Laws like [St. Peterburg’s ban on “public promotion of homosexuality”] are typical in Russia. There is a dark and cruel streak in Russian society. Many people hate anything that’s different and that very much includes gay people. Even in Moscow, which likes to think of itself as a cosmopolitan place, the gay scene is all about don’t ask, don’t tell.
I would support tearing down the law, but I think the chances are slim. There is really nothing Western activists can do—look at how Russia is ignoring not just the West but most of the world on Syria. I hardly think they will suddenly listen where LGBT people are concerned. Their own activists are pretty much silenced and the majority of Russian gays are determined to be apolitical.
I left Russia precisely because Russian people are incredibly intolerant of minorities, sexual or ethnic. It’s dangerous to be gay, it’s dangerous to be Jewish and its dangerous to have dark skin. They’re a cruel people. I remember well how they tortured me in school, being both Jewish and gay. Just because some Russians are fed up with Putin does not mean at all that suddenly freedom as we understand it will bloom.”
Russian expat Michael Lucas weighs in St. Peterburg’s just-enacted anti-gay law
Triple S
I don’t get why so many non-Russians think that living in Russia would be the coolest thing. Just because it has a cool name and a history of being very nuclear, doesn’t make it cool.
But for the article; if we don’t try at all, then nothing will ever happen for gays in that country, in fact, it would get worse!
My view on it is simply to move away from Russia. America’s better, Australia’s better, almost all of Europe’s better. I would go so far as to say that pretty much ALL of the Asian continent is a crap place to live (with several exceptions).
Of course, it can’t be as simple as that, what with family and money issues.
Some humans just seem hellbent on looking like stupidity incarnate.
Ryan
Dude, you make porn for a living…get a grip.
Dina
I’m Russian and he’s right about intolerance.It’s not all that pessimistic but the majority is ignorant if not hateful.Hopefully,we’ll see some change in 30-50 years
Brandon H
Decades of communist oppression doesn’t leave the public consciousness in a less than 20 years.
jason
Yes, I’ve always thought of Russians as being mentally disturbed. I mean, they supported Stalin for so many years.
FreddyMertz
Gee…I wonder what it would have been like if abolition was looked upon as a lost cause, heck how ’bout WWII?
iDavid
I think a country like Russia whose cities are pretty much iced over, will take a little more time than most to thaw. I’ve always interpreted the personality of Russia to be “cold as ice”. Gays are far too hot to be in such a cold environment.
Rod
@Dina:
Russia didn’t become backwards during the USSR period. It goes back long before that. Don’t make this a communist issue because its not.
christopher di spirito
He’s 100% correct. Gay activism in Russia is as dangerous as gay activism in a Muslim nation that practices Sharia law.
JG
Everything he says is transferable to Jamaica. Sometimes it does feel like the only option is t leave and hope the ones you care about get to leave too.
the other Greg
Michael Lucas hasn’t lived in Russia since 1995. There ARE gay activists living there who deal with a lot of danger. Well I guess they’ll read this and just give up now! They should just stay home and watch porn!
Seamus
@Ryan: He may make porn for a living, but it does not mean that he is to be excluded from making a thoughtful political comment from time to time. He may be a narcissistic type of guy, but he’s not an idiot.
Ray
I almost stopped reading The Advocate when they stared posting what this bubble lipped twit had to say. I’ll gladly cut off Queerty to not look at the baboon ass of a face or have to read his pro Israeli propaganda.
Ben
Gawd Michael Lucas is revolting. He is so narcissistic, how he talks in interviews and even his performances reveal just how arrogant and self aggrandising he is. He even has a constant zoolander “I’m so hot” mouth pout, like above…. Yuck!
You make porn, Michael. Save us your idiotic political commentary, especially when it comes to your insanely bigoted Israel supremacist views. This talk of Russia isn’t much of an improvement either
ChristopherM
So interesting to hear Goolander the bigot’s views on bigotry.
Danny
The best thing is to break Russia apart again. It worked the first time. Time to repeat it. No point preserving governments that violate human rights. Takes too much energy to preserve them. Way easier to let them fall.
larz
i agree
russia and most of eastern europe are horrible places if you’re different in any way.
Jaroslaw
I agree he can come across as arrogant – I note that he ALWAYS is the top in his movies, gives facials and more to many of his partners (NEVER the reverse) but he is a lawyer or something and he came to America and made it big. So “he makes porn” means what, he is stupid? That he has no other interests, or can’t read?
Joetx
@Ray: I also stopped reading The Advocate b/c they kept on giving this Islamophobe/xenophobe a stage to spew his hatred.
I found it rich that he said, “I left Russia precisely because Russian people are incredibly intolerant of minorities, sexual or ethnic,” when he’s also a big bigot.
