Russia Declares War on Homosexuals
According to the article, “Russia’s Anti-Gay Crackdown,” by Harvey Fierstein of the New York Times, Vladimir V. Putin, Russia’s president, has “declared a war on homosexuals.” On July 3rd, Mr. Putin signed a law that has not only taken away the right for gay couples’ to adopt children, but also disallow any couple or single parent from any country with marriage equality to adopt as well. This law also gives police officers authority to arrest tourists and foreign nationals they suspect being homosexual or even “pro-gay” and detain them up to fourteen days.
It is also said that earlier in June, the Russian president signed another bill that classified “homosexual propaganda” as pornography. Currently, there are rumors of Mr. Putin prepared to sign an ordinance that would remove children from their own families if their parents were suspected of being homosexual. They would be able to remove children from adoptive homes or even their own biological parents.
Some of the reasons Mr. Putin has given for his actions were his concern over the diminishing number of Russian birthrate and declining Russian families. He also claims to be protecting the children from pedophiles by enacting the adoption ban; however these reasons seem very outlandish, ridiculous, and irrational, right? Fienstein aligns Mr. Putin’s ulterior motives to Adolf Hitler’s political tactics by using a scapegoat and instead of Jewish and disabled peoples being the scapegoats, it is now the gay and lesbian community and those who support gay marriage.
People are beginning to suggest boycotting the upcoming Olypmics to show their solidarity to marriage equality; however, I feel that it is not the right way to spread the message. In order to stop the progressing anti-gay feeling from spreading even further, those who attend the Olympics including the athletes must take drastic measures, such as revealing their support for the gay lesbian community enough to damage Mr. Putin’s agenda.
This is an extremely serious and delicate situation, as since it so strikingly resembles the beginnings of the Holocaust incident, I feel that this news needed to be spread.