Lily Zhang

19 February 2014
Op-ed: Russian homophobia
Final, edited

"Please do not touch kids," Russian Deputy Prime Minister, Dmitry Kozak, said in a press
release published on NBC News regarding the recent influx of gay athletes for the 2014 Winter
Olympics in Sochi, Russia. The nation that was once a world superpower is now renowned for its
deep-rooted homophobia that has been fueled over the centuries by a complex combination of
ingrained ideology, political turmoil and Orthodox Church teachings.

The Russian national parliament decriminalized same-sex sexual activity in 1993; unions
between two of the same sex are presently not legal. No laws concerning the discrimination on the
basis of sexual orientation have been passed through the national parliament. Though gays are
denied the right to marry, they are still afforded a basic right that first world citizens rarely pause to
consider: that which renders one free from persecution and guarantees protection against
unprovoked mistreatment.

In deprecating this homophobia, Westerners often ignore that the general Russian aversion
to homosexuality is so deeply ingrained that to succeed in lobbying parliament to pass pro-gay laws
would hardly "fix" the situation. Gay rights movements are prevalent in places where large numbers
in addition to the actual gay population take an active role; this is not the case in Russia, where
homophobia is not only potent but also communal. In a poll conducted by The Moscow Times,
which surveyed Russian opinion on gays, "23 percent of respondents felt that gay people should be
left alone, 27 percent said they needed psychological help, 16 percent suggested that gays be isolated
from society, 22 percent insisted on compulsory treatment, and five percent said homosexuals
should be 'liquidated.'"

"They have traditional values and want to uphold them. For some societies 'individual
freedom' is everything. For others, 'social consensus' is everything. One is not necessarily better than
the other," one commenter said in an article for The Atlantic entitled "Why Is Russia So
Homophobic?"

Those who criticize Russia's stark conservatism and vouch for the legalization of gay
marriage in Russia are going about it improperly. The majority of an entire nation cannot simply be
forced to alter its beliefs concerning homosexuality. To truly assimilate homosexuality into Russian
society would require enormous ideological change not possible for a nation like Russia.

Consider that Russia only recently lost its status as a booming world superpower and that,
since then, economic and political turmoil have been rife. Because homophobia is so deeply
ingrained into Russian culture and has only been reinforced by hurt national pride and a negative
birth rate, bestowing the right of marriage to gays would result in the violent dissent of the majority
of the population. In essence, Russia has neither the means nor the will to further the liberties of
gays.

Sculpting Russia along Western beliefs would simply lead to a rise in the prevalence of de
facto discrimination, much like the maltreatment of African Americans that persevered long after
the formal dismantling of Jim Crow laws and that exists even today. In addition, Russia lacks the
liberal ideology that fueled the 1960s American civil rights movement in its battle against Southern
racism.

Westerners should look at the issue from a perspective beyond that of their own beliefs.
Though in the U.S. gay equality groups like to make noise to promote themselves to the top of the
political agenda, Russia operates on a completely different orbit.