December 2nd, 2011
The Interfax News service reports that Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak has suggested that the proposed bill in St. Petersburg which would ban the “promotion” of homosexuality could be made a federal law:
“Probably, we should consider this topic at the federal level,” Kozak told a press conference in St. Petersburg on Friday. Any propaganda regarding non-conventional sexual relations is “an abominable thing to do,” he said.
The bill also includes a ban on the promotion of pedophilia — is there a problem with this in Russia? — and therefore uncritically links homosexuality with pedophilia in the public debates taking place over the bill.
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Charles
December 3rd, 2011
As usual the myth of the acceptance of human homosexuality somehow equates to the acceptance of pedophilia persists. Are Russian psychiatrists still sending political dissidents to psychiatric hospitals, too?
If I were a Russian legislator I would worry far more about the high rate of abortion and low birth rate in the country.
Charles
December 3rd, 2011
If the Russians who are proposing this legislation are using the word propaganda, that infuriates the hell out of me. Truth is not propaganda. And, may I ask Jim, the author of this article, do Russian psychiatrists conform with modern western psychiatry in listing homosexuality as not being a mental disorder?
Darina
December 3rd, 2011
Yes, Charles, that’s the very word. I know it for sure because I’ve read the original Russian text of the bill. Here it is, in case somebody other than me understands Russian: http://kvir.ru/gay_ru/9405.pdf
And here is a translation of it into English: https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=1t6I2LC8jm89qtUSm7GDV0k6CJM7o039cnWX0JVkZWbv-mdj5laIF9JSM1MUv&hl=en_US
The word that is translated as “sodomy” for lack of a better English equivalent is an old Russian (and generally Slavic) word that I can best render literally as “man-bedding,” i.e. man-on-man sex. I would only expect a priest or theologist to use the word here in Bulgaria in full seriousness, but I don’t know if it really goes in secular contexts in Russia.
The whole thing started as a miscalculated populist local election campaign, but the bill has already backfired very badly in St Petersburg and caused an international scandal. But well, some people are obstinate like this.
Timothy (TRiG)
December 3rd, 2011
Yeah, carry on with that, Russia. We’ll see you in Strasbourg.
Article 9
Article 10
Article 11
Article 14
(Thank you, Winston Churchill.)
Charles
December 3rd, 2011
“The whole thing started as a miscalculated populist local election campaign, but the bill has already backfired very badly in St Petersburg and caused an international scandal. But well, some people are obstinate like this. – Darina”
I am glad to hear that it has backfired. Yes, some people are obstinate, uncaring and I would say just unwilling to believe that we do not choose our sexual orientation.
Darina
December 3rd, 2011
Charles, here are some more links for you:
RUSSIA: HEARING OF ANTI-GAY BILL POSTPONED UNTIL AFTER ELECTIONS http://comingoutspb.ru/en/en-news/hearingpostponedafterelections
And the All Out petition is now going on 250,000 signatures from all over the world: http://www.allout.org/russia_silenced
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