The No Agenda podcast with Adam Curry and John C. Dvorak singlehandedly broke the story that US propaganda about supposedly horrendous Russian anti-gay law is bullshit. The legislation is not Draconian. In some ways Russia is more progressive than the US on gays. The faux outrage only started after Snowden went to Russia. It’s about political payback, not justice for LBGT’s.
Email from No Agenda explains:
The astonishing 129 page White Paper ( ‘Russian Federation Anti-Gay Laws : An Analysis & Deconstruction‘) regarding the so-called anti-gay Russian legislation as promoted by the American media and debunked as such by your No Agenda Show and further debunked by white paper author, Brian Heiss, who researched and produced this thorough report.
The entire anti-gay and anti-Putin propaganda stemming solely from the US government may relate to the embarrassing fact that Ed Snowden is using Russia as a sanctuary from the American government. This is a tremendous humiliation to the US State Department. Creating this false narrative about anti-gay Russian sentiment is part of a seemingly never-ending attack on Russia and its Olympics. The Russians must be punished for disobedience. Putin needs to be humiliated.
Heiss is gay, works promoting diversity, and initially started his research to prove Curry and Dvorak wrong, then discovered they were quite correct. BTW, Curry’s daughter is lesbian, and he, his wife, his daughter and her girlfriend were on a float in the recent Amsterdam Gay Pride Parade. He’s no bigot (and while he likes to play the fool, is anything but.)
The fact that both Adam and John are true supporters/allies of the LGBTQQI community made it impossible to dismiss their analysis superficially; so that Sunday afternoon with great confidence I became a man on a mission: to completely disprove their analysis . This white paper is the product of that mission. I invite you to read this paper and join me on this journey; a journey which included numerous twists and turns, a range of emotions and enlightenment, all of which I experienced and have tried to represent in my writing.
Excerpts from Weiss’, ‘Things You Didn’t Know About Russia’s Anti-Gay Law & LGBT Rights’
- Â The law never mentions or uses the word gay, lesbian, homosexual or any other LGBT identifier.
- The law focuses on children, its title is “On Protections of Minors from Propaganda of Non-Traditional Sexual Relations”. The messaging and strategy to bring the ban on propaganda from the law of several regions to national laws is part of a larger family values push and is based on the successful anti-same sex marriage push in the United States.
- Statistically you are far more likely to be the victim of an anti-LGBT Hate Crime in the United States than in Russia.
- In Russia you cannot be fired from your job for being an LGBT individual, in the United States you can.
- Since 1993 gay sex was made legal in Russia, in 12 US States gay sex is a crime.
- While President Obama says “I have no patience for countries that try to treat gays or lesbians or transgender persons in ways that intimidate them or are harmful to them.” his policies demonstrate he has nothing but patience.
The law itself is nothing like the hysteria we hear in this country.
The text of the law bans adults from initiating contact with minors/children who do not self identify as LGBT for the express purpose of encouraging the minor/child to explore non-traditional sexual relationships when there had not been interest previously. There is nothing in the legislation that prevents a minor/child who does not openly identify as LGBT but privately seeks out resources as to as they come to terms with their sexuality during that difficult period of adolescence that any of us who identify as LGBT have experienced. In fact, nothing in the legislation prevents LGBT youth resources to provide services to minors who seek out such services.
Although there is much confusion over what the anti-“propaganda” law means, not even its strongest proponents argue that it amounts to the criminalization of homosexuality.
LOL anti-gay law is Snowden payback. More like people who approve of Snowden are grasping at straws to pinkwash Russia.
“Statistically you are far more likely to be the victim of an anti-LGBT Hate Crime in the United States than in Russia.” — that’s because RUSSIA DOESN’T KEEP STATISTICS ON ANTI-GAY HATE CRIMES BECAUSE THE STATE IS HOMOPHOBIC.
“The law never mentions or uses the word gay, lesbian, homosexual or any other LGBT identifier.” — yes it does: “non-traditional sexual relations,” the standard Russian euphemism, as anyone with any Russian experience might know.
