Russian Punk Band Found Guilty, Members Sentenced To Two Years In Prison

A trio of women from the punk collective known as Pussy Riot face two years in prison each after being found guilty of "hooliganism" for a recent protest against President Vladimir Putin at Moscow's Christ the Savior Cathedral.

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"Our imprisonment is a clear and distinct sign that the whole country's freedom is being taken away," said member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova.

Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina, 24, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30, say their protest on Feb. 21 was intended to highlight the close ties between the Russian Orthodox Church and state, and not to offend believers.

Their feminist punk collective has about 10 members who appear in public in ski masks for anonymous impromptu performances they describe as a form of protest art.

The three members have been held in jail since shortly after the appearance in the cathedral, awaiting the trial, which saw a parade of state witnesses say they were traumatized by the church performance, which prosecutors called an abuse of God.

Russia has become increasingly totalitarian lately — just this morning Moscow's high court upheld a 100 year ban on gay pride there.

NEWS: Villains, Vectors, Vladimir

 From Carl Panzram to Holmes: " ... the truth is,  there will always be another loner with a grudge."

 One girl's escape from sexual slavery:

Forced to use drugs and drink alcohol, Maria says she thought her life would soon end. She was horrified when she saw a very young girl brought into the house where she and others were being kept. She asked the girl how old she was. The answer: eight years old.

Maria says she attempted to escape once. She ran away and asked some police officers on the street for help. What she didn't know was that the officers were on the payroll of the pimp and took her right back into the brothel where she got another savage beating ...

 All-girl Russian punk band faces seven years in prison for protesting Putin in a church. 

 Australian Prime Minister halfway explains her opposition to marriage equality during a Google hangout; promises a conscience vote: 

One of the more challenging questions came from Shane Bazzi, a 25-year-old Sydneysider who topped the poll on the OurSay.org website with more than 12,700 votes.

He asked the Prime Minister to explain her opposition to gay marriage given she is as an atheist and leader of a "self-described socially progressive party".

"I don't think that heterosexual relationships are more valued than same-sex relationships," the Prime Minister replied.

"I think people who are in loving, commited relationships, all of those relationships should be valued. I think my relationship should be valued and I'm not married."

She said her view about gay marriage was based on its cultural status and differed from Mr Bazzi's.

"These are very individual personal perspectives on the world...This should be a conscience vote in Labor. We will have a vote on changing the marriage act by the end of the year."

 Science shocker: Anal sex is a major vector for HIV transmission.

 "NAACP develops HIV manual for black churches."

 Following the Boy Scouts' vote to continue discriminating against gays, Major League Soccer announces it will cease partnering with the organization.

 Proposed rule from the US Office of Personnel Management would grant benefits to the children of employees' same-sex spouses:

... children will be eligible for coverage if a parent is in a domestic same-sex relationship with a federal employee who receives coverage through federal programs. These children would be eligible for coverage — both under the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program and the Federal Employees Dental & Vision Program — regardless of whether or not they’ve been legally adopted by the federal employee.

...  Emily Hecht-McGowan, the Family Equality Council’s public policy director, said the proposed rule is important because many LGBT families throughout the country live in states without legal protections.

“Most of the two million children raised by LGBT parents live in states where their parents cannot marry, cannot secure legal ties to their own kids and cannot get their children covered under a health insurance plan,” Hecht-McGowan said. “This rule change means that federal workers can now be assured that a high fever, broken arm or debilitating illness won’t jeopardize their child’s health or their family’s finances.”

 Chinese dictionary writes gayness out of existence. 

 Feet are burned in a botched Tony Robbins firewalk.

 Gay wedding fatigue:

“The equality people will have a fit about this, but I’ll say it anyway: I have gay-wedding burnout,” Mr. Shields, 35, said one day this spring. “I spent my 20s going to weddings, being in weddings, shopping for weddings, helping to plan weddings. In my early 30s they finally started tapering off, and I was like, ‘Oh, thank God, we’re over the hump.’ ”

He paused for dramatic effect. “Nope. Here come the Gays.”

'Gay Propaganda' Legislation Signed By St. Petersburg Governor

Well, that's it -- you're now a criminal if you "promote" homosexuality to minors in St. Petersburg, Russia. Promotion, as Andy's been writing for months, includes the participation in/organization of Pride Parades and gay rights protests, as well as (who knows?) the maintenance of a gay website, the donning of a gay pride pin, the sporting of a gay pride bumper sticker, whathaveyou. It's the kind of foggy, subjetive law that can only be enforced selectively, by whichever petty bully is empowered to enforce it at the moment. 

The offending legislation was signed on March 7th by St. Petersburg's Governor Georgy Poltavchenko, a particularly dull-eyed KGB thug who rose to power on the same black tide as Russia's Once and Future President.

Here's a response from Polina Savchenko, the General Manager the St. Petersburg LGBT organization Coming Out:

Today it became known that the governor of St. Petersburg Georgiy Poltavchenko signed the homophobic law, imposing administrative fines on the so-called "propaganda of sodomy, lesbianism, bisexuality, transgenderism" and paedophilia to minors.

Authors of the law maintain that it is designed to "protect children from information that can harm their physical, intellectual, moral, and spiritual development". The term "propaganda" is defined as any uncontrolled and targeted distribution of information through any accessible means to minors that can [...] form an incorrect perception of social equivalence between traditional and non-traditional conjugal relations". Authorities project "traditional values" and clerical rhetoric onto politics, and prioritize "interests of majority" over the value of human individuality. We realize that today, fascist-like rhetoric in Russia is becoming basis for legislative activity.

