Largely Unreported: The Truth about Russia and Sodomy

So Russia is a practically unlivable nation where so-called homophobes rule and sodomites have to live in constant fear of being dragged away by police or brutally murdered every time they take a breath. Or so the narrative goes. But the truth is much different. The truth is Russia has taken minimal steps to protect their society from deviants and predators.

“Gay Reporter Kicked Off Kremlin Network After Protesting Anti-Gay Law,” blared a Washington Free Beacon headline in August 2013. National Review Online echoed that assessment with a “Gay Reporter Protests Russia’s Anti-Gay Law on State-Funded Channel, Gets Booted” headline of its own.

Government-affiliated RFE/RL and Voice of America joined this chorus.

RFE/RL interviewed noted anti-Christian and anti-human activist Dan Savage in August 2013 (“U.S. Gay Activist Savage: ‘Keep Controversy Roaring’ In Russia”) to help with the disinformation campaign. Meanwhile, Voice of America decided the best way to show how bad sodomites have it in Russia was to interview a sodomite activist in, “Russia’s Reaction Against Gay Rights Starts in St Petersburg” (September 2013).

Has anyone bothered to ask how there can be such a thing as a sodomite activist in Russia if it really is as oppressive as the West would have us believe it is?

And while Matt Lauer was part of a NBC panel where at least one member worried that Prince Harry was antagonizing the Taliban by admitting that he had killed them in combat, there appeared to be no worries about antagonizing Russia when, “NBC’s Lauer Urges U.S. Olympic Athlete to Stage Gay Protest During Sochi Games” (Newsbusters, December 20, 2013).

So the average American obtaining his news from the legacy media would come away with the impression that Russia is all but rounding up sodomites and summarily executing them.

That, of course, is wrong.

Austin Ruse exposed the full story on the aforementioned James Kirchick when he wrote, “The Hysterical Jamie Kirchick,” at The Daily Caller in August 2013:

Kirchick insisted that the new law makes it illegal to speak about homosexuality in public. This is one of a series of lies that Kirchick and others are spreading about the Russian law. In fact, there is a very vocal and vibrant gay lobby in Russia. On the RT panel, in fact, were two gay men who are out and proud in Russia, one being a regular pundit on RT. One of them was the leader of an association of gay athletes and do you know what he was wearing on Russia Television? A rainbow badge with the Olympic logo. . . .

Kirchick and his colleagues are hysterical and I think I know why. In the west, they and their elite allies have so cowed and bullied opposition to their agenda that hardly anyone speaks out against them. If you do, you lose your job or get brought before the magistrates of human rights. It is shocking and unnerving to them when they find people who are not so cowed and that they cannot have their way with those in other countries and certainly not with the Russians who overwhelmingly support the reasonable new law.

Gwen Landolt’s, “Russia’s anti gay-propagation law a hardheaded approach to stem demographic winter” (September 2013), at LifeSiteNews supports Ruse’s assessment:

It was not borne out of hostility towards persons with same-sex orientation, as claimed by some. Rather, it was drafted with the intent of protecting the well-being of Russian children. It is in line with the European Convention on Human Rights standards and European jurisprudence. . . .

The law is administrative, not criminal. (Russia decriminalized homosexuality in 1993.) The law does not permit any interference in the private lives of homosexuals or authorize the arbitrary detention or arrests of homosexuals, as so loudly proclaimed by gay lobbyists.

According to contacts in Moscow, there are both openly gay bars in Moscow and gays and lesbians on TV each day. This law has been endorsed by 103 human rights organizations from 33 countries, which have signed a statement in support of it. . . .

This law is in accordance with other recent initiatives taken by the Russian government to protect the family, which is in deep crisis. About a third of Russian children are born out of wedlock; more than half of marriages fail; alcoholism is rampant; Russia has the highest rate of abortion in the world (officially, there are more than one million abortions each year). More than two million children are “civil orphans,” living adrift from their families.

No one can force people to believe the truth. And if conservatives want to join with the truthaphobic left in making an enemy out of Russia for doing the right thing (in this case) there is nothing anyone can do about that. But at the same time no one can change what the truth is. And the truth is that Russia not only isn’t oppressive with its law banning anyone (not just sodomites) from targeting children with deviant propaganda; it actually is ahead of the U.S. and the rest of the West.

Paul Hair honorably served in the U.S. Army Reserve as a non-commissioned officer; he is veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom. He has worked as a civilian in both the government and private sectors. His writings have appeared at various websites. Paul now runs The Security and Culture Intelligencer website (http://scintelligencer.blogspot.com/) and is an independent consultant for Wikistrat, a strategic analysis and forecasting network. Connect with him at the S&CI website and on Twitter at @PaulHair1.

Image: Courtesy of: http://worldhumanrights.wordpress.com/