Putin’s Post-Sochi LGBT Crackdown

[DonViejo]

The Olympic Games are finally over—which means the Kremlin will soon be ramping back up its toxic anti-homosexuality campaign.

Inside of Russia, the consensus is that as soon as the Olympic torch goes out, enforcement of the so-called “anti-propaganda law” and the state-sanctioned violence that accompanies it will increase. New laws, such as the proposal to tear children away from same-sex families, will likely be passed. And the wholesale destruction of civil society, of which the anti-gay laws, the “Foreign Agents” law, the NGO law, and dozens of administrative measures, will continue. As evidenced by the brutal beating of Pussy Riot, in Sochi last week, gays are simply the proverbial canaries in the coal mine, the most visible victims of Putin’s slide to the far Right.

But as bad as this situation is, Russia itself is just the beginning.

First, Russia’s neighbors are following suit. The former Soviet Union is witnessing an anti-gay, anti-Western, anti-civil society domino effect. Ukraine, amid its blood-soaked and now possibly aborted tilt toward Putin and Russia, rapidly passed its own “foreign agents” law last month, and was widely expected to pass an “anti-propaganda law” until President Viktor Yanukovich fled the capital. (The law was shelved last year in response to criticism from the EU.) Moldova has already passed one. Not all the dominos have fallen: Armenia, for example, shelved its version of the anti-propaganda law after a Western outcry. But many have.

‪What’s perhaps most troubling in this pattern is how gays are being depicted as foreign, and support for equality as a kind of litmus test of how pro- or anti-Western one is. Love the West, accept LGBT people. Hate it, and hate them. We’ve seen this dynamic at work in Ukraine, in Georgia (where Orthodox church leaders and Georgian nationalists led a violent demonstration that was alternately anti-gay and anti-Western), and, of course, in Russia itself.

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http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/02/24/putin-s-post-sochi-lgbt-crackdown.html

[RKP5637]

1. To me, Russia is falling back to being the shit hole of a country they had climbed out of. Those

cheering repression of gays had best watch their backs, it's a very familiar pattern of behavior, repress a target group to get the ball rolling, then slide in another, a little easier since desensitization has begun then another. Eventually, Russia will be back as a full fledged totalitarian regime. It's all a well proven formula, just looking back in history some.

We also need to be watchful here of the Christian Taliban. Too many Americans are naive, and this is the Christian Talibans' best weapon against freedom and rights.

[Bluenorthwest]

2. In coming weeks, folks will be able to tell us if they think the ski party was

worth it. 'Go for the gold!'

[Adrahil]

3. Meanwhile the IOC will gush about how great Putin was..... hacks. NT

[stevenleser]

4. Shame how the lessons of Berlin in 1936 were forgotten by the IOC. nt

[HappyMe]

5. Not surprised.

Make it look okay when all eyes are on Russia. Then when everyone is gone .

They are going to slide back into an Iron Curtain type existence.

[freshwest]

6. This is the gambit I feared, being enacted around the world:

gam·bit (găm?bĭt)
n.
1. An opening in chess in which a minor piece, or pieces, usually a pawn, is offered in exchange for a favorable position.
2. A maneuver, stratagem, or ploy, especially one used at an initial stage.

Love the West, accept LGBT people.

Hate it, and hate them.

They will be vying for who loves and hates their nation or their religion best - just like our own GOP insane clown posse.

[Cha]

7. Putin the asshole.. not among the Nations "for being the first to stand against

human rights violations."

"These nations, including Russia, Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, and Ecuador have my gratitude and respect for being the first to stand against human rights violations."

http://wikileaks.org/Statement-by-Edward-Snowden-to.html



mahalo DV

[sheshe2]

8. K&R for exposure. nt