How US Evangelicals Helped Create Russia's Anti-Gay Movement

[OKNancy]

I didn't see this posted in here so I thought in case anyone missed this Mother Jones article...

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/02/world-congress-families-russia-gay-rights

Meet the Fox News producer, the nightclub impresario, and the oligarchs who teamed up to write inequality into law.

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On the second morning of the conference, the only American in attendance, a tall, collected man, stepped up for his speech. Larry Jacobs, vice president of the Rockford, Illinois-based World Congress of Families (WCF), an umbrella organization for the US religious right's heavy hitters, told the audience that American evangelicals had a 40-year track record of "defending life and family" and they hoped to be "true allies" in Russia's traditional values crusade.

The gathering marked the beginning of the family values fervor that has swept Russia in recent years. Warning that low birth rates are a threat to the long-term survival of the Russian people, politicians have been pushing to restrict abortion and encourage bigger families. Among the movement's successes is a law that passed last summer and garnered global outrage in the run-up to the Sochi Winter Olympics, banning "propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations to minors," a vague term that has been seen as effectively criminalizing any public expression of same-sex relationships.

Anti-gay groups have made tormenting the LGBT community a national and organized affair: Vigilante gangs have used social media to lure hundreds of gay people to fake dates and then disseminate videos of them being beaten or sexually humiliated, garnering hundreds of thousands of followers. Arrests and beatings at gay rights demonstrations are commonplace. This month, LGBT activists were arrested in Moscow and St. Petersburg hours before the Olympic opening ceremony and have been detained in Sochi itself.

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Here is a separate link to a diagram explaining the web of hate

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/02/world-congress-families-us-evangelical-russia-family-tree

[yourout]

1. Maybe they should move to Russia and join them.

[hootinholler]

7. I would ship them to Uganda

Where they have also been whipping up an anti-gay maelstrom.

[Initech]

2. Round 'em up and send 'em to the Hague!

[Behind the Aegis]

3. Isn't it lovely? American export: hate

They have been busy with Russia, Uganda, Nigeria, and countless other nations.

[OKNancy]

4. what is bugging me

is there are a handful here who will defend Russia no matter what.
I don't get it. ( Well, I do, but I don't want to say)

[Behind the Aegis]

5. That chaps my ass too!

Like you, I have my theories. It is amazing to rationalize the Russian hate, but then spin on one's heels screeching about the hate here, in this country.

[OKNancy]

6. Hell Oklahoma is a better place for

the LGBT community than Russia!
Actually my lesbian daughter, age 29, and out since college, says she has never had any problems whatsoever
Now, we are in Tulsa which is pretty gay-friendly

[Behind the Aegis]

8. Agreed. I live north of you.

Sure, we have issues here and there, but I don't fear jail; I don't fear the police because of my sexual orientation. Unknown to many, Tulsa has a large gay community (a Jewish one too).