Should Russia pay a price for its anti-gay laws?
Vladimir Putin recently signed tough laws targeting homosexuals. Olympics boycott, anyone?
The United States and other Western nations appear to be entering something of a golden age for gay rights. Russia, however, is going in the opposite direction.
On June 30, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law that bans "gay propaganda." The new law prohibits positive talk about homosexuality or "non-traditional sex relations" — read: Gay marriage — directed toward minors, whether it be through the media, on the internet, or in advertising. Gay-pride rallies are banned, too. Violators of the law face hefty fines, and foreigners found gay-propagandizing can be jailed for two weeks and then deported.
A few days later, on July 3, Putin signed legislation barring foreign same-sex couples from adopting Russian children, as well as single people and unmarried couples in countries that allow gay marriage.
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What's going on in Russia? Homosexuality hasn't been a criminal offense in the country since 1993, but it's still pretty unpopular in the largely Orthodox Christian nation. Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, lauded the ban Sunday, saying that the growing recognition of same-sex marriage around the world is "a very dangerous sign of the apocalypse," and that "people are choosing a path of self-destruction."
Recent polling from the All-Russian Public Opinion Center (VTSIOM) shows that 88 percent of Russians support the new law, and a majority, 54 percent, said that homosexuality should be banned and subject to criminal liabilities.
Putin is tapping into an "intolerance towards lesbians and gay men left over from the Soviet period," says Richard Mole at the London School of Economics and Political Science. LGTB activists also happen to be some of Putin's biggest and most vocal critics, so the president has "been able to use gay rights as a lightening rod to divert attention from political corruption and a weakening economy, while at the same time curtailing the civil rights of some of his most strident political opponents," says Mole.
Putin "has declared war on homosexuals," says Harvey Fierstein in The New York Times, and "so far, the world has mostly been silent." Scapegoating gays and lesbians to shore up his domestic support is "taken straight from the Nazi playbook," Fierstein continues, and the world can't sit by and watch this happen.
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"Putin's anti-gay pogrom" does need a strong global response, says Dan Savage at Seattle's The Stranger, who not only backs boycotting the 2014 Winter Olympics, but a global boycott of Russian vodka.
A crippling vodka ban is a little far-fetched, but the International Olympic Committee has expressed some discomfort over the new laws. On July 17, the IOC issued a statement:
The Olympics organization, however, suggested that Russia's gay-rights crackdown isn't really the group's business: "Wider political issues in the country are best dealt with by other international organizations more suited to this endeavor."
International pressure may not be the best solution, anyway, says the London School's Richard Mole. And since gay-rights activists can no longer try to change public hearts and minds through protest or internet/media campaigns, "sexual minorities in Russia will inevitably need to come up with different — less public, more personal — tactics for raising awareness."
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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.