Russia's P.R. Nightmare

Countries, when referred to in the media during some global event or conflict, seem to take on an identity distinct from their leaders or people. For example, ‘Russia is anti-gay’ makes it sound as if there is some rotund mustachioed Russia-man who cackles with delight at the oppression of homosexuals. They become a sort of patchwork caricature of all the worst people and institutional habits that are associated with the country. I believe this belittles the issues at hand, humanising injustice while providing an invisible scapegoat that detracts attention from those in power.

Several extremely 'straight' men wrestle with a protester at an LGBT demonstration in St.Petersburg

If it were a person, Russia would have recently been through a Miley Cyrus-esque montage of embarrassment and tragedy, twerking its way through the Winter Olympics in Sochi with an irresponsible disregard for the hygiene and comfort of those participating, while simultaneously being hounded on its gay rights policy and having just suffered through the dreadful Volgograd bombings. Putin, a man who I am convinced is the devil himself - masquerading as an evil necromancer from another time, who has in turn cast a spell hypnotising the entire world into the belief that he is the president of Russia - tried to save face during this barrage of negative publicity by stating that gays are welcome to come to the Olympics, so long as they stay away from children and don’t mind being beaten up by homophobic vigilantes. I added that last bit, based on the footage from a recent Channel 4 ‘Dispatches’ documentary which followed the vicious ‘Occupy Pedophilia’ movement as they take prejudice, sadism and hypocrisy to entirely new levels. It’s said that some members of this vigilante group torture their victims by sodomising them; ‘an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind’ as Gandhi once said, which I think can be roughly adapted to ‘anal rape for anal sex makes you a fucking moron.’

Apparently 'not' the ascension of the devil himself, nor an evil necromancer with the ability to raise armies from the dead.

But I didn't make the first bit up, Putin & the establishment of Russia genuinely want to shield children from the ‘propaganda’ of homosexuality. To claim that this doesn't constitute institutional homophobia is bizarre, for it implies that the sexuality of these children is open to some manipulation, or that homosexual people have a tendency to enjoy interfering with children in some way. It all seems hinged upon an association of homosexuality with illegal sexual perversions, or an assumption that homosexuality involves a choice – both of which are ideas that are demonstrably false, and are also views typically held by homophobic people. 

In fact, it has been noted that “many child molesters cannot be meaningfully described as homosexuals, heterosexuals, or bisexuals (in the usual sense of those terms) because they are not really capable of a relationship with an adult man or woman.” Not only that, in the majority of test cases the number of 'regressed' heterosexual men abusing children was greater than the number of 'regressed' homosexual men. Just wait until Putin hears wind of this and starts a hate-campaign against opposite-sex relationships. "We must prevent all this toxic heterosexual propaganda from reaching our delicate children's ears!"

It has also been shown that homosexuality can run in families, particularly along the maternal line, and research is being done to identify genetic information that could reveal something about the mystery of sexuality. In my opinion, all one needs to do to address the ‘nature or nurture’ debate over homosexuality is ask those who are homosexual what they consider the factor to be, and overwhelmingly one will receive the response that it is something they have felt from a very young age which feels essential to them as a person, not something they have appropriated as behaviour. It is my belief, along with many others, that a child who grows up in an exclusively heterosexual environment may turn out to be gay, bisexual or transgender.

So, while one can easily make jokes about two-man luges and caricature the country that facilitates such vile infringements of justice, it might be better to properly discuss how a country, with its multitudes of people, opinions and leaders can be diverted from a path we so clearly see as wrong.