Russian Province Bans "Gay Propaganda"; 40 Detained at Moscow Pride: VIDEO
From Russia with hate. First to Moscow, where the gay pride parade has been beset by violence and arrests:
Saturday's protest was one of the few gay rights events sanctioned by authorities. In recent years, several attempts to hold gay pride marches in Moscow and other Russian cities have been blocked by police, Russian Orthodox Church activists and soccer fans.
(Europe's football hooligans have become the vanguard of neo-Nazi violence in Europe. How to explain this weird phenomenon?)
Moscow police spokesman Anatoly Lastovetsky said 40 people were detained Saturday.
He told The Associated Press that police were "finding out whether (the detained) were part of the rally or the people who tried to thwart it."
During the rally, several men were seen trying to pelt the protesters with tomatoes and unfurling posters with pejorative remarks about homosexuality.
At least Moscow held a gay pride rally at all. Over in the Russian province of Arkhangelsk, authorities have banned all demonstrations by gay people. The repression is "warmly supported" by the Russian Orthodox Church:
“All priests know that the souls of those who suffered through sinful homosexual experience are empty and desperate,” said Vsevolod Chaplin, head of the Russian Orthodox Church PR department. “And it is this insecurity in a minute-long pleasure that forces these spiritually unhealthy people to hold marches and other public demonstrations.”
Vsevolod Chaplin says that gays are insecure about "a minute-long pleasure." Is he referring to our orgasms? Because if he is, we truly have nothing to be insecure about; we're super-human. But if he's saying that gay sex itself lasts a minute - well, speak for yourself, Vsevolod.
The ban has implications beyond the gay community of Russia. It tells us that the much-ballyhooed post-Cold-War dream of a free, democratic Russia is dying, if not dead.
Watch a report from Russia Today, AFTER THE JUMP...
Gonna get a bit didactic here. The USSR was only a dictatorship under Stalin, otherwise it was a totalitarian government (i.e. one-party rule.) Furthermore the dream of a democratic Russia died of alcohol poisoning under Yeltsin. Today Russia is, and has been for almost two decades, an oligarchy and that's not changing any time soon.
All three of these systems are terrible but not equivalent. Stop editorializing about foreign politics, you are out of your element.
Posted by: CZ | Oct 1, 2011 5:22:48 PM
BOYCOTT STOLI and other Russian Vodkas, send a message that hate is not profitable!
Posted by: ty | Oct 1, 2011 5:23:22 PM
Visited Russia, even stayed at the Park Hyatt and paid a bloody fortune. I've no desire to ever return. SO grey, sad, depressing.
Posted by: Oliver | Oct 1, 2011 5:58:22 PM
@CZ +1 for the informative nature of your comment. -100 for the cuntyness of it.
Posted by: Djeip | Oct 1, 2011 6:13:12 PM
CZ - What I meant, and didn't express clearly enough, is that Russia has gone from Stalin to Putin - who not incidentally has been reviving the cult of Stalin. But the way I wrote it came off foggy so I deleted that line. Thanks for the feedback!
Posted by: Penn | Oct 1, 2011 6:13:29 PM
CZ - What I meant, and didn't express clearly enough, is that Russia has gone from Stalin to Putin - who not incidentally has been reviving the cult of Stalin. But the way I wrote it came off foggy so I deleted that line. Thanks for the feedback!
Posted by: Penn | Oct 1, 2011 6:13:29 PM
===============
classy reply
Posted by: ratbastard | Oct 1, 2011 6:58:26 PM
Ummm, having lived in Moscow for several years under Putin I can tell you that the people love that man a lot. He isn't a dictator that they are afraid of. They would vote for him every year if they could. I don't know what people hear outside of Russia, but within Russia most(not all) adore him because he makes them feel "Russian" again. Women think he's sexy and men think he's superman.
There are some who feel he is a bit scary, but by and large people look at how much money is coming in, Russia's rise as a world power again and shrug it all off. Also, as for rights...they are actually "free-er" in many respects than we are in the US.
This is "public opinion" that is causing the crackdown on gays, lesbians, and transgender people. It isn't Putin suddenly "changing things" for the worst for GLBT people. The fact is that Putin cares about economic stability, military strength, etc. He's not sentimental, religious, etc. I assure you he could care less (in a good way) about gays and lesbians. This is not Putin's doing.
And while the Russian Orthodox Church is unfriendly to homosexuals...you must remember for close to 80 years they were anti-religious Communists who actually didn't afford gays and lesbians rights either.