Several people have been fired in Russia for being gay. They can’t appeal to a law or complain because there is no law to protect gay people from discrimination. You can even be fired for SUPPORTING gay people when you’re not gay. Krasovsky, Dusaev, Ermoshkin, Bogach.
What a crock this whole thing is.
-There is a law to protect gay people from discrimination. Read the actual laws before you draw such erroneous conclusions.
-“as anyone with any Russian experience might know.†Well if you said it then it must be true! Maybe you should do a study to confirm the validity of that statement along with the one where you stated “RUSSIA DOESN’T KEEP STATISTICS ON ANTI-GAY HATE CRIMES BECAUSE THE STATE IS HOMOPHOBIC.†Please don’t forget to comply with research standards.
—-even if we assume that there are more hate crimes in Russia than the US, how does it change the fact that US experiences quite a large number of such incidents? It’s easy to look at some foreign country so we can make people and ourselves feel better about our own issues. We think that our problems are somehow less severe. I would suggest you ask the victims and/or their families if they feel that problems at home can wait while we worry about homophobia elsewhere.
Ðу да. Дело в том что Ñ Ð¸Ð·ÑƒÑ‡Ð°ÑŽ РоÑÑию лет 40 и ÑобÑтвенно ЛГБТ вопроÑÑ‹ 20. Try googling my name and gay Russia, idiot.
boom. you got him with the idiot part. damn yo.
Haha, idiots hide behind anonymity.
And some Russian men hide in the backs of the ignorant groups they form to attack LGBTQ citizens. I have not seen a Russian attack anybody on a one on one basis! That’s because they are nothing but cowards who need to realize that in reality pedophiles are usually straight!! Russian people need to wake up from their archaic dreams, and get with times instead of going backwards!!! Starting with that asswipe you call Putin!!!
oh, and your name did indeed pop up when it googled Russia and idiot. kudos.
There is no law that protects gay people. Sexual orientation is not mentioned in Russian law, except as “non traditional relations” in the propaganda law. Russian courts have several times denied protections as a social group because “LGBT are not a social group.”
I happen to be a professor of Russian and this is my specialty.
It has nothing to do with diminishing US problems, which I also work for on many levels, including teaching classes and activism. The rest of the world also exists, and some of us care about Russians too.
“hat’s because RUSSIA DOESN’T KEEP STATISTICS ON ANTI-GAY HATE CRIMES BECAUSE THE STATE IS HOMOPHOBIC.”
– Finally, a voice of reason.
Sorry, but your source is just dead wrong on this. It saddens me to see what has been a reasonable blog come to posting something like this. There are many “facts” that are technically right here. The new legislation doesn’t
say LGBT, it uses vague verbiage that equates to it though. There are
lots of countries with worse laws, but none of them are first-world
countries. Does that make it alright? Were Jim Crow laws ok because they applied to all races, and not just blacks?
There’s TONS of evidence, including news reports from very reliable sources every day about violence going on in Russia toward LGBT folks (citizens and not). There are tons of videos, sometimes with police literally watching and doing nothing, or even joining in on the attacks in one or two cases.
The amount of violence coming out of Russia right now against LGBT folks is almost at the level it is in Uganda. The difference? The Russian change over has spiked quite suddenly due to new legislation. You know how many people have been arrested for anti-gay violence this year in Russia? Zero. Show me one report that states otherwise. One arrest for anti-LGBT violence, from any source. Good luck with that.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/lesterfeder/watch-lgbt-activists-arrested-and-beaten-in-red-square-while
http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/2/7/russian-lgbt-activistsarrestedonfirstdayofsochigames.html
http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/the-world-must-watch-this-brutal-video-of-gay-men-being-beaten-by-russian-neo-nazis/news/2014/02/05/82732
The focus here is two part: One because of the sudden change, and one because of the Olympic games going on there.
Sorry, but this whole “report” rings about as hollow as “the Nazi party laws are not as bad toward Jews as lots or countries in the middle east” would have in the 1930s. And before you call foul, look at the videos and tell me people aren’t being maimed, tortured and killed because of the atmosphere this law has created in Russia. LGBT folk were persecuted well before the Jews in Nazi Germany.