And I too will stop reading Queerty if it follows The Advocate in promoting this POS.
divkid
way to go you intellectual of the peen: write off a whole civilisation why don’t you; indulge in essentialist mass character assassination.
any russian reading this might jump to the conclusion he’s detecting a less than subtle whiff of anti-slavism.
irony much?
but, in his main thrust [oooh!] he’s probably correct; as broken c[L]ock hands are apt to be, periodically.
Myself
To Michael Lucas detractors:
You know you silly fat lonely trolls are just getting frustrated and all red-in-the-face while trying to push aside your voluminous blubber in order to reach down to spank your little mosquito-peters while looking up Lucas nude pix on the Internet and fantasizing about being spanked by him as you’re doing your predictable ass-holier-than-thou tiresome little dumping act on Queerty. And, oh yeah sure, you are all going to boycott Queerty if they put on some guest columnist you don’t like to hear from — but rigorously jackoff to anyway.
…Well, on your way out, don’t let the door hit you where the god lord split you — your head.
bhaaa bye..
@No. 14 · Ben …No. 15 · ChristopherM ….No. 19 · Joetx…No. 20 · divkid …No. 13 · Ray…et al trolls.
divkid
wow! i’ve had a brush with porn royalty.
thankfully, i always keep of vial of penicillin handy for just such occasions.
Oh, ok.
@ No. 22 · divkid
To be better prepared, keep it in your douche-bag.
Mike in Asheville
@Myself: I wasn’t going to post on this one, until I read your comment. What a fucking hypocrite you are. You vent on Lucas detractors for their small mindedness with all of finesse of a junior high schooler.
My problem with Lucas is how myopic his views are on Palestine and Islam — he does for them just as the whacko right does to us, lumps everything under a single banner of righteousness. Well, just as I and the vast vast majority of gay men, we do fuck dogs or children. With Lucas, he rightfully objects to anti-Semitic acts by terrorism from Palestinians and Muslims, but then labels all Palestinians and Muslims as terrorists. At the same time, he completely ignores the apartheid practices Israel uses to control the Palestinians.
What we are today witnessing in Russia with new laws subjecting gays and lesbians to heightened discrimination are the direct counter results of the brave efforts of gay and lesbian rights advocates — this is the push back against them. That exact type of response happened here too: in the civil rights movement, in the womens’ suffrage movement, in the anti-Vietnam War movement, in the Free Speech movement, and we are experiencing it now in the Gay Rights movement. Each time, here is the good old USA, local governments enacted laws to prevent demonstrations and enforce institutional discrimination. Why just yesterday, Virginia passed a new law to deny gays and lesbians access to adoption.
Yes, fighting for one’s civil rights can and is dangerous. Even in gay friendly cities, ant-gay bigots murdered scores of gay men with fire bombs in bars in New Orleans, New York and San Francisco, plus the numerous gay bashing. And let us not forget, the modern beginning the the American gay rights effort began as a riot by mostly drag queens against the institutionalized discrimination of the NYPD.
So, yeah, today it is fucked up in Russia; but that does not change one iota that the many Russian gays and lesbians are not also entitled to their civil liberties.
**********
And Myself, for the record, when I was Lucas’ age, my looks and body were as pretty — one of SF AIDS Foundation’s “Rubber Man” campaign. At 52, not fat, my dick still average in size, and still not into spanking by pretty boys (though did some pretty scenes with he-men that was fun).
divkid
as he rightly acknowledges many gays have delved into his oeuvre. this is no idle boast. very. many. delved. deeply.
hitherto, oblivious of his existence, my life has been a blighted wasteland.
sadly, i’ve had to haunt the corridors of maxillofacial trauma wards to satisfy that same aesthetic craving and get the same vicarious thrill of dodging a nasty bug.
but being a connoisseur of the face-trapped-in-elevator mature gentleman i certainly will look into his work.
i’m just glad this enormous star as taken time out of his important work to honour us. we simply don’t deserve it
Mark Moscow
Russian people is ordinary people. Problem in Putinism and Orthodox Christianity Church.
some1
Israel is for many reasons much worse. The growing number of Haredi coupled with the decline of more secular Jews means that the country has growing shortages of organs. They get these from eastern Europeans who are kidnapped, taken to Turkey or Albania, killed, and have their organs removed to be transplanted to Israeli patients. There is an alarming increase in the number of cases. An Israeli supremacist like Lucas should speak out against this practice and for mandatory organ donation in his country, rather than pretend it is an enlightened enclave against those horrible Middle Easterners and East Europeans.
CBRad
@Mike in Asheville: But gays have myopic views too. ALL Texans are bad, ALL Catholics, all Mormons, Republicans, blue collar, police, heterosexuals, athletes, Israelis, Irish, etc..
divkid
@CBRad: citations, please. citations.
divkid
@CBRad:
would that be ALL gays. or just the ones that are not you?
