If you are a minor, shield your eyes. Or read Dostoevsky to your grandmother instead. She's lonely.
A beautiful, ironic meme making reference to the newest laws passed in the Russian Federation and showing a picture of Vitalii Milonov, the author of the initial 2012 law in St Petersburg, banning the "propaganda of homosexuality and paedophilia" among minors. The caption translates as "Atheists who smoke and have a non-traditional sexual orientation and download pirate music from torrents....aren't having the best time recently."
So, as many of you will already know, I am moving to Russia. And as many as you will also know, I am getting more stubborn with the years and I like to express my opinions.
But no worries, I probably won't get deported. And if I do, there's always Ukraine. Or Kazakhstan. Or that tiny village with Russian elders in Alaska...
In any case, I have started volunteering as a translator for some organizations, including LGBT activists, something which is a hot topic at the moment, given the new law signed by President Putin, prohibiting the 'propaganda' of 'non-traditional sexualities' among minors. This is basically an excuse to prevent anyone from publicly talking about LGBT+ people and issues in a positive light, as this may expose the poor little children to gayness. And as we all know, gayness is highly contagious. Why I turned 16 people gay just last week. All I did was invite them to my home, where I exposed them to countless hours of gay cinema, fed them rainbow waffles, spanked them with fishing rods and told them the countless advantages of being discriminated on a daily basis, rejected by your family and possibly even beaten without police repercussions. They were pretty enthusiastic.
The law is fairly ill-defined. Here is a section of an article by travelandescape.ca
In a throwback to the country’s authoritarian
ruling, Russian president Vladimir Putin has signed a controversial law that
punishes people for “homosexual propaganda.” The law fines people—including
tourists—up to 200,000 rubles ($6,240 CDN) for “propaganda of non-traditional
sexual relations.” For Canadians—where same-sex marriage is legal—it is
unfathomable that Russia’s laws permit the government to arrest and detain gay,
or pro-gay, foreigners for up to 14 days before they would then be expelled
from the country.
So what is considered pro-gay? Anything from
gay-affirmative speech to hand-holding; even displaying a rainbow flag
alongside a maple leaf on your backpack is illegal. Recently in southern
Russia, there were complaints that Elton John’s stage outfits fell under “gay propaganda.”
While LGBT are being told they are unwelcome in Russia, with such vague
definitions, one wonders if anyone who even looks like they might be gay could
also be fined or deported from the country.
Beautifully enough, most people I have talked to seem to agree with this law. Often conflating homosexuality with paedophilia (yes, because two adults who mutually consent to love each other, which does not affect anybody but themselves, is obviously the same thing as an adult who abuses and lures a child, without their permission, and leaves them emotionally damaged...). Most people just don't like to think about homosexuality at all. It seems just a bit too icky, for them. And anyway, many assert, it's against the bible! God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve! Jesus hates gays! But yes, I won't go into this. There are many beautiful sites, such as this or, if you prefer it in Russian, THIS.
Here are some of the articles I have edited and translated within the first 2 days of volunteering. The rate of hate crime seems to be quite high, and with the new laws, it doesn't look like many people will be able to speak freely of this kind of "propaganda" outside of internet forums without falling into the suspicion of Law Enforcement. I am not doing this as some sort of Jesus-like Westerner, thinking they will save Russia. They are more than capable of deciding how they want to live. I am doing this as a favour for friends, out of personal interest, and for language practice. I am therefore not an enemy of the state. In fact, I would like to drink schnapps with Milonov, maybeI should send him an e-mail? He's a cutie.
