[caption id="attachment_4304" align="alignnone" width="497"]
If this is wrong, I don't want to be right! Click the image to enlarge it.
[/caption]
The very widely reported public kiss between two female Russian athletes, Kseniya Ryzhova and Tatyana Firova, on the winners' podium at Luzhniki stadium in Moscow, oer the weekend, was in direct defiance of a new Russian anti-gay law.
July 2, 2013, Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin signed into law a bill banning the "propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations to minors," It's important to point out the law does not apparently make homosexuality itself illegal, it makes public displays of homosexuality illegal. I say "apparently," because, in English translation, it is a very vaguely-worded law, but basically "propaganda" = "public display."
Article 6.21 of the Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Offenses -- which passed in the Russian Duma with a 436-0 vote -- allows the government to fine people accused of spreading "propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations amongst minors" between 4,000 and 1 million rubles ($120 to $30,000 USD). A law passed in 2012 also bans gay-pride events in Moscow for the next 100 years.
I mentioned my intention to post about this law to a friend of mine who was born and raised in Poland -- I knew Poland wasn't Russia, but my friend had spent a fair bit of time in Russia, spoke the language, and had a lot more direct knowledge of the country than I ever would.
My friend made the key point that the law was not an attempt to criminalize homosexuality. The state was not going into homes, and had no problem with what people did in private, behind closed doors.
He more-or-less compared his views to those of the Russian state: He believed, deeply, that homosexuality was abnormal. This didn't stand in the way of his working with, and being friends with people he knew were gay, and lesbian; he genuinely believed their private lives were their business, not his. What bothered him -- really bothered him -- were public displays of homosexuality,: same-sex kissing, hand-holding -- not to mention anything more explicit -- and, of course, Pride parades. He believed homosexuality was an aberration, so it baffled him how someone could be proud of being sick. He told me, that after the Russian law was passed, he read many comments in Eastern European online forums, exactly mirroring his attitudes. No one had a problem working with homosexuals, they just didn't want to see them being homosexuals.
My city of Vancouver B.C. has one of the world's largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans-gendered populations in the world. This is one of the many things that makes Vancouver an extraordinary place to live. The annual Pride Parade in the Downtown West End is also one of the largest in the world. It's an in-your-face celebration of the LGBT community, it's endurance, identity, diversity, and yes, it's pride. The majority of Vancouver loves it's Pride Parade, the downtown bars, and hotels are pretty keen on it also.
I was wondering how could I possibly relate to my friend's visceral discomfort with even the most benign displays of same-sex affection, such as hugging or kissing, when something from the past surfaced in my memory. Something which gave me exactly the kind of discomfort my friend described. Not only that, but it represented a dark chapter in Russia's recent history, and, I realized, Vladimir Putin's new law made sure it could never happen again!
[caption id="attachment_4265" align="alignnone" width="497"]
Kissin' cousins Communist-style.[/caption]
Of course I'm referring to the shocking, full-on kiss between Soviet Premier Leonid Breznev and East German leader Erich Honecker in 1979. I bet it's the only thing Vladimir Putin and I are in total agreement on -- never again! Here's an amusing look at the Kiss, particularly the way Polish Communist leader General Jaruzelski dreaded meeting with Honecker.
My friend did not frame it this way, but consider that a great many Russian citizens (the majority?) consider homosexuality to be an obscenity; this law, in effect, treats homosexuality like pornography: You can enjoy it in private, but you cannot display it in public. If we were describing how Russian legislators had passed a law making it illegal to display pornography in public, or to show smut to a child, most, if not all North American Readers would be nodding their heads in approval. But this is people we are talking about, who are being told by an entire society that they are sick, and obscene, and should be ashamed of themselves.
Still, I bet many Russians -- legislators, politicians, and ordinary citizens -- can't understand the fuss, they may think this is a very progressive, and very reasonable law, and I agree. It's very progressive for the year 1813. For 2013, not so much.
When I had told my friend from Poland that I thought the law was vaguely worded, he pounced, "How do you know?" He challenged me to read the law in it's original Russian. I had to concede that things are often lost in translation. Obviously Russian is notoriously difficult to translate into the 21st Century.
