When the Iron Curtain fell, American fundamentalists rushed in with biased Bibles and zealous missionaries to spread their backward and hateful versions of religion. The cumulative effect is that today Russia is more superstitious and anti-gay — even proposing outrageous laws designed to silence and intimidate the LGBT community.

What role did American Hate Exporting Movements (AHEMs) play in this travesty?

I was doing some research this morning for our Center Against Radical Extremism (TWOCARE) and reading the American Family Association’s AFA Journal November/December 1995. There was a full-page ad in this publication headlined: “You can send 1000 beautiful illustrated Russian New Testaments.”

The group behind the ad explained:

“Truckloads of Bibles bound at East European Harvest are going to Russia. East European Harvest, Inc., is a nonprofit, non-denominational Christian Corporation. Its sole purpose is to take the Word of God to the world. The organization is nine years old and fundamental in doctrine and beliefs. This shipment of 25,000 New Testaments is now common.“

The organization framed the issue this way:

RUSSIA’S DILEMMA
The nation is falling apart. Crime and drug traffic are rampant. Suicides are destroying a generation of young people. Economic and political chaos are out of control. Today’s children and young people will be tomorrow’s leaders who will have to rebuild the Russian nation. But without a moral and spiritual foundation Russia will doubtlessly return to a Godless police state. You can help today’s generation of youth discover God by sending a flood of these beautiful books to Russia and the republics. Many thousands have already been shipped to Russia, but we need to send many more thousands.

Has this really been good for Russian society? This one-time superpower is disintegrating into a superstitious country more concerned about angels than economics. Each day, for example, tens of thousands of Russians stand in line for up to 12 hours in frigid weather to kiss a glass covered case that they believe holds the Virgin Mary’s belt.

Fundamentalism is never the answer. Take a look at this 1995 ad to see how American organizations have been working overtime to replace the Iron Curtain, with their very own “Iron Curtain of Intolerance.”

Don’t be naive — there is a reason we are seeing an uptick in anti-gay activity throughout the world. It is because Christian colonialists have targeted vulnerable nations for conversion to fundamentalism.

The sorry results in Russia now speak for themselves.

The U.S. State Department is “deeply concerned” about Russia’s proposed legislation, which would make it a crime to publicly “promote” LGBT issues, and which equates those issues with pedophilia.

“Gay rights are human rights and human rights are gay rights,” the State Department said, repeating a declaration by top US diplomat Hillary Clinton.

“We have called on Russian officials to safeguard these freedoms, and to foster an environment which promotes respect for the rights of all citizens.”

As Andy Towle points out,

The St. Petersburg legislation certainly doesn’t respect “the rights of all citizens.” In fact, it leaves citizens guessing as to what their rights are, vis a vis the law. The legislation bans the promotion of LGBT lifestyles to minors, especially in public, but fails to explain what might constitute “promotion.” Anything — from pride parades to protests to  two women holding hands and appearing to enjoy it — could, in theory, be illegal, so long as it’s public and vaguely gay.

In the meantime, Russians are protesting that the law would violate the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, not to mention the country’s own anti-discrimination law, and the proposed legislation’s second reading (three are required to make it law) has been postponed.

For an interesting perspective, read the New Yorker’s piece on how this proposed law fits into–and clashes with–Russian culture. See also Russian gay activist Nikolai Alexeyev’s impassioned piece in the Guardian.

(Weekly Column)

I knew Russia was likely to embrace homophobia the moment I read that approximately 1.25 million Russians have emigrated from the nation in the past decade. Population experts say that the mass exodus is comparable in size to the migration following the Bolshevik Revolution.

This one-time superpower is disintegrating into a superstitious country more concerned about angels than economics. Each day, for example, tens of thousands of Russians stand in line for up to 12 hours in frigid weather to kiss a glass covered case that they believe holds the Virgin Mary’s belt.

To top it off, Vladimir Putin’s voracious appetite for power is morphing Russia into an unsettling hybrid that vacillates between pseudo-democracy and sort-of dictatorship. The faltering of this country, which has the world’s 11^th largest economy, would be significantly worse if it were not for the good fortune of having oil and gas exports.

