Antigay Russia just punished a bakery for its ‘no f*ggots allowed’ sign

Russia isn’t exactly known for being gay-friendly, especially considering its 2013 law forbidding any “propaganda of nontraditional sexual relationships.” That’s why it’s so surprising that the Russian city of Kemerovo recently bothered to punish a bakery owner who put up a wooden public sign saying, ““F*ggots are not allowed.”

Related: Rammstein gives Russia’s antigay propaganda law the finger by kissing at Moscow concert

When The Ipakov Brothers bakery opened last February, its owner Anton Ipatov put up the sign, yet insisted that he didn’t discriminate against anyone, which is… wait, what?

According to The Moscow Times, Ipatov put up the sign to display his “personal convictions” — even though he doesn’t discriminate, you see. He believes “the presence of non-heterosexual people in his shop could ‘affect his children’ and that because “he makes natural food, everything unnatural is alien to him.”

Wow. We hope he doesn’t use plastics when baking or wear clothes with synthetic fabrics because they’re so unnatural they’re liable to make him feel like he’s on Jupiter.

In badly translated Russian, Ipatov explains, “(Gays) discriminate against us normal people for perversion…. These people strike at the root of the whole system of family values…. If there is a fire on the ship, and everyone else is sitting in the bars and souring like the last pigs, and walking and just being silent, everyone will burn on this ship.”

Yes… if we are all sitting at the bar like pigs… then… we won’t notice that homosexuals have set the ship on fire… or… huh?

We almost kinda sorta feel not really sorry for Ipatov because it’s obvious his view of gay people has been informed by toxic garbage. But what happened next might get him to think twice about displaying such “personal convictions” again in public — the city fined him 10,000 rubles ($150) for his hateful sign.

According to The Moscow Times, the city’s central district court said that “the sign ‘humiliates homosexuals as … a group of people distinguished on the basis of sexual orientation’ and negatively impacts others’ feelings toward LGBT people.

Well would you imagine that. A Russian government entity actually standing up for queers. It’s actually a wonderful though small victory because, despite Russia’s antigay law there are lots of queer folks living there who’d like to buy baked goods and just live their lives without being called “f*ggots” or treated like pigs who are going to burn a ship or whatever.