In this case, it is a "cultural" issue. Russia has a negative population growth, has had this for many years and are pushing people to breed like mad. I was part of a program to increase live births in Russia and I sat in on many meetings. They are quite frightened that should the trends continue (frightening sterility rates) that they will not have enough population to care for infrastructure and the elderly. So they have 2020 programs to encourage children. Gays and lesbians are not seen as "doing their part" to contribute to society.
Male Russian culture is a bit like Roman culture in that if you "receive" anything in your body, you are not manly, but womanly. Russian men are very patriarchal and traditional and the women are very girlie and not as into female empowerment as we are in the West. They like being "taken care of".
It's a very weird and difficult thing to explain until you live there. All I can say is that Russian culture is not Western culture at all nor do they particularly want it to be. Were I gay, non-lipstick lesbian, black, Asian, etc. living in Russia or the Ukraine I would just move. Or be extremely extremely patient about things changing. :(
Posted by: Rin | Oct 1, 2011 7:32:39 PM
I was raised in that church, and the priests are thuggish & raving anti-semites as well as homophobes. And then there's astoundingly high rates of alcoholism among Russians; it's no wonder that the birthrate has fallen so low among white Russians.
Posted by: Joe | Oct 1, 2011 7:38:56 PM
The Ruussians that have come to California, especially those settling in the Sacramento, are members of the Russian Baptist Church and other looney fringes that have traded their old hatred, prejudices and discrimination against Jews (and poles and anyone not them) for gays for years. These are truly f'ed in the head people that needed to be kept in check.
Posted by: Jesse | Oct 1, 2011 7:48:58 PM
@Jesse,
they really haven't traded these prejudices at all. They still don't like Jews, Muslims, etc. and they never liked gay men. They honestly don't "love" anyone not conventional Russian.
My family is from Poland and I grew up having to speak Polish and Russian and hear the "horror" stories about Russians. When I went to work there I was "accepted" because I was a Polish female. Polish men were considered "carpenters". However, from time to time I still "got it" from some of the Russian women for being "Polish".
In the US the anti-gay might be confined mostly to religious reasons, but in Russia...you can't say that because they didn't like gays and lesbians under Communism, either.
You have to understand a culture to understand what makes it tick. In the US the same religion that people use to bash gays can be argued among people of that religion to come around to accepting gays because it's all about translation and dogma. When its cultural, it takes longer to change the perception.
For example, the US also has a firmly embedded belief in protecting minorities. It is American culture, so while we fall down from time to time...you also see gay marriage being accepted in the states, you see Hate Crimes legislation, you see a movement of "It Gets Better".
In Russia...they wouldn't say: It Gets Better.
They would say: Why are you whining?
That's cultural....and unfortunate. :(
Posted by: Rin | Oct 1, 2011 9:52:58 PM
Penn, I think you could make the same points without the hyperbolic editorializing. Keep it simple. Props to your good attitude about the feedback.
Posted by: Max | Oct 1, 2011 10:38:10 PM
1. Rin (above) is right on the money. I was born in Ukraine. I also keep in touch with some Russians (LGBTs and heterosexuals).
2. Just to clear a few things up. In their official documents, this was not a specifically "gay pride parade" or "gay rights" or "gay equality" rally or demonstration. This was supposed to be a demonstration for "equality" in general. And they had signs to that effect. It is true that most of the speakers actually talked of lgbt equality, but it was not the only topic and not the only issue featured on the signs. Just saying.
Nobody is doubting though that had "gay" been part of official filings, the demonstration would have been barred. Just as nobody doubts that that was the reason some demonstrators were taken to precincts (along with neo-Nazis, who didn't even file that they would demonstrate).
Posted by: olterigo | Oct 2, 2011 1:09:52 AM
Penn, love your style. Don't change because some folks want you to be just like Andy (who also editorializes in his own way). It's refreshing to have you, Andrew Belonsky and Andy Towle each providing your own perspective to the blog. Keep up the good work.
Posted by: RJ | Oct 2, 2011 3:10:52 AM
You surprise me saying you find it a weird phenomenon linking football hooliganism to neo-nazism. Here in Britain it has long been recognised that a strong fascist ideology is represented by the gangs who come to watch football. Football is for many of them a mania and xenophobic and the bastion of what is meant to be 'British'. The stadiums are still traditional venues where they can 'kick up', however much other people regard such behaviour now as unacceptable. Whether the flourishing of fascism is an element in other football nations, and not just partisanship, waits to be answered.
Posted by: gordonbennett | Oct 2, 2011 10:08:01 AM