Now that Donald Trump has confirmed that Vladimir Putin is his BFF, it’s worth a reminder of just what normalizing Russia’s bad behavior means. In the case of LGBTQ rights, it means that Trump has sanctified the violence and oppression that Putin has made a hallmark of his presidency.
Just how bad is it? With his cowardly and traitorous performance at Monday’s press conference, Trump essentially gave a green light to Putin to do whatever he wants to do and will likely ramp up his attacks on the LGBTQ community.
Based on what Putin has done in the past, that’s going to be pretty ugly. Here’s a list of some of the most egregious and vicious attacks on LGBTQ people that characterize Putin’s Russia.
1. Sanctioning violence against gay men
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Putin has made sure that violent attacks against gay men in Russia are not only never prosecuted but affirmatively condoned. Murders of gay men are routine, and just as routinely ignored by authorities. Kidnappings and beatings by skinheads are commonplace, while police turn a blind eye. While gay men are often the target, trans Russians are also victims. The 2014 Olympics in Sochi turned the media spotlight on Russia’s practices, but nothing has changed since then.
2. Killing gay men in Chechnya
Strictly speaking its own country, Chechnya is in everything but name an extension of Russia. Untold numbers of gay men have been murdered at the hands of vigilantes, with the blessing of Chechnya’s Putin-backed government. Hundreds more have been rounded up and, in a chilling step reminiscent of the Nazi Holocaust, sent to concentration camps where they are tortured and humiliated. In a step that no doubt brought a smile to Putin’s face, the U.S. government has routinely denied visas to men seeking to save their lives by fleeing the country.
3. Declaring gay equality “propaganda”
One of Putin’s biggest legal successes was the passage of a law banning “gay propaganda in the vicinity of children.” The law has been a handy cudgel against anyone the Putin government deems as pro-LGBTQ. In fact, anything that smacks of being easy on gays is subject to censorship, including kid-friendly movies like Beauty and the Beast and Power Rangers.
4. Harassing married couples
Eugene Wojciechowski and Pavel Stotsko were legally married in Denmark and then registered their marriage in Moscow last January. Then the police surrounded their apartment, cutting off their electricity and internet. They and their families received threatening calls. The couple was only able to escape the situation by turning over their passports, meaning that they can no longer leave the country harassing them.
5. Going after foreigners
Just because you’re not Russian doesn’t mean you’re safe if you’re a gay visitor. Four Dutch tourists were arrested for working on a documentary about LGBTQ rights in the country. British activist Peter Tatchell was arrested last month in Moscow for holding a sign criticizing Putin for his complicity in Chechnya’s violence. And it’s not just arrests, but physical attacks as well. Two French men attending the World Cup games in Moscow were viciously beaten for being gay.
6. Facilitating the spread of HIV
Russia is seeing exploding numbers of HIV cases, and, backed by religious conservatives, Putin is doing everything in his power to make sure the rates keep rising. The government turned away U.S. dollars to help fight the epidemic and shut down programs that help people with HIV. Even simple education is forbidden. Last May, the government shuttered a website that provided safe sex information to men who have sex with men.
7. Giving us Donald Trump
In perhaps Putin’s greatest coup, his intelligence apparatus labored intensively to interfere with the 2016 election to tilt the results in favor of Trump. Besides Trump giving a credible imitation of a useful idiot, Putin hated Hillary Clinton, who once got into a shouting match with his officials on their official homophobia. With his surprise victory, for which Putin deserves some credit, Trump has systematically rolled back LGBTQ rights in the U.S. The consequences haven’t been as dire as they have been for LGBTQ Russians, but the direction is the same.
It’s a case of Trump following the leader–or, in this case, his leader.
GetOffMyInternets
Funny when some of these tragedies were going on over there (and tragedies happening daily elsewhere) Queerty was more concerned (Graham and David) with Dave Wavey trying random vials of sperm on YouTube and the wisdom of porn stars.
Chrisk
Actually they’ve run dozens and dozens of stories over there. All you have to do is google Queerty and Russia.
Chrisk
I’ll await the Homocons defense of Trump here too. Will hear nothing but crickets I’m sure.
RichInIowa
Excellent article Queerty. More media should be reading and posting this. Sending it to some of the others whom I follow. Well Done!
Kieran
All this Russophobia in the Fake News media is due to Putin refusing to allow the neocons to do a “regime change” in Syria. Putin said NO to the terrorists. For that, we’re all supposed to hate Russia now. Total BS.
Kangol
Uh, no. In 2014 Russia invaded a US ally, Ukraine, and seized a large portion of its territory, called Crimea. Russia reportedly continues to foment war in eastern Ukraine, a sovereign country, and to meddle in the political affairs in Kiev.
Russia also reported attempted a coup in Montenegro, another US ally, in 2016, to overthrow its democratically elected government and thus prevent it from joining NATO. Montenegro did.
In addition, Russia appears to have helped bankroll BREXIT via Arron Banks, which has caused major disruption in the United Kingdom, the US’s closest ally, and which is causing major friction with the rest of the European Union, the US ally and second largest trading partner after Canada.
