via sda
Much of the controversy over the location of these Olympic Winter Games has orbited around the Russian government’s treatment of gays and lesbians. As a Cold War kid, I find this delightful. Nobody said much about these matters when Russia was Communist, homosexuality was formally illegal and the Russian psychiatric profession was a torture apparatus. In school, we were lectured about Western disarmament for what must have been a hundred hours, if you add it all up. I do not recall spending a second on Russia’s sexual minorities.
If you are cynical, you will regard this as demonstrating how fashion-driven the issues of international concern are. If you believe in progress, it shows how much our species has pulled its act together. Gays and lesbians, unquestionably, have it far better in Russia now than at any previous moment in its recorded history. Homosexual activity is legal; gays can donate blood, join the army and adopt children. Transsexuals can change their legal gender.
The unlimited exercise of these privileges is not easy in a Russian environment dominated by conservative Orthodox sentiment, by insecurity about the moral effects of capitalism, and by a histrionic political strongman. And now Russia has come under fire because its federal legislature chose an awkward moment to criminalize the dissemination of “propaganda for non-traditional sexual relations“ to minors.
stay mad...
Boycott Russia and boycott the world - Colby Cosh, News & Politics, World - Macleans.ca
Much of the controversy over the location of these Olympic Winter Games has orbited around the Russian government’s treatment of gays and lesbians. As a Cold War kid, I find this delightful. Nobody said much about these matters when Russia was Communist, homosexuality was formally illegal and the Russian psychiatric profession was a torture apparatus. In school, we were lectured about Western disarmament for what must have been a hundred hours, if you add it all up. I do not recall spending a second on Russia’s sexual minorities.
If you are cynical, you will regard this as demonstrating how fashion-driven the issues of international concern are. If you believe in progress, it shows how much our species has pulled its act together. Gays and lesbians, unquestionably, have it far better in Russia now than at any previous moment in its recorded history. Homosexual activity is legal; gays can donate blood, join the army and adopt children. Transsexuals can change their legal gender.
The unlimited exercise of these privileges is not easy in a Russian environment dominated by conservative Orthodox sentiment, by insecurity about the moral effects of capitalism, and by a histrionic political strongman. And now Russia has come under fire because its federal legislature chose an awkward moment to criminalize the dissemination of “propaganda for non-traditional sexual relations“ to minors.
stay mad...
Boycott Russia and boycott the world - Colby Cosh, News & Politics, World - Macleans.ca