In this politically stagnating and spiritually stifling environment, it is predictable that the city of Saint Petersburg would consider a totalitarian bill imposing fines for the so-called promotion of gay “propaganda.” If it were to pass, anyone who committed “public acts” promoting homosexuality, bisexuality or transgender identity to minors could pay up to 3,000 rubles while an organization could pay 10,000 to 50,000 rubles.

Such an outright assault on expression and speech are not the product of a free country and rightfully raised red flags within the U.S. State Department.

“Gay rights are human rights and human rights are gay rights,” the State Department said. “We have called on Russian officials to safeguard these freedoms, and to foster an environment which promotes respect for the rights of all citizens.”

Without exception, loser nations are always the most homophobic. Leaders of such lands desperately look for scapegoats to distract the public from noticing their dismal failures. They also find the promotion of religious extremism useful, because it is more difficult to vilify leaders who present themselves as deified.

The LGBT community rarely thrives in backward places that promote ignorance over education and medieval views over modernity. As these intellectual swamps sink, sexual minorities make ideal targets because their members are often isolated and deeply closeted, vulnerable to persecution, and don’t have the numbers to fight back.

Russia is not the only loser nation where leaders manipulate the public through virulent gay bashing. Brutal Zimbabwe dictator, Robert Mugabe, called homosexuality un-Christian and un-African last week, and then threatened to severely discipline anyone in a gay relationship.

“Do not get tempted into that (homosexuality). If you do fall for it we will punish you severely,” said Mugabe.

This warning comes from a loathsome tyrant who is single-handedly responsible for this nation’s despair and disrepair. By attacking LGBT people, the potentate hopes to mask his misdeeds. Anti-gay hate groups, such as the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe, aid this criminal by allowing him to pose as pious.

Even in some advanced nations there is the threat of retrograde preachers who have no qualms about dragging their countries into the gutter for personal riches and political gain. In Brazil, televangelist Silas Malafaia has become the country’s Pat Robertson, politicizing culture war issues like LGBT equality.

The New York Times reports that the self-righteous televangelist is transported in a private jet and that his fingers are “adorned with diamond-encrusted gold rings.”

Sure, the Bible says, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” But one gets the distinct impression that Malafaia would solve this problem by hiring an architect to build a hollow needle of gold the size of the Lincoln Tunnel and drive through it in his Mercedes-Benz.

Homophobia is a mark of failing nations. Even in America, it is the emblem of poor, second-tier states. It is the signpost of inferior cities that perpetually fail to reach their potential and can’t figure out why.

It is not that anti-gay sentiment on its own causes the collapse of such places. It is that homophobia virtually never stands alone. It can only flower in corrupt environments that lack basic freedom, devalue education, limit liberty, have huge income disparities, degrade women, discourage religious pluralism, mock intellectuals, and promote superstition at the expense of science.

As a general rule, places that are leaders in passing anti-gay laws are losers in virtually every other category that defines successful, civilized societies.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

From Doug Ireland, Gay City News:

St. Petersburg: How you can help fighting anti-gay laws in Russia?

Join the international Campaign: 10’000 letters to the European Court of Human Rights and the United Nations

Many of you have been asking us how you can help to fight the bill in the most effective way. This Press Release aims to answer your questions as well as bring more insight about the context.

In the last few days, GayRussia has been consulting with its activists, other Russian based LGBT activist groups and legal specialists to think of how to best address the current circumstances.

First, you need to know that the bill is politically motivated: Russia’s Parliamentary election will take place on December 4^th and targeting LGBT is a way to earn support from religious and nationalist organizations. The bill received support from Valentina Matvienko the former Governor of the city who is now the speaker of the Upper Chamber of Parliament. Politicians in Moscow said that they are ready to implement a similar law in the Russian capital but also at the Federal level.

