABLY RACIST PRODUCED BYRUCKA RUCKA ALIA PARODY OF JASON DELO’S “WHATCHA SAY?”, THE SONG WAS SPIRED BY THE CREASG TENSNS BETWEEN RSIA AND THE UNED STAT, STARTG 2008 WH RSIA’S VASN OF… READ MORE JUL. 26, 20111 VIEWER8.9K VIEWS15 CONTRIBUTORSRSIA’S GAY LYRICS[CHOS]RSIA'S GAYIN EVERYONE HAS AIDSAND THEY ALL GOT OM BUTTSEXTHEIR PRINT FGERBANGS THEM LTLE KIDS[VERSE 1]I (I) WA SO LONG (LONG) THE SNOW (SNOW) FOR ONE LTLE PIECE OF BREAD (OF BREAD)AND I (I) HAVE BEEN DNK (DNK) SCE I WAS BORN (BORN) AND I KEEP MONGOLIANS A GEI'M POOR, I SOLD MY CHILD FOR A SIP OF VODKAMY WIFE IS NAMED SVETLANA BORSHTYNSKOVSKISKAAT MY SPACE STATN (SPACE STATN) WE TRY TO SEND (WE TRIED TO SEND) A RDBOARD BOX UP TO THE SKYWHEN THE WALL ME DOWN AND THEM RSIANS SHED OUT WAS A DAY WHEN EEDOM WONIF MR. PUT WANTS TO VA GEIA, WE'LL BE WA' HERE WH GUNSI LIVE ATLANTA[CHOS]RSIA'S GAYTHEY SUCK A LOT OF LONG DICKSON THE INTER, RSIA'S GAYTHEY LIKE TO TOUCH ON YOUNG BOYS A LTLE BRSIA'S GAYIN EVERYONE HAS AIDSAND THEY ALL GOT OM BUTTSEXRSIA IS GAYYOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE[VERSE 2]I (I) EAT SOUR DOUGH, (DOUGH) NO GOOD, (GOOD) I HAVE NEVER SEEN A REAL BLACK MAN (BLACK MAN)AND I (I) HAVE TEN KIDS (KIDS) I N'T FEED, (FEED) I HOPE WE FIGHT A NUCLEAR WARDA, I HOPE I EAT A PIECE OF FISH FOR DNERWE HAVE A WALL TO KEEP MY PEOPLE HERETHE KGB (THE KGB) ARRT' ME (ARRT' ME) 'E THEY TCH ME TOUCH' MYSELFTELL THE TROOPS RIGHT NOW 'S TIME TO BOMB MOSW, FUN TIME AND GAM ARE DONEWE SHOULD KILL THEM RKIS AND TAKE THEIR LAND 'E 'S FAR OM MEXITHIS ONE'S FOR 9/11[CHOS]RSIA'S GAYIT LOOKS LIKE CANDYLANDAND THE PALACE IS PLASTICTHEY WEAR THOSE DUMB FUCKED UP HATS WH FUR ON RSIA'S GAYIN EVERYONE HAS AIDSAND THEY ALL GOT OM BUTTSEXRSIA IS GAY[VERSE 3]HEY, LET ME TELL YOU RIGHT NOW, THEM RSIANS A'T GONNA TAKE VIETNAMNOT WHOUT ME CHARGEI GOT A MAIL ORR BRI, ME HERE A BOX OM PETERSBURGSHE LEFT HER FUCK' KID TO STARVEHEY, MR. OBAMA, GET YOUR CLUB AND GO HAVE A WORD WH MEDVEVGET HIM GOOD THE CHTAND TELL MR. CHG CHANG CHONG IF HE WANTS TO GET VOLVEDALL YOUR MISSIL WON'T ADD CH TO YOUR PENISWHEN THE WALL ME DOWN AND THEM RSIANS SHED OUT WAS A DAY WHEN EEDOM WONBUT THEN WHEN DAVID HASSELHOFF STARTED SG' ON RS THEY WERE PUTTG THE WALL BACK UP'CSE BABY RSIA'S FUCK' GAY[CHOS]RSIA'S GAYIN EVERYONE HAS AIDSAND THEY ALL GOT OM BUTTSEXRSIA IS GAYRSIA'S GAYIN EVERYONE HAS AIDSAND THEY ALL GOT OM BUTTSEXRSIA IS GAY1EMBEDCANCELHOW TO FORMAT LYRICS:TYPE OUT ALL LYRICS, EVEN REPEATG SONG PARTS LIKE THE CHOSLYRICS SHOULD BE BROKEN DOWN TO DIVIDUAL LUSE SECTN HEARS ABOVE DIFFERENT SONG PARTS LIKE [VERSE], [CHOS], ETC.USE ALICS (<I>LYRIC</I>) AND BOLD (<B>LYRIC</B>) TO DISTGUISH BETWEEN DIFFERENT VOLISTS THE SAME SONG PARTIF YOU DON’T UNRSTAND A LYRIC, E [?]TO LEARN MORE, CHECK OUT OUR TRANSCRIPTN GUI OR VIS OUR TRANSCRIBERS FOMABOUT

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 ntroversial law was met wh cricism and ridicule Wtern untri, cludg a lg the European Court of Human Rights 2017 that stated Rsia’s “gay propaganda law” is discrimatory, promot homophobia and vlat the European Conventn on Human Rights. Holdg gay pri events, speakg fense of gay rights, or equatg gay and heterosexual relatnships n now rult f of up to $31, the vote, gay rights activists who attempted to hold a "kiss-" outsi the Duma were pelted wh eggs by Orthodox Christian and pro-Kreml activists.

*BEAR-MAGAZINE.COM* RUSSIA IS SO GAY

Rsia to Gays: Shut Up and Disappear - The Bulwark .

TOP