Russia: LGBT Rights and Isolationism
© RIA Novosti. Anatoly Medved
British comedian and writer Stephen Fry made headlines this summer when he wrote an open letter to the International Olympic Committee and British Prime Minister David Cameron, calling for the Sochi 2014 Olympic Games to be taken from Russia and held in any country with a more tolerant attitude to homosexuality.
Fry, angered at the passing of the controversial law preventing the dissemination of information to minors promoting “non-traditional” sexual relations (or the “anti-gay propaganda law,” as it came to be known), was unsparing in his criticism of both Russia and the Russian leadership.
Comparing the forthcoming games in Sochi to the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Fry wrote: “I am gay. I am a Jew. My mother lost over a dozen of her family to Hitler’s anti-Semitism. Every time in Russia (and it is constantly) a gay teenager is forced into suicide, a lesbian ‘correctively’ raped, gay men and women beaten to death by neo-Nazi thugs while the Russian police stand idly by, the world is diminished and I for one weep anew at seeing history repeat itself.”
Fry’s has not been the only voice speaking out against Russia’s hosting of the forthcoming games. Figures such as George Takei, Lady Gaga and Madonna have all publicly opposed Russia’s hosting of the winter Olympics.
On Aug. 7, All Out, an American LGBT campaign group, presented the IOC with a 322,000-name petition calling on it to condemn what All Out perceives to be Russia’s harsh treatment of the LGBT community.
While both Cameron and U.S. President Barack Obama have opposed boycotting the Games, Obama did go as far as saying that he had “no patience for countries that try to treat gays and lesbians and transgendered persons in ways that intimidate them or are harmful to them.”
However, while Russia’s position on the promotion of homosexuality has provoked much international ire, the picture is markedly different at home.
‘The world has gone insane’
In June, 42 percent of Russians told the VTsIOM polling agency said they believed homosexuality to be a punishable crime, with the new law receiving widespread support across Russia.
According to noted sociologist Olga Kryshtanovskaya, traditionalism runs deep in Russia.
“Russian people do not understand what they are being criticized for…. We think that a healthy society is built upon a healthy family,” she told The Moscow News. “A healthy family has a mother, father and children.”
Kryshtanovskaya said that same-sex relationships cannot be condoned by society. “A relationship that does not lead to the birth of children cannot be considered normal,” she said. “It’s a form of consensual perversion. It’s not natural for most people.”
According to Kryshtanovskaya, Russians don’t take kindly to the criticism being voiced abroad. “When Russian people hear that the world is against Russia’s opposition to gay propaganda, we think that the world has gone insane,” she said.
Global isolation
For Kryshtanovskaya, the recent criticism of Russia’s position on LGBT rights will not affect the country’s self-image too much.
“Russia has always understood that we are unloved and unwanted since the Soviet period,” she said. “Things have changed to a degree, and we’re more included within global society, but generally, this feeling of being a huge country – of our sheer scale – gives people a kind of self-confidence.”
According to Kryshtanovskaya, since other countries have nothing on Russia in terms of size, they might as well mind their own business. “Why would it matter what a little country thinks of us?” she said. “We are an enormous and rich country with a lot of resources. We don’t really need anyone’s support.”
It’s a position echoed on Moscow’s streets.
Maria Smirnova, a 24-year-old bank employee, told The Moscow News that “a boycott won’t change anything.”
“It’s just an attempt to influence our internal laws,” Smirnova said. “Russia doesn’t try to influence the internal laws of other countries, why should they try to influence ours?”
“There isn’t anything wrong with this law, it’s just [foreign] propaganda,” said Alexander Baryshov, a 29-year-old lawyer. “Sanctions, boycotting the Games, whatever, it’s about politics, not this law.”
Lawyer Alina Kadyrova, 21, agreed. “I don’t think those people criticizing Russia understand us,” she said. “This is a popular law. It’s what people want, so, legally, I think that makes it a good law.”
‘Hatred and bigotry’
However, voices of protest remain in Russia.
“I think it would be great if someone looked at the whole picture from a different perspective and asked himself, ‘What kind of world do I want my kids to live in – one full of hatred and bigotry based on some false religious, pseudo-patriotic conception, or one where people live and let others live?’” Julia Abyshkina, a recruitment manager from Podolsk, told The Moscow News.
When asked about analogies between contemporary Russia and Germany of the 1930s, Abyshkina was equally strident. “The comparison is disturbing – given our human casualties in the war against the Nazis – yet vivid,” she said. “It’s exactly what is happening here now.”
“Orwell, Zamyatin and Huxley saw this coming, though they might have been wrong about the precise country and continent,” Abyshkina added. “After all, you expect people to learn from their mistakes but, as history shows, we never do.”
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