Second, we want to stress that the ban of the promotion of LGBT rights on the public place is de facto enforced in Russia since 2005. Implementing this law is only materializing what has been a sad reality for years. For several years, GayRussia has been denouncing the absence of freedom of assembly, freedom of expression and freedom of association for Russian LGBT. As a reminder, over 300 public events applied by GayRussia have been banned, LGBT groups partnering with us have been denied registration by the government in several regions, our activists have been often fined, arrested, judged and humiliated. They introduced 20 cases with the European Court of Human Rights and the United Nations. Russian prosecution refused to open criminal investigation against Mufti Talgat Tadjudin, the Governor of Tambov, Oleg Betin, and the former Mayor of Moscow, Yuri Luzhkov, for calling hatred or to kill LGBT people. The Russian Courts even legalized the insult “gomik” (faggot) which was used by Yuri Luzhkov while referring to gays.

Third, we see this law as a “unique” chance for the Russian LGBT community to re-mobilize itself as it did in 2002 upon the attempt to re-criminalize homosexuality and in 2006, on the eve of the first Moscow Gay Pride.

Russia’s LGBT community has historically been divided and GayRussia would like to hope that today’s attacks by politicians in St. Petersburg will serve as a lesson for LGBT groups in St. Petersburg who have been appearing in the media since 2005 arguing that both “gay prides” and “gay marriage” are provocations.

This anti-LGBT law is a chance for Russian LGBT people to work against homophobe politicians and government rather than to work against each other. Our enemies are homophobes: LGBT rights campaigners should not attack each other. If we stand united, we have more chance than if we stand in two opposite sides where we only fuel the anti-gay rhetoric.

Fourth, the St Petersburg law is nothing new in Russia. Similar laws have already come into force in Ryazan (in 2006) and in Arkhangelsk (in 2011).  More frightening, it is being discussed in Moscow, and also in Ukraine. It was also discussed in Lithuania in the past years.

GayRussia is the only Russian LGBT group which campaigned against the anti-gay law in Ryazan in 2009 when Nikolay Baev and Irina Fedotova (Fet) were arrested, detained and judged for holding a banner in front of a local school stating that “Homosexuality is normal”. The Constitutional Court gave a decision arguing that the law did not contradict with the Constitution. The activists lodged a case with the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg and with the UN Human Rights Committee in Geneva.

These two cases are today a chance to make anti-gay laws history not only in Russia but in the whole of Europe.

The faster the European Court of Human Rights will open the case of Nikolay Bayev against Russia, the faster we will get a decision. And this decision will be binding for Russia. More important, it will make a European precedent which will serve Ryazan, Arkhangelsk, Ukraine, Lithuania and maybe more.

JOIN THE INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGN!

At this stage, your support and your mobilization should be thought to help achieving a global solution to this problem, not only in St. Petersburg but also, in Ryazan, in Arkhangelsk, in Moscow, in Ukraine and elsewhere.

By asking the European Court of Human Rights and the UN Human Rights Committee to prioritize the case of Bayev and Fedotova, you can make a difference, globally. GayRussia propose template letters that you can print and send. An envelope, a stamp, and a piece of paper is all you need !

If 10’000 of you write a letter to these two institutions, IT CAN MAKE A CHANGE. Each of your letters will be filed in each case. The more letters are filed, the more chances we have to show the importance of these cases.

Templates of letters to send are available here:

http://www.gayrussia.eu/en/campaigns/model_letters.php

It will then be on our side to do the job and ensure that we win the case. We assure you that our efforts to fight in Court and win the case will be tireless and unstoppable as our previous campaigns have always been. Our aim is to defeat our Constitutional Court and our homophobic government. This year, GayRussia won the first ever LGBT case in Russia in the ban of the Moscow Pride at the European Court of Human Rights.

The past few days have seen a number of alarming anti-LGBT international news items. Among them:

- in Australia, Prime Minister Julia Gillard has refused to set up a meeting with members of the advocacy group GetUp! (famous most recently for incredibly compelling marriage equality advertisement that’s gone absolutely viral), despite the fact that the group won an “intimate dinner” with Ms. Gillard in a June charity auction, intending to send same-sex couples to dine with the anti-equality prime minister and share their stories. ABC News Australia later reported that Gillard’s office agreed to hold the dinner, but not until after her party’s national conference early next month. h/t: Andy

- in Russia, the St. Petersburg administrative region is considering legislation that would ban so-called “gay propaganda,” essentially prohibiting anyone from writing, publishing, or speaking in public about LGBT identity. Two other regions, Arkhangelsk and Ryazan, have already taken similar steps. h/t: Rex

- in Zimbabwe, President Robert Mugabe has pledged to “punish severely” any Zimbabwean known to be an LGBT person. He also called homosexuality “Satanic” and lashed out at Western governments seeking to make future aid contingent upon the recipient nation upholding all human rights, including gay rights.

