Why The End of Communism Didn't End Antigay Hate in Russia; Advocate, 2/7/14

Michael Regula, Advocate; Why The End of Communism Didn't End Antigay Hate in Russia:

"“To the bureaucratic leaders, gay people seem totally bizarre, beyond understanding,” Smakov said in 1977. “Worse, they are viewed as threats to the system. Why? Because homosexuality is considered a sign of one’s intrinsic freedom and that, of course, is dangerous.”...

“There was a time that Russia was better,” says Vakhrushev. “Since the early '90s to middle 2000s, the situation was better than it is today.”

THE POLITICS

Without hesitation, Vakhrushev said Russia is “an antigay society.” While the blame could easily be placed on the government, he lays blame with his fellow countrymen, as well.

“Homophobia is an idea being forwarded by people, not government,” Vakhrushev says. But he does fault the Putin regime for perpetuating the status quo in the interest of — at its most innocuous — political gain. In a severely conservative state, capitalizing on such a collective ideology is undoubtedly a means to capture and retain power. Classifying homosexuals as a direct threat to the family and the survival of the state is a popular political platform for the Kremlin, State Duma, and the increasingly powerful Russian Orthodox Church, and one that echoes dictatorships of the past.

“The government doesn't want to educate people, it wants to sell oil,” says Vakhrushev. “It wants to be popular, and antigay law is very popular.”

Smakov spoke candidly of the Soviet regime’s labeling homosexuals as “threats to the system” and “dangerous” to the state. In the past, such rhetoric has been closely accompanied by a systematic constriction of free speech — one of the many charges consistently leveled against Putin’s United Russia party."