As is widely known, Russia now has a
national law that bans the spreading of " information
about non-traditional sexual behavior "
to persons under 18. The law is based on legislation that was originally
adopted in St. Petersburg under the sponsorship of its Mayor, one Vitaly Milonov . The law is based on the totally false premises widely held by homophobes
that a) homosexuality is an acquired characteristic, "chosen" by
homosexuals, b) that a homosexual can therefore either "choose" to
become heterosexual or be "cured" of the "sinful" trait (as
it has been deemed by the Russian Orthodox Church, now a major Putin ally), and
c) that homosexuals "recruit" non-homosexual children to become
homosexual. The supposed basis of the law is thus that it deals only with such
"recruitment."
Of course the real reason for the law is to enable the authorities to use the criminal sanction to combat the growing gay rights movement in Russia. This is not too many steps away from the criminalization of homosexuality itself. Further, it happens that homophobia appears to be widely spread among the Russian population and thus it becomes a good issue for politicians, from Milonov to the Russian President Vladimir Putin, to use for political purposes. The state-owned All Russian Center for Public Opinion found that 88% of respondents supported the new legislation, even though they had never seen such "homosexual propaganda." Indeed, even on a clear day it is difficult to see something that simply doesn't exist, except in the imaginations of homophobes.
Brighton (England) Gay Pride Parade by Elsie esq.
Homophobia
itself has a long history, reaching all the way back to Biblical times. There
were obviously homosexuals back then, which would account for there being
strictures against the practice ensconced in the Bible, obviously by
homophobes. But until the last century or so, homophobia has been confined to
the social/religious sector of personal hate and intolerance. Only with the
rise of Nazi Germany did homophobia become politicized, that is it was used for
political purposes to rouse hateful emotions in potential voters, thus to gain
their votes.
Political
homophobia found its parallel in the development of political anti-Semitism,
which first appeared in the 1880s in Austria. Religious
anti-Semitism had been around at least since the
time it was codified by St. Augustine in the fifth century C.E. It was used
down through the ages to socially and economically discriminate against Jews
and to provide a convenient font of blame for one's troubles. But in the last
150 years or so anti-Semitism has been used politically, that is to get votes,
as has been, as noted, homophobia.
We
have seen in Nazi Germany the extreme outcomes of both political homophobia and
political anti-Semitism. The horrors of the Holocaust are well-known. Fewer
people know that in Nazi Germany homosexuals were forced to wear the Pink
Triangle several years before the Jews were forced to wear the Yellow Star, and
that beginning in 1933 certain German homosexuals were arrested and sent to
concentration camps, up to 100,000
gay men among them . That political homophobia might lead
to such a perilous outcome in the future in a successor fascist state to the
United States is a feature of the plot of my book The 15%
Solution: How the Republican Religious Right Control of the U.S., 1981-2022: A
Futuristic Novel . Neither political anti-Semitism nor
political homophobia always leads to this kind of outcome. That is clear. But
it is also clear that the danger is always there, especially when in the case
of the latter homosexuals are cast as "sinful" and "sinful
predators."
It
is bad enough that the political use of homophobia has made its way into the
law in Russia. But on top of that Mayor Milonov has boasted that he has
"spoken with many American politicians" who "support the stance
I've taken on this issue." Since the political
use of homophobia is a bedrock of modern Republicanism , this is not surprising. Given the history of what became
of political homophobia in Germany, shocking, however, is Milonov's claim that
he also has "support from German legislators surrounding the anti-gay
crackdown." If those "legislators" are not actually in the
Bundestag but are simply politicians belonging to one of the small neo-Nazi
organizations in Germany (none of which get enough votes to enable them to hold
seats in the Bundestag), that is one thing. If they are to be found in one of
the major political parties (in that case it would be the principal right-wing
party, the Christian Democratic Union), as they are in one of the two major
political parties in the U.S., given German history in this matter, that is
quite something else again.
Now
all of these considerations take on a special meaning in the context of the
2014 Winter Olympics, to be based in Sochi, Russia. The International Olympic
Committee is in a tizzy as demands are starting to come in for an Olympic
boycott over the issue, but true to the legacy of their
buckle-under-to-repression performance at the Nazi Berlin Olympics of 1936,
they are, for now at least, saying that "local law must be respected."
President
Obama has issued a medium-strength denunciation of it, but one would hardly
have expected him to cancel his scheduled Summit with President Putin over it,
as he has done over the Russian granting of political asylum to the US
whistle-blower Edward Snowden. (As to Obama's comment that by so doing the
Russians were re-starting the Cold War, just which nation was it, Mr.
President, that wanted to establish a whole new chain of ballistic missiles
along which nation's border not do long ago?) There have also been demands to
boycott US companies that invest in Russia, and some voices have been heard
demanding that the US boycott the Sochi Games altogether. But something major
does need to be done, and it is unlikely that that will be done either by the
United States or the International (or U.S.) Olympic Committee (although that
would be nice). I would add to the list of possible strategies a campaign to
boycott tourism in Russia for as long as the law is in place.
But
the most important point here is that political homophobia is now being used by
the leading political party in the Russia, just as it is used by one of the two
leading political parties in the United States. Russia is now showing to where
such use can lead in the law. 80 years ago Nazi Germany showed where political
homophobia can lead, beyond the law.
Addendum: Just after I finished the above version of
this column, the poster-boy for Right-wing, homophobic Republicanism, the
religious authoritarian Pat Buchanan came out in support of the new Russian
homophobic law. According to Media
Matters, " in his August 13 syndicated column ,
Buchanan took America's "moral and cultural elites" to task for their
opposition to Russian laws banning
the positive depiction of homosexuality and the
adoption of Russian children by any foreign couples
from countries with marriage equality. Buchanan pined for the days when society
ostracized gays, while lauding Russian President Vladimir Putin for seeking to
restore a "moral compass" to Russia by implementing its anti-gay
policies" ( http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/08/13/pat-buchanan-anti-gay-putin-bravely-trying-to-r/195368 ). And then
there was this, from the Republican candidate for Governor in Virginia, Ken Cuccinelli, who
recently said he stands by his belief that " LGBT people are "soulless' and "self-destructive.' " To where can all of this lead?
See chapter 18 of "The 15% Solution."