According to Gazeta.ru, two Russian oblasts (provinces) now outlaw “gay propaganda,” St. Petersburg and Moscow are considering doing so, and soon criminal prosecution of such “propaganda” may become federal law. In the news story, we see various individuals displaying the usual markers of ignorance, including the telling use of the term “propaganda,” protestations that the law is meant to protect children, and conflations with pedophilia:

“We must put a barrier against everything that destroys a child,” [said Federation Council speaker Valentina Matvienko.]

Few would disagree, Valentina, but “gay propaganda” doesn’t exist and information about homosexuality does not destroy children. Moreover, if the child you’re delivering as you give this interview [!] turns out to be gay, what of your barricade then?

Another deputy, Nina Ostanina, says that gay propaganda is very dangerous, especially when surrogate motherhood becomes legal in Russia…”Does it mean that gay couples could adopt a child?” she asked indignantly.

Yes, Nina, and if you cared to educate yourself on the matter you would learn that gay adoption is a good thing.

influential deputies from the ‘United Russia’ faction are in favor. Although, they remind the public that the new law defends children against harmful information. That will cover gay and pedophilic propaganda as well.

Really? Do Russian pedophiles organize and put out newsletters, pamphlets, and educational campaigns defending legal, consensual sexual acts?

I submit that, just as politicians going out of their way to attack LGBT people mark themselves as likely closeted gays, so do phrases like “gay and pedophilic” or “gays and pedophiles” mark the speakers as uninformed bigots. Are there any other reasons beyond ignorance and hatred to group these unrelated terms together during discussions of legislation or policy?

Gay activists in Russia haven’t been silenced. The courageous Nikolai Alexeyev, who has been at the front lines of the fight for equal rights for LGBTI people in Russia, spoke out in the Huffington Post:

[Alexeyev] said the bill could become “the main legal reason to deny any public actions by the LGBT community…It theoretically allows the ban of anything anywhere where kids could be present,” he told The Associated Press.

Like pride parades, for instance. HuffPost reports that when Alexeyev’s group tries to hold rallies it is often stopped by police and activists. This despite the fact that consensual homosexual activity was decriminalized in Russia almost 20 years ago. (Reportedly, Alexeyev recently stepped down from leadership of GayRussia for reasons he did not publicly reveal.)

Let’s show LGBTI Russians that they have allies on the other side of the world. Send some traffic to their advocacy group’s website. Let Google translate it for you and give them a follow on Twitter.

[h/t Mamba Online]

Cute:

MOSCOW ‚Äî The mayor of Moscow, known for his overtly homophobic statements, said Monday that he would never allow a gay pride parade in the city, calling it “Satanic” and saying marchers should be punished.

“A gay parade… cannot be called anything but a Satanic act,” Yury Luzhkov told an education conference, quoted by Interfax news agency. “We haven’t permitted such a parade and we won’t permit it in the future.”

Luzhkov called for gay marchers to be punished. “It’s high time that we stop propagating nonsense discussions about human rights, and bring to bear on them the full force and justice of the law,” he said.

Gay rights campaigner Nikolai Alexeyev reaffirmed that plans for this year’s gay pride parade will go ahead despite the ban.

Good for them. By the way, how’s that whole “catching up to Europe” thing going?

(h/t AMERICAblog Gay)

This is a baby step:

The head of the Russian Orthodox Church says that, although the church views homosexuality as a sin, homosexuality is a personal choice.

Patriarch Kirill says gays and lesbians must not be persecuted or discriminated against in any way, though the church still opposes same-sex marriages.