If this is wrong, I don't want to be right! Click the image to enlarge it.[/caption]
The very widely reported public kiss between two female Russian athletes, Kseniya Ryzhova and Tatyana Firova, on the winners' podium at Luzhniki stadium in Moscow, oer the weekend, was in direct defiance of a new Russian anti-gay law.
July 2, 2013, Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin signed into law a bill banning the "propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations to minors," It's important to point out the law does not apparently make homosexuality itself illegal, it makes public displays of homosexuality illegal. I say "apparently," because, in English translation, it is a very vaguely-worded law, but basically "propaganda" = "public display."
Article 6.21 of the Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Offenses -- which passed in the Russian Duma with a 436-0 vote -- allows the government to fine people accused of spreading "propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations amongst minors" between 4,000 and 1 million rubles ($120 to $30,000 USD). A law passed in 2012 also bans gay-pride events in Moscow for the next 100 years.
It seems the Russian Federation has a surplus of closets, and means to keep them full. That's one thing the country's new anti-gay propaganda law tells me.
I mentioned my intention to post about this law to a friend of mine who was born and raised in Poland -- I knew Poland wasn't Russia, but my friend had spent a fair bit of time in Russia, spoke the language, and had a lot more direct knowledge of the country than I ever would.
My friend made the key point that the law was not an attempt to criminalize homosexuality. The state was not going into homes, and had no problem with what people did in private, behind closed doors.
He more-or-less compared his views to those of the Russian state: He believed, deeply, that homosexuality was abnormal. This didn't stand in the way of his working with, and being friends with people he knew were gay, and lesbian; he genuinely believed their private lives were their business, not his. What bothered him -- really bothered him -- were public displays of homosexuality,: same-sex kissing, hand-holding -- not to mention anything more explicit -- and, of course, Pride parades. He believed homosexuality was an aberration, so it baffled him how someone could be proud of being sick. He told me, that after the Russian law was passed, he read many comments in Eastern European online forums, exactly mirroring his attitudes. No one had a problem working with homosexuals, they just didn't want to see them being homosexuals.
My city of Vancouver B.C. has one of the world's largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans-gendered populations in the world. This is one of the many things that makes Vancouver an extraordinary place to live. The annual Pride Parade in the Downtown West End is also one of the largest in the world. It's an in-your-face celebration of the LGBT community, it's endurance, identity, diversity, and yes, it's pride. The majority of Vancouver loves it's Pride Parade, the downtown bars, and hotels are pretty keen on it also.
I was wondering how could I possibly relate to my friend's visceral discomfort with even the most benign displays of same-sex affection, such as hugging or kissing, when something from the past surfaced in my memory. Something which gave me exactly the kind of discomfort my friend described. Not only that, but it represented a dark chapter in Russia's recent history, and, I realized, Vladimir Putin's new law made sure it could never happen again!
The Kiss felt around the world
[caption id="attachment_4265" align="alignnone" width="497"]
Kissin' cousins Communist-style.[/caption]Of course I'm referring to the shocking, full-on kiss between Soviet Premier Leonid Breznev and East German leader Erich Honecker in 1979. I bet it's the only thing Vladimir Putin and I are in total agreement on -- never again! Here's an amusing look at the Kiss, particularly the way Polish Communist leader General Jaruzelski dreaded meeting with Honecker.
My friend did not frame it this way, but consider that a great many Russian citizens (the majority?) consider homosexuality to be an obscenity; this law, in effect, treats homosexuality like pornography: You can enjoy it in private, but you cannot display it in public. If we were describing how Russian legislators had passed a law making it illegal to display pornography in public, or to show smut to a child, most, if not all North American Readers would be nodding their heads in approval. But this is people we are talking about, who are being told by an entire society that they are sick, and obscene, and should be ashamed of themselves.
Still, I bet many Russians -- legislators, politicians, and ordinary citizens -- can't understand the fuss, they may think this is a very progressive, and very reasonable law, and I agree. It's very progressive for the year 1813. For 2013, not so much.
When I had told my friend from Poland that I thought the law was vaguely worded, he pounced, "How do you know?" He challenged me to read the law in it's original Russian. I had to concede that things are often lost in translation. Obviously Russian is notoriously difficult to translate into the 21st Century.
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