Derrick San

Ms.Grant
UWRT 1102-35
2-10-2015

Open Season in Russia

Take me to church
I'll worship like a dog at the shrine of your lies
I'll tell you my sins so you can sharpen your knife
Offer me my deathless death
Good God, let me give you my life
This is the chorus to Hoizers song Take Me to Church. At first I didnt quite
understand these words. I thought it was meaningless nonsense put into the chorus of
popular pop music. The more and more I listened to the words I realized that Hoizer
was trying to tell us something. Later that day I went on YouTube to try and find the
music video to the song. In the video you saw a Russian gay couple being abused by a
group of people and the abusers videotaping it. I was appalled, the scenes showed in
the videos were very sad and depressing. I dont understand why another human being
would do that to someone else. I was hurt and scared; I didnt think what was happening
was real. I decided to look into it. After reading a couple of articles and watching a few
videos I had an idea what was happening to the LGBT community in Russia
Every day in Russia, Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Transgender people are
oppressed by fellow Russians. Russians see homosexuality as a sickness or a dieses.
There are anti-gay groups in Russia who come together and try to find homosexuals
and try to expose them to society by abusing, beating, and humiliating them until they
confess they are gay, while the anti-gay group is videotaping it. Anti-gay groups in
1

Russia dont get rewards for exposing gays but do it out of their own homophobia and
hatred for the gay community. The groups release the tape to employers who then fire
the victims. These tapes pretty much ruin peoples lives, causing their families and
friends to be hated because they are supporting someone is the LGBT community and
causing the victim to lose his or her job. LGBT people are being targeted and hunted in
Russia; it is open season. What is Russias government doing about this? The Russian
Government is looking the other way in the abuse and have even established anti-gay
laws.
Vladimir Putin, Russias President, is strongly against homosexuality in Russia
and has passed anti-gay laws in Russia. In Russia gay parades started to get banned
by the Russian government. In 2010, in the case Alekseyev v. Russia in the European
Human Rights Court, Russia was fined because they violated the freedom of assembly,
by not allowing a gay parade. In 2013 Russian parliament passed Article 6.21 which
states that Propaganda is the act of distributing information among minors that 1) is
aimed at the creating nontraditional sexual attitudes, 2) makes nontraditional sexual
relations attractive, 3) equates the social value of traditional and nontraditional sexual
relations, or 4) creates an interest in nontraditional sexual relations. Which gives
Russia the ability to criminalize homosexual activity such as gay marches and parades,
because of the vague use of non-traditional sexual relations and propaganda. Even if
victims were willing to report their abuse they would not get a fair trial because even
lawyers wont represent them and judges wouldnt allow them to win. Sometimes these
judges and lawyers are a part of these anti-gay groups.

The goal of these anti-gay groups is to emotionally beat their victims until they
eventually commit suicide. This is very tragic, just the thought of being pushed to the
edge and just being broken down so much until I was forced to take my own life is
unfathomable. Russia is essentially stripping the LGBT community of their rights. As a
result of the alienation LGBT members in Russia are losing jobs, social acceptance, and
forced to hide themselves so they can protect family and themselves. Not only is the
government in Russia against LGBT people so are the churches in Russia.
The Russian Orthodox Church is one of the main backers of the anti-gay
legislation. This law wasnt just randomly passed by Putin but was passed through the
Duma (Russian Legislation), in other words the people backed this law but the main
reason was because of the church. Many people in Russia believe that being gay is
morally unacceptable. That is why many people dont try to help the victims being
oppressed but instead help the groups who are oppressing LGBT people. Many people
in Russia define themselves as Russian Orthodox so it makes sense for them to be for
anti-gay laws, because they wouldnt want to defy their church. That is how the anti-gay
laws were passed. So in the eyes of the people it is okay because the Church said it
was.
Even though America isnt perfect, sometimes we can take our freedoms and our
tolerances for granted. A place like America is very accepting of diverse individuals and
different thinking. America is a dream, a special place where everyone is accepted
compared to a country like Russia.