Vladmir Putin on Homosexuality on Russia.

They don't really oppress them in the most straightforward sense of the word.

Subtle oppression or in your face oppression is still oppression. These laws are clearly encouraging negative attitudes towards homosexuals in russia, not that they needed encouraging in the first place.

He's such a LAD.

From Putin's perspective, this is the advantage of having an incredibly vaguely worded law.

For example, the Russian government has claimed that even running a helpline for suicidal gay teenagers constitutes 'gay propaganda', but I suspect for the games they'll take a far more narrow interpretation. If they were actually to arrest an athlete they'd be causing a huge headache for the IOC.

It's funny how you call Russia a country of drug addicts and alcoholics meanwhile more people in UK are taking drugs and drinking alcohol Anyway I don't understand why people are angry about all gay laws in Russia, you dont live there and never will with this attitude.

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Then don't go to Russia. Be thankful that you are in a place where you can be gay and feel reasonably safe.

I will explain the difference between the cultural relative, amoral, Western view and the traditional, moralist, Orthodox view which Putin more or less represents here. As someone from such a society (somewhere in Balkans...) I am qualified.

Firstly, he is correct - Russians and other Easterners are not ogres who eat gays for lunchtime snack. On the contrary, our views on homosexuals are the same views that were common in the West until you recently decided that anything even remotely resembling the world of the last 1000 years of European Culture should be decimated without question. That is to say, we essentially do not care if a man takes it in the ass if he wants to - most of us are intelligent nihilists at heart. We all know that men who enjoy men exist and have existed before - just as today in Russia, it was not hard to meet other homosexual men in Soviet times. And, as long as everyone respects the social order, which logically and correctly values man and woman together as the preferable partnership, there is and has been no problem.

However, this is the important bit. The homosexual has turned into the 'gay'. You in the West have manufactured (entirely manufactured) this absurd identity of the screaming, leather-panty, promiscous, filthy-and-we-love-it, cum-swapping, sequined, glittery, anti-everything, politicized gay. It is not enough for you that homosexual men were tacitly allowed to live as they wanted in our societies, you try to make us stage gay pride parades, to teach our children that they too can be a gay if they want to win some votes and make some money, to simply reject everything that has held our fragile societies together after centuries of Turk rule, communist nonsense and heavy warfare. And because we are proud people, we also don't like the fact that you do not even pretend to give us a choice.

That is why many of us who would otherwise be sympathetic enjoy giving a big 'F U' to the West in this area.

Assuming I'm gay because I express concern at russia's homophobic laws.

Well whether you are or not, don't "express concern" at Russia's laws and attitudes towards gays if they have nothing to do with you. They can do whatever they like in their country.

So the world shouldn't comment or criticise when a nation starts discriminating and oppressing people. I guess no one should bother with syria then because it doesn't affect them. We should all just forget human empathy and morality and if we see a wrong in the world just ignore it.


Good useful use of logic right there mate.

If you were really that concerned, you'd get up and actually do something about it rather