Scapegoats

From USA Today:

"Russian gays fear return of anti-LGBT campaign"

After passage of a law banning the promotion of homosexuality among minors last summer, the Russian government's anti-gay campaign appears to be on hiatus during the Olympic Games. But many gay activists and human rights groups fear it will return with a vengeance once the foreign athletes, journalists and dignitaries have gone home. The government takes little interest in the gay scene itself, as long at it keeps a low profile. But when gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people organize into an independent movement demanding rights, the state moves to stifle it. The danger, activists say, comes when laws like the one banning gay propaganda seem to send a signal that attacks on gays are acceptable. Homosexuality was decriminalized in Russia in 1991. Hand-holding by same-sex couples is not an uncommon sight. Police have tried to protect gays from hooligans bent on violence, though that protection has not been consistent or reliable.  Russia has officially recognized the LGBT Sport Federation, which plans to hold the LGBT Open Games from Feb. 26 to March 2 to draw attention to human rights issues and to present a positive image of gays to Russians. But amid a semblance of tolerance, gay activists can quickly run afoul of the government, particularly if their activities take on a political coloration. Gay pride parades, for instance, have never been authorized in Russian cities -- and the new law gives authorities leverage to forbid them outright. Amid increasingly anti-gay rhetoric from lawmakers and public figures, the Duma passed a law in June 2013 prohibiting the "promotion of non-traditional sexual relations among minors." Violators so far face only fines, but the law is being used to cow reporters into forgoing favorable articles about gays and to block public activity such as a gay pride march. The signs are ominous, says Dmitry Svetly, a coordinator with the Rainbow Association, which organizes events and street protests to promote the rights of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and transgender people. The new law has encouraged radical anti-gay groups, Svetly says. "At one protest, this group came and surrounded us," he says. "Homophobic groups have grown larger in size, stronger, and they feel they have the support of the government." In some cases, attackers have grabbed a gay man off the street and taken him to an apartment where they would beat him and curse him as a pedophile, then post a videotape of the incident online as further humiliation. What happens after the Olympics? Andrei Zhuravlyov, a conservative lawmaker from the United Russia party, wants to reintroduce a bill that would strip gays of parental rights. The initial attempt failed in September. Many Russian LGBT activists say such laws could have an easier time passing after the Olympics. "Many of the young people I've talked to fear that once the Olympic Games are over and international attention for Russia decreases, things will get worse. A lot are really afraid," Klimova says. The law on homosexual propaganda is part of a clear government strategy to focus on morality, according to sociologist Olga Kryshtanovskaya, a former member of the United Russia party. "After the collapse of the Soviet Union, there was a period that was widely characterized as moral decay," she says. "The government wants to restore morals." The government influences most of the Russian news media, which in turns shape how the public perceives gay issues.

^ The Russians, historically, have always needed a scapegoat. Someone they can blame for why their lives have always been so difficult. During Czarist times they blamed the Jews and whenever the Czar needed to get the peasants' minds off of something he had done he sent in the Cossacks to kill the Jews in pogroms (a Russian word meaning "destruction.") These attacks allowed the regular Russians to feel a sense of justice when in reality nothing had changed for them. Then in Soviet times the Communists blamed non-Communists (as well as Jews) whenever their 5 year plans failed. To the Soviet Dictatorship they would simply call someone an "enemy of the people" and arrest them and their family. Again, these attacks allowed the regular Soviets (mainly the Russians) to feel a sense of justice despite the lack of freedom and food. In modern Russia the new scapegoat are homosexuals. They are being blamed for the social decay that occurred from December 1991 (when the USSR collapsed) to today despite that fact that they are a minority without much influence. The anti-gay campaign has become a crusade for Russians who continue to live in poverty with little rights and freedoms. I saw a Nightline report on how homosexuals in Russia are treated and it was along the same lines as how Blacks were treated in the South before the Civil Rights Movement (it's interesting to note that the Soviets showed how the Blacks in the US were mistreated as a way to show how great Communism was.) One thing that really gets me is all those so-called, self-proclaimed religious people in Russia who openly call for the destruction of homosexuals. These "religious" people only found the light in the past 20 years and before that they were mostly good, non-believing Communists. I have no respect for any religion or religious sect that calls for other people to be hurt or killed. The point of religion is to help people treat others with respect, forgiveness and harmony and not to persecute anyone. You may not agree with how others live, but to attack them is anti-religious. There is a saying that those that openly protest someone so strongly are usually hiding being involved in the thing they protest openly. That may be true. There's a group of non-homosexuals who follow the "straight, but not narrow" way of life. I support them 100%. They are heterosexuals who believe that gay people should have equal rights the same way that white people believed that blacks should be treated equally. If Russia stopped trying to blame difficult groups for the problems in their country then foreigners (gay an straight) would want to come to Russia and see what a great country it is. ^


http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/02/15/gays-in-russia/5372287/