It’s not uncommon for countries to supply their citizens with pamphlets offering useful tips on cultural sensitivity when traveling overseas.
According to the Independent, the Russian Foreign Ministry has updated its “General Elements of Behavior” guide to include tips for citizens on how to behave around LGBTQ people in other countries. Mainly, countries unlike Russia, where homophobia is not sanctioned by the government and where movies like Beauty and the Beast and Power Rangers are not given 18+ ratings for deigning to feature openly queer characters.
In general, the new guide says Russian tourists may want to refrain from using anti-LGBTQ rhetoric in places where gay rights are part of national policy. For instance, in France, the guide cautions tourists to be respectful of gay people and “not to address representatives of the LGBT community” with slurs or insults.
In Spain, the guide explains that “public expression of negative attitudes towards people of non-traditional sexual orientation will not meet with understanding, therefore, one should abstain from it.”
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Related: Russian website warns travelers how many gays are in any given city
In Canada, the guide says, “gay marriage has been legalized for a long time” and adds that “there is a serious fixation on gender equality.”
And in Denmark, the guide alerts tourists that “it is not necessary to touch upon the themes of race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation.”
How about the United States?
Amazingly, the guide makes no mention of the U.S. whatsoever. A similar guide put out by the U.S. State Departments, however, warns American tourists that in Russia “discrimination based on sexual orientation is widespread” and says “acts of violence and harassment targeting LGBTI individuals occur.”
Other tips in the guide include: Don’t “loudly shout and get drunk” in Mongolia; don’t be surprised if Greek people “abundantly sprinkle their speech with curses”; don’t sit “directly next to passengers if there are vacant separate seats” available in Sweden; and in the Netherlands, “it is better not to question the Dutch about the royal family.”
Noted.
Related: How Trump’s love for Putin is allowing the Russian right to export anti-LGBTQ hatred
kehvan
In closet vith you, komrrrade! Arrrrghh !
Eldred
Yes! Comrade Dmitri, try not to be awful person when traveling abroad. Only in Mother Russi!
Eldred
Yes! Comrade Dmitri, try not to be awful person when traveling abroad. Only in Mother Russia!
ProfessorMoriarty
Here’s a good tip for racist, misogynist, xenophobic, and/or homophobic Russian tourists: stay in your miserable worker’s paradise. Keep yourselves and your antediluvian opinions where they belong, in your craptastic country.
mhoffman953
LOL Seems ironic that you paint with a broad brush to call all Russians xenophobic when your comment is actually xenophobic
ChrisK
What would a post be without mhoffman953 defending Trump or Putin.
I’m xenophobic against people that live in hate and bigotry. Yes sir. No denying it.
DCguy
What a shock! mhoffman953 (or Mo Bro, or o.codone etc…) the knee jeremy Trump Troll comes on to defend Russia.
So a Trump troll who literally only signs in here to defend Trump finally posts on a different post to…..defend Russia.
Yep, the Russia bots are still working for Trump. Thanks for making your phony posting even easier to spot. Now go cash your check from Putin before the ruble falls again.
Neville
Here’s an even greater thing for Russians travelling abroad to do; if you can’t not be homophobic abroad, either stay home, or go to places where you can be as homophobic as you like (and I don’t mean the USA, they’ve got enough shit to deal with without foreigners adding to the homophobia and bigotry already there.) Perhaps Uganda would be more to their liking.
tommy4429
This is precisely the reason why Russia will always be a backward primitive country that is out of step with the civilized world,
crowebobby
But the boys are so f*cking hot. I wish we could save them./\
silveroracle
Agreed.
Jack Meoff
It’s hilarious that Russia addresses their bigotry and short comings in a warning to their citizens travelling abroad by wording it in such a way as to make it sound like the rest of the world is in the wrong and not them.
gaym50ish
These instructions should be a clear indication for Russians that their government is out of step with the rest of the civilized world.
Billysees
They’re out of step now but that will change eventually. Various amounts of LGBT acceptance have been underway for many years now and will only continue to improve. But like any great work of accepting people ‘regardless’, it’ll be subject to the ‘three steps forward, one or two steps backward rule’.
Neonegro
Sounds like good advice to me.
When you are a guest in someone else’s country, you must not offend.
scotty
in russia, closet contain everybody!
absolutely no apology to that yakov asswipe