When Will Russia and the Former Soviet Union Stop Instituting Homophobic Policies?

Gay rights activists march in St. Petersburg (Photo Credit: Olga Maltseva/AFP/Getty Images).

Gay rights activists march in St. Petersburg (Photo Credit: Olga Maltseva/AFP/Getty Images).

The upcoming 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia has been controversial for a while, compliments of host country’s president Vladimir Putin.

His homophobic policies have lead to widespread boycott calls, but have not sparked official outrage in the former Soviet Union.

On the contrary. This week, Armenia’s state police posted online a legislative proposal to fine up to $4,000 for promoting “non-traditional sexual relationships” among minors. It swiftly took down the proposal from the website after some protest, citing lack of priority and shortcomings. The police credited “several dozen intellectuals” for prompting the legislation in the first place.

The proposed vague legislation, which mirrored a recent and widely-criticized Russian law, came two weeks after the effective pardon over a gay bar’s firebombing and a few months after Armenia’s government’s latest rejection of anti-domestic violence legislation.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's homophobic policies have widespread implications for the LGBT community(Photo Credit: Natalia Kolesnikova/AFP/Getty Images).

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s homophobic policies have widespread implications for the LGBT community(Photo Credit: Natalia Kolesnikova/AFP/Getty Images).

Armenia’s short-lived attempt to join Russia’s aggressive institutionalization of homophobia would have dire consequences for human rights – even when it may feel that things cannot get worse. Some sources report that a gay – and racial minority – youth died this week in Russia after being humiliated and tortured by a hate group.

The young man was reportedly lured through a Russian social site. The perpetrators of this injustice are reportedly free. This is not a new thing in the former Soviet Union. An acquaintance who used to live in Armenia bragged to me recently that back home, he and his friends would hang out in an unofficial transgender park in order to assault LGBTI individuals after flirting with them.

I kept asking him why he would go to a park that he himself insisted was only visited by transgender individuals. He didn’t articulate an argument in favor of his visit or the violence. Because there are no reasonable, let alone compelling, arguments for homophobia.

As Russia prepares for the 2014 Olympics, worldwide attention has turned to the country's human rights situation (Photo Credit: Alexander Hassenstein/Bongarts/Getty Images).

As Russia prepares for the 2014 Olympics, worldwide attention has turned to the country’s human rights situation (Photo Credit: Alexander Hassenstein/Bongarts/Getty Images).

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4 thoughts on “When Will Russia and the Former Soviet Union Stop Instituting Homophobic Policies?

  1. International Banking establishment is the Real entity using homosexual issue to try to boycott Winter Olympics because they are mad at the way Russian Government is "not totally going along with international bankers". A total Use-Job.

  2. I don't think we can make Russia do or think anything that they don't want to.Russia is simply a different part of the world.

  3. Russia seems like it's not part of the same world as us. How can a state be so advanced in some regards and so behind on it's human rights policies?

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