Sorry, but some white chap with a lesbian daughter doesn’t undo the countless reports of violence I see from friend groups (some living in Russia) and valid non-US (even non-Western) news sources. And saying they’re not worse than another evil doesn’t make what they’re doing less evil. Claiming it’s “all made up” because of some stupid tin-foil-hat theory about politics? I’ll be you’ll be able to watch your blog subscription levels plummet in real time.
People who abuse others for any reason are actually punished. The group of boys who made videos of abusing those they thought were gay have been found and are being prosecuted. If you would read this report to the end you would understand that the law was really about commercial interests. This magnitude of the controversy brought out the usual crazies out of the woodwork. It hurt the actual LGBT community who have done quite well in Russia during the past 20 years. The strategy that works at home can be disastrous elsewhere. Changing resistant members of any community takes time and involves something more meaningful than waving a flag in the red square. Please read the report and check out the number of hate crimes in the US. First we must deal with issues at home and prevent such crimes and hatred in our own communities. Finally, in my opinion, there needs to be less bias, and more truth from people who know Russian culture & not just some friends of friends who live there, or mediocre news from reporters who can’t grasp the concept of reducing cultural bias in writing.
obvious you didnt actually read the paper
“There’s TONS of evidence, including news reports from very reliable sources every day about violence going on in Russia toward LGBT folks (citizens and not). There are tons of videos, sometimes with police literally watching and doing nothing, or even joining in on the attacks in one or two cases.”
– Exactly. It is really sad to see people defend the horrible treatment of gays in Russia. There are teenagers who are committing suicide in Russia because of the relentless shaming and derision that the state-sponsored media in Russia shower on them. There is real suffering of real human beings and it’s not OK to deny it just because you are too lazy to speak to the members of the Russian LGBT community (which I actually do on a regular basis, in case you are wondering.)
I agree completely with Woody14619 that this blog’s readership is about to plummet.
Are you serious? You actually have a link to Al Jazeera? Are you aware that is Qatar homosexuality is 4 years prison. Stupid
All the more reason for them to report otherwise, that Russia is “a-ok!” The fact that even when they consider the topic criminal in their own country, but still call out the quasi-legalized violence in another country, speaks to their credibility as a news source.
But then I wouldn’t expect someone who leaves typos in their replies, while calling others “stupid” to give that deep of a thought to this topic… (Or check that they’re replying to a 2+ year old thread… FWIW, even FOX and others have since had clear reports on the fact that anti-gay violence was/is quite common and becoming the norm in Russia…)
All the more reason they wouldn’t lie about it. What source would you trust more when criticizing a conservative view point, a left-leaning blog, or a right-leaning one? I’m sure if I cited a clip from the NY Times you’d have called it a liberal rag. Yet when I site a super-conservative group, in another country, calling this out? It’s wrong for me to cite because they have harsher laws than the country they’re reporting on? That’s not “stupid”. It’s the truth… Learn the difference.
Sorry but you are repeating the same propaganda you are protesting the white paper to be. I am an American citizen who has lived in Russia for 15 years. You do not know what the hell you are talking about. Why not come over and educate yourself instead of remaining a vocal fool? Not one person has been arrested based on this law. It is a copy of a law on the books in Switzerland and one passed in the UK.
One of the first civil rights laws passed after the forming of the Russian Federation was specifically legalizing male male sex. Female female sex had never been illegal. If you saw how well people get along in Russia compared to the extreme polarization and hate groups in the US you would be embarrassed by your claims. Watch TV or participate in the arts, sports, entertainment or politics and you would be surprised how well represented and admired gays are viewed by the general public.
People in the US should not comment on the behavior or customs in any other society simply because people like you are so judgemental about things of which you have no clue.
Did you even read the post?
I said”The No Agenda podcast with Adam Curry and John C. Dvorak singlehandedly broke the story that US propaganda about supposedly horrendous Russian anti-gay law is bullshit. The legislation is not Draconian. In some ways Russia is more progressive than the US on gays. “
My response was directed to the unsupported claims of Woody14619 who repeated every line that has been debunked several years ago but still circulates in the western media as reality.
Gotcha!