CBRad
@divkid: I’m the citation. Now shush up and learn something about the real world outside your ‘burb.
Mike in Asheville
@CBRad: We all have our biases and we all, to some degree, perpetuate certain stereotypes. But, Lucas opines — rants are a little bit more descriptive — with the similar one-sided blindness of the likes of Bill O’Riley and Rush Limbaugh belaboring their points while ignoring the existence of legitimate counterargument.
I do not judge that Lucas wishes to remain here in the US and operate his business interests rather than return to Russia to fight for gay rights. But he does a great injustice to those who have and continue risking their lives to improve the lot of all gays and lesbians in Russia.
BTW, this major league liberal homo, does not assign opinion about some against all. Some of the best sex I’ve enjoyed, in Dallas. I don’t hate all Texans, but there are many I despise. And, I’ve date Catholics, in the past, including several lust filled nights in Seminary dorms and some of my closest friends are Catholic. And yes, I do despise the many Catholic hypocrites. A have a cousin who converted to Mormonism, but I do believe most Mormons are morons. As for Republicans, most are Repugnatans. But, the only authoritative voice against DADT back in 1994 was Mr. Conservative, Barry Goldwater, who argued that gays and lesbians should serve in the military without restriction. Blue-collar, really, as the vast majority of all people, gay and straight, is blue collar. As for the police, there are more good guys/gals than rotten eggs and I fully support the good. Of heterosexuals, you do realize that the only way for a majority of Americans to support the civil rights of gays/lesbians, is when that majority includes a majority of heterosexuals. Athletes? I’ll answer that one with the sexy Ben Cohen. Israelis, well I’m 1/8 Jewish, and I will never ever forget the sad stories my great Aunt Buble told my brothers and I about losing so many family members during WWII. Also, the 2nd boyfriend was a Jewish doctor. Irish: they’re pretty cool, being so Catholic and all supporting same-sex relationships — bet they get full marriage rights before we do. Now those New York American-Irish thugs running the St. Patrick’s Day parade, yeah, they are bigots.
divkid
@CBRad:
sir, not being familiar with this “‘burb” of which you speak and going by the extraordinary learning evinced in your corpus i can only hazard a guess that it might be a technical academic term.
alternatively, the humour afforded by reading your body of work might also suggest that it’s referent is perhaps some exotic species of bivalve mollusc, which would render your thoughts entirely unintelligible no doubt in a clever surrealistic manner designed to gull a foreigner. i plump for this later option. ah, very amusing. yes.
nineinchnail
@jason: Loads of Americans supported Dubya for eight years so whats you point? 😉
divkid
@divkid:
let it be on record that my comment (no.20) which is linked to this one, was in response to a personal attack by the great ARTISTE MICHAEL LUCAS — after he deigned, god-like in his priapic madgesty to descend to the mortal realm that he might lambast his detractors each in turn by employing:
1.) his deathless prose (yes, irony — because it was written like a fat kid mainlining corn syrup).
2.) unique wit (uniquely non-existant).
needles to say this didn’t go well for her. bitch got PWNED, ninja style. and it seems has since grovelled to queerty to spare her blushes and they have cravenly given in and removed her comment.
silly queerty, what were are you thinking, this is downright squalid.
John
I don’t always agree with Lucas, but I think he is unfortunately right here. I do find it strange how so many gay men LOVE gay porn, but think anyone who does it is a sub- human and not smart enough to have valid opinions. Lucas is many things, but he is not stupid. He is one of the few millionaire gay porn stars, something that takes more than just a big cock to achieve. He is also incredibly funny when interviewed on The Derek and Romaine Show and The Frank Decaro Show on Sirius OutQ.
divkid
@divkid:
edit
*1.) his deathless prose (yes, irony — because *that* displayed as much care and attention as does a diabetic fat kid mainlining corn syrup!)
Rohit
To be absolute truth, he is not such a big star in America and all Gay Americans hate him…his fans are the only ones who work for him in his rubbish pornography. He doesnt even have a 10,000 followers on twitter, that clearly indicates that no one wants to follow such an absurd porn whore who tops in his porn videos bcoz he pays them huge money..he is 1 coward, trying to molest all innocent Americans and europeans in his porn movies. Surely if the government doesnt had criminal case of rape, I would have entered his apartment and raped him 1000 times until his ass gets swollen and ripped. And fucking queerty, stop calling him , porno kingpin??? seems he pays money for this website too to invite his rubbish sick articles on this fucking site.
Pete
Has been MIchael Lucas needs a new mortician. He is looking sooooooo old these days. The trout lips also need a wee bit less botox.