BUS 449 Post 7

Dear reader,

I want to continue with the Stephen Fry’s documentary “Out There”. Another country that Fry visited was Mother Russia. Unlike in Brazil, the situation with homophobia is on the other side of spectrum.

In Russia, government becomes more and more conservative, and the Orthodox Church is the most powerful institution in the country. Saint Petersburg – city that used to have reputation of being the most liberal – was the first to adopt anti-propaganda law, created by deputy Vitaly Milonov. As you may already know, according to his law it became illegal to promote homosexuality to minors. I believe everyone agrees that children are underage minors who unable to make rational decisions, therefore they cannot consent, and an attempt to force them into any sexually-related activity is illegal and has to be prevented. However, according to officials’ minds, the word “propaganda” has much broader meaning that aforementioned definition. Educating children of possibility of different sexuality is also considered to be illegal even though some of them start feeling that they might be gay. So now gay parents break law every day as the promote homosexuality to their own children. To highlight how absurd the law is, Fry comments: “I have never ever wanted anybody to become gay who is not gay. Just as I am English and I have never wanted anybody to become English”.

Deputy Milonov, who is currently training to become a priest, truly believes that he can save generations from being gay by banning gay propaganda. However, the result of this law is that there are so many children who attempted suicide because of their sexuality but offering them information and support is now illegal for everybody, including teachers, psychologists, and even their parents.

Here is a link to the interview where you can hear all ridiculous things he said by yourself