On top of all of this and more (alleged Russian interference in elections in Hungary, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, etc.), Russia reportedly has actively attacked and continues to attack the US election system, corporations, and more using cyberwarfare means. This is an assessment not just of US intelligence services, but of those in the UK, Netherlands, Australia, Canada, Estonia, France, and many other countries.
As for the “terrorists,” you do realize that Bashar Assad has engaged in a reign of terror on his own country and its people, don’t you? He used nerve gas on them! Did you miss that bit? You know, that led Obama to support rebels seeking to oust him and Trump allegedly to bomb Syrian airfields? TRUMP supposedly attacked this monster for his terrorism against his own people. Have have you so completely drunk the FoxNews pro-Russian Kool-Aid that you can’t even see what has been happening in Syria for the last decade?
James
TROLL ALERT !!!! RIGHT WING ANTI-GAY KOOK MASQUERADING AS GAY IN ORDER TO BREAK DOWN THE COMMUNITY !!!! TROLL ALRET !!!!
tham
Ugh, Russians…
DCguy
Hey Queerty,
I get that you don’t want to be too heavy handed in your screening, but when you have one of the screenames that routinely defends anti-lgbt bigotry coming on here attempting to minimize violence, murder etc… against LGBTs isn’t about time that screename gets screened?
David
???????, ???????! ???????, ??? ?? ????? ??????? ? ????????? ??????!
David
Molodets, tovarishch! Spasibo, chto ty takoy khoroshiy i poslushnyy troll’!
Kieran
Why no stories about Muslim Saudi Arabia where they cut off your head for being gay?
Kangol
You can be so hilarious. Where have been the countless times I’ve asked why right-winger refuse to condemn Saudi Arabia, which openly kills gay men–stones them, beheads them, etc.–yet cannot wait to call out other countries on the globe? You do know that Saudi Arabia is one of Trump’s closest pals these days, and, as I heard a journalist say yesterday, after years in which Obama allegedly pushed Saudi Arabia away (despite arming them and assisting them in their brutal attack on Yemen, which has created a humanitarian crisis), Trump is embracing Saudi Arabia the way George W. Bush used to. He’s supporting their war against Yemen. He’s working hand in glove with them against Iran. Saudi Arabia was one of the few foreign countries he visited in his first year in office. Here’s another question for you: you think Donald Trump should denounce Saudi Arabia for its treatment of gay people? Have you written to him urging him to do so? Do you even care?
Kangol
You can be so hilarious. Where have you been the countless times I’ve asked why right-wingers refuse to condemn Saudi Arabia, which openly kills gay men–stones them, beheads them, etc.–
Paco
So you are defending Russia’s oppression of its LGBT citizens by pointing the finger elsewhere?
No one can write an article about a single country’s systemic abuse of a segment of its population unless they also include all of the other countries that are doing it too in the same article?
Maybe you are saying that no one should care about Russia’s LGBT citizens because they could have it worse elsewhere. So they should just be happy. Is that the gist of what you meant?
Chrisk
Actually Queerty has regularity covered places like Saudia Arabia and it’s treatment for being gay. Just google queerty and Saudia Arabia.
tham
Whataboutism…how so Russian of you.
DCguy
And the SECOND posting trying to defend Russia.
Wow, I used to think this screename was a leftover from NOM or some other anti-LGBT group, but the fact that you are desperately defending Russia pretty much exposes you as a Russian Troll account.
ptb2016
What did they say about Nazi Germany? First they came for the socialists. It didn’t bother me, I wasn’t a socialist. Then they came for….
Russia follows the same path, going for a minority their leadership can whip the public up against using the out of date teachings of a 5000 year old scribbler calling himself someone passing g on the word of an invisible imaginary deity.
Do these people actually believe their god created 10% of the human race for the other 90% to persecute? Clearly they do, while Putin and his mob use anything to deflect attention from what he is actually doing, taking his country back to the Cold War and beyond, the the age of the all powerful Czar!
Disgraceful to think in this day and age that the country that produced Tschaikowsky, Pushkin, Turgenev, Chekov, Shostakovich, Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy should be diving back into the swamps of another dark age.
James
GOD IT COULD HAPPEN HERE TOO. I CANNOT IMAGINE THE HORROR GAY PEOPLE ARE FEELING THERE. TRUMP OF COURSE SAYS NOTHING EXCEPT TO ENDORSE ANOTHER GAY HATE COUNTRY LIKE RUSSIA. SO EVIL.
batesmotel
What’s been going on over in Russia has been going on for the past two decades of U.S. Presidents who also did nothing to change what’s been happening to gays in that country. This is no different. You’re just making a bigger deal of it because Trump is President. Yet you didn’t say a peep about years ago. Interesting.
Paco
If you would even bother to look, you would see that Queerty has been reporting about Russia’s homophobia for years.
DCguy
Isn’t it cute when anti-LGBT/Pro Bigotry troll accounts lie and think nobody has Google?
Actually no, recent laws were passed while Putin has been president and as for “Past Presidents Doing Nothing, Obama spoke out against Russia’s bigotry multiple times.
“President Barack Obama said Tuesday the anti-gay laws in Russia are a prime example of violating “universal rights.” ”
https://www.politico.com/story/2013/08/barack-obama-russia-anti-gay-laws-095266