But it’s a positive step, nonetheless. Russia has major problems with vile, violent homophobia*, so for the Patriarch of the largest and most important church in the nation to call for an end to persecution and discrimination (sort of) is a good message.

I take issue with the headline, though: “Russian Orthodox Church embraces gays.” Uhhhhh, no. That is not “embrace.” That’s the Church trying to split the difference between condemnation and outright hatred and violence.

Like I said, it’s progress of a sort, but I’d like to see more than a general perfunctory statement along the lines of “We believe ‘x’ is bad, so if you could possibly consider thinking about cutting it out, that would be helpful, but if that’s not amenable to you, I’m sure we can work something out.”

(h/t Pam)

*And wouldn’t you know it, one of the same characters sticking his nose in to help the cause of bigotry in Uganda has a history of inflaming ignorance and homophobia in Russia, too!

(Weekly Column)

The latest anti-gay terrorism in Iraq — is gluing shut the anuses of homosexuals, while forcing the victims to ingest a form of Ex-Lax. The special glue can only be removed by surgery — thus often leading to a painful death.

It is always a challenge to know if such information is accurate. But, confirming (I have) the latest form of torture is beside the point, really. What we do know is that the news from overseas is rarely encouraging.

For example, in March “tens of thousands” of people from Burundi demonstrated to outlaw homosexuality. This destitute nation is the kind of place that you may have seen in late night infomercials where flies buzz around the lips of starving children. Eighty percent of Burundi’s population lives in poverty. Famines and food shortages have occurred and the World Food Program reports that 56.8-percent of children under age five suffer from chronic malnutrition. Yet, the good citizens of Burundi have time to chant and hold signs demanding the imprisonment of homosexuals.

Back to Iraq — our tax dollars are now overseeing the wanton murder of gay Iraqis. The New York Times reported this month that “the bodies of 25 boys and men suspected of being gay have turned up in the huge Shiite enclave of Sadr City…”

In Nigeria, lawmakers are debating a bill that would imprison gay people who live together and jail anyone who doesn’t rat out the gay couples. In July 2008, London’s Independent wrote a story about a 26-year-old gay man in Turkey, Ahmet Yildiz, saying that his own family may have killed him. “They wanted him to see a doctor who could cure him, and get married,” a friend explained.

Box Turtle Bulletin reported that a Ugandan newspaper this week published an article under the banner headline, “Top Homos In Uganda Named.” This outrage — that jeopardizes the lives of gay people – follows a recent anti-gay conference in Uganda featuring a board member from the American “ex-gay” organization Exodus International.

In Moscow, mayor Yuri Luzhkov has rejected calls for a gay pride march to be held during an upcoming European music festival. He has called pride parades, “gay propaganda” and “satanic acts”, according to the New York Times.

What we are seeing in front of our eyes is the globalization of gay bashing. The United States has exported marketing techniques and church structures to culturally homophobic countries. The sexual minorities caught in these nations’ do not have the same freedoms that we enjoy in the west, so they can’t fight back. They are essentially voiceless and fearful — allowing insidious myths and stereotypes to go unchallenged. With gay people effectively demonized and hatred promoted by civic and religious leaders, hysteria on gay issues ensues. (Read More)

On April 25, antigay activists — among them, Exodus and Focus on the Family — sought to disrupt antiviolence vigils in schools across the country. They sponsored walkouts and demonstrations in which religious activists, parents, and bullies sought to change the topic of the day from stopping violence in schools to venting prejudices and hostility toward gay youths. They followed up their efforts to shout down antiviolence vigils with a religious-right “Day of (Un)Truth” in schools on April 28; that day was dedicated exclusively to broadcasting religious rightists’ antigay prejudices and arrogant religious judgmentalism in public schools during school hours.

Because of antigay authorities’ refusal to stop antigay violence in schools, support for Days of Silence continues to grow. Plans are afoot for Days of Silence are afoot in Russia, Poland and Slovenia — regions where U.S. antigay pastor and Exodus speaker Ken Hutcherson has fueled antigay violence through his co-leadership of the Slavic hate group called Watchmen on the Walls. (Read More)