In fact, this law has little to do with protecting minors. Today, neither homosexual people, nor human rights defenders, nor lawyers can answer the question of how this law is going to be applied in practice, due to its vague nature and non-legal terminology. To talk about existence of homosexuality, to publicly denounce homophobic violence, to develop sense of self-awareness and dignity in homosexual people, to promote tolerance - all of these acts can fall under the "propaganda" law. This law will serve directly to further isolate and marginalize the gay community and encourage hate towards a social group.

60 years ago philosopher and founder of totalitarianism theory, Hannah Arendt, said that in a totalitarian state, citizens are "either victims or executioners and the movement by its ideology seeks to prepare them to fill either role." Handing out of roles has begun: Russian authorities legalized discrimination of homosexuals. What will come next?

We are convinced that no authority can deprive people of their right to dignity, to respect of private and family life, to freedom of expression and to protection from discrimination and violence. We are offended and outraged by this act by city authorities and will continue fighting for the rights of LGBT citizens until the barbaric law is repealed.

Nikolai Alekseev, head of the Russian LGBT Human Rights Project, sent an email to supporters reminding us that the St. Petersburg law is only one of four similar anti-gay laws in Russia, all of which he is fighting or intends to fight in the European Court of Human Rights. 

 

NEWS: Putin Wins, Santorum Talks, Limbaugh Is Both Loved And Hated, McDonald's Gets Weird

Putin won:

Russia's opposition has vowed to continue protests alleging widespread irregularities after a tearful Vladimir Putin claimed victory in an election that will see him return for a third term as president.

With more than 90 per cent of votes counted on Sunday night, the tally for the former spy who has dominated Russian politics for the past dozen years stood at 65 per cent. That represents a comfortable victory with no need to go into a second round of voting.

Later blaming the wind for the tears in his eyes, Mr Putin wasted no time in declaring victory, addressing thousands of Russian flag-waving supporters at a victory rally outside the Kremlin walls.

“I promised we would win. And we did win!” Mr Putin said, to cheers from his supporters. “We won an open and honest battle.”

The making of Santorum, a man of moral profundity:

... As [Karen Garver and Rick Santorum] made plans to marry and he decided to enter politics, she sent him to her father for advice.

Dr. Kenneth L. Garver was a Pittsburgh pediatrician who specialized in medical genetics. The patriarch of a large Roman Catholic family, he had treated patients considering abortion but was strongly opposed to it.

“We sat across the table and the whole evening we talked about this issue,” Mr. Santorum told an anti-abortion group last October. He left, he said, convinced “that there was only one place to be, from the standpoint of science as well as from the standpoint of faith.”

The utterances of Santorum, a man who can't keep his mouth on message:

“The Blunt amendment was broader than that,” Santorum told Fox News host Chris Wallace on Sunday. “It was a conscience clause exception that existed prior to when President Obama decided that he could impose his values on people of faith, when people of faith believe that this is a grievous moral wrong.”

This editorial about Rush Limbaugh's latest orgy of public awfulness gets a few things very, very wrong, but it contains at least one delightful turn of phrase:

Inadvertently, Rush also helped advance the argument from the left that Republicans are waging a war against women. After referring to Fluke as a "slut" and a "prostitute," he offered the following proposition:

"So Miss Fluke, and the rest of you feminazis, here's the deal. If we are going to pay for your contraceptives ... we want something for it. We want you to post the videos online so we can all watch."

The image suggested is equally degrading to Limbaugh given his obvious familiarity with "watching," and invites unflattering speculation. To wit: It is entirely possible that Limbaugh himself never needed contraception in college, but virtue in the absence of opportunity is hardly a moral triumph.

... and despite overwhelming public disapproval, misogynists and sexophobes just keep digging themselves deeper.

And deeper.

The best thing to hit the web this weekend: a collection of terrifying children's drawings.

Christian schools in Texas don't want to play basketball with Muslims.

Dear God, what's Quick serving to French people? (That's Quick, not McDonald's, contrary to previous reports. Thank you, readers, for pointing out this knuckleheaded error.)

"Blacks and gays: The shared struggle for civil rights."

 

Lose Your V To Vladimir P!

Here is a video in which a young woman talks to her doctor about her first time. She wants to do it for love, she says, and she's scared she might not do it right. The doctor tells her it's normal. Everyone's scared the first time. The camera zooms in on a picture of Vladimir Putin, looking severe on the cover of Time magazine. The young woman smiles. She feels better. In the next scene, she goes to a polling place to cast her first-ever ballot -- for Putin, for love. The commercial ends with a picture of Mr. Putin paired with some sweet Cyrillic nothings and romantic music. Fade to black.

This is an honest-to-goodness campaign ad for Vladimir Putin, and RawStory reports that there are two similarly-themed ads now in existence. They're pretty much the creepiest things on the planet. Something about the juxtaposition of Vladimir Putin's uber-macho-cold-eyed-killer-KGB image and the thought of Russia's virginal girlyparts is just ... damn, what's a good word to describe it? I'm at a loss. Watch AFTER THE JUMP ...

Towleroad Guide to the Tube #1064

VICTORIA JACKSON: Takes on lesbian author Ellen Ratkin at CPAC.

IMPRISONED PUTIN: Fake video of jailed Russian PM going viral.

DUBAI: An aquatic tribute to Whitney Houston.

REVERSE THINGS: Going backwards.

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