Vladimir Putin has just signed a draconian bill into law prohibiting so-called LGBTQ “propaganda” in Russia. The bill, a bulked-up version of a less sweeping 2013 law, is so broad in its scope it will effectively ban any and all discussion of gay or trans identities in Russia, a ban enforceable by fines of up to 4 million rubles (or $64,000). The bill also bans the advocacy of pedophilia, as if that is even remotely in the same category.
As Cathy Young points out in the Bulwark,
The legislation … prohibits all public speech or actions deemed to be “directed at promoting nontraditional sexual norms,” to propagandize the “attractiveness” of same-sex relationships or gender transition, or to encourage “distorted notions of the social equivalency of traditional and nontraditional sexual relations.” (Think of it as the Really Don’t Say Gay Law.)
Already some Russian LBFTQ advocacy groups have shut down and books touching on gay issues or featuring gay characters are being removed from libraries across the country.
One of the bill’s sponsors in the Russian Duma declared that the legislation is a key weapon in the “civilizational” war for traditional values and against “the new pseudo-values imposed by the West, first and foremost being the normalization of sexual deviancy.” One media figure in Russia declared that “the pederasts who stand at the head of Global Sodom are going to burst with rage.”
Here in the sodomite West, though, there are those who want to bring this war against “deviancy” to our country. On the far-right anti-abortion LifeSite, writer Stephen Kokx argues in a blog post that we should give Putin credit for standing up for “Biblical marriage” and against “transgenderism and state-sanctioned sodomy”
Kokx proclaims that the bill
laudably creates fines and broadens the scope of a 2013 law to now include a prohibition of LGBT content not only for children but Russians of all ages. It also bans the promotion of pedophilia and gender “reassignment” in films, books, media, and advertising.
Again the conflation of pedophilia and LGBTQ rights.
Along with a 2020 law banning gay marriage, he writes, the new bill “arguably make[s] Russia more Christian than most Western nations.”
Kokx concludes by expressing his hope that Christians who generally oppose Putin
will at least recognize the good he has done with this and other laws he’s supported that defend Biblical morality against the woke left. Leaders who support such bills are no doubt hard to come by in our post-Christian world. Let’s give credit where credit is due.
Ironically, Kokx also hails Putin for a speech he once gave attacking “cancel culture” in the west–apparently oblivious to the fact that Russia’s “Don’t Say Gay” law effectively cancels a whole class of people from even discussing their lives in public.
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Oh great, now I’m getting nostalgic for HUAC.
Indonesia has banned sex outside of marriage, in what is seen by some as an attack on gay couples.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-12-07/indonesia-bans-sex-outside-marriage-explained-criminal-code/101738418
The world is taking two steps back as male insecurity over their dwindling economic power and lack of control over women along with a resurgence in religious power. I for one will not be visiting Indonesia for any vacations with draconian laws like this.
The Iron Closet.
I’m sure lots of people have wondered about Putin himself. Sure, he’s had lots of women, but he’s always posing in gay porn-style shots. He’s definitely got little-man syndrome and a massive insecurity complex.
Also, “Kokx”. *Beavis and Butthead laugh*
@Alan: McCarthy could be powering an entire state with his whirling in the grave at all the RW loving Putin. Maybe he and Nixon should appear as ghosts to current politicians.
I’m really starting to hate this shithole planet.
What the fuck happened? Sure, the economy was shit and the rich had too much power but women, POC, and LGBTQ were getting rapidly more respected and accepted and treated more fairly until about 2015. Then it’s like the Westboro-type assholes got their hands on a GameStop Guide to all of the Matrix’s cheat codes or something, and now we’re all about to be royally fucked even if the rich and their geocidal consumption habits don’t manage to wreck everything. Where did it all go wrong?
How stupid do you have to be to believe that propaganda can cause someone to develop same-sex attractions? “You mean you can bone another guy? What a hell of an idea!”
So, this guy’s a Xian? Nothing more need be said: he’s stupid and evil.
I agree that Purim’s Russia is on the books as more officially Xian now. What worse label could I attach to such a miserable, corrupt, morally bankrupt, disgusting and violent dictatorship?
You wrote “Already some Russian LBFTQ advocacy groups have shut down…”
Is LBFTQ a typo? Or a new alphabet soup of which I am unaware?
@Kietazou:
I agree that Purim’s Russia is on the books as more officially Xian now.
I’m assuming that was an autocorrect typo; in context, it’s a particularly unfortunate one.
Someone should point out to American Protestant right wingers that Russia’s primary flavour of Christianity is Russian Orthodox. The Orthodox churches think American style Rapture theology is nonsense, and often outdo Roman Catholicism when it comes to old style bling. They also venerate Mary and the other saints in the same way the Roman Catholic Church does.
@Kietazou
Please read the site comments policy.
@Carstonio: I don’t think he believes that. He’s ‘just’ spitefully using the power he has to make the lives of those he despises miserable.
Much like I don’t expect a lot of those right-wing grifters to actually believe what they are saying.
Pretty soon we won’t be able to tell the difference between Russia and Arkansas.
@tim gueguen
You’re right about the theological differences, but still, there was a significant level of cooperation between Russian clerical reactionaries and their American counterparts back in 00’s, when Russian Orthodox Christian far-right was taking its current shape. And even today more than a few of their talking points are almost verbatim taken from Evangelical Religious Right.
Lesbian, Bisexual, Feminist, Transgender, and Queer?
I guess that in Russia the gay men have their own advocacy groups.
(Sorry, David. Fingers on the qrong keys: who hasn’t been there.)
It’s a dumb iPhone autocorrect of course. Unfortunate and embarrassing for me, in place of Putin, naturally.
Allendral: Are you real? Asking for clarification, sure.
@Kietazou: What is meant by a Xian in this context?
I think the world needs separate words for “Christian who follows Jesus and therefore tries to help the poor, sick, and marginalised” and “Person who calls themself a Christian who follows all the Old Testement smiting and actively hates on the poor, sick, and marginalised.”
I’m an atheist, but they look vastly different to me.
@Surplus what happened was GamerGate. The single most stupid controversy to ever change the course of world events.
Warnock won.
@Surplus to Requirements:
Warnock won.
http://media.giphy.com/media/qf9zTPgzOusy4/giphy.gif
@KietaZou
I am quite real, and my referring you to the comments policy was a polite attempt to ask you to knock it off with the religious bigotry.
The comments policy reads:
Which includes things like claiming that being a member of a religion automatically means someone is “stupid and evil,” or rhetorically asking “what worse label” one could apply.
@Sheila: I find quote marks around the word (or air quotes if you’re talking) do the job. Christians vs. “Christians”. Or saying so-called Christians.
Or in the US “KKKhristians”.
Technically sodomy also includes blow jobs. I wonder how many Christian men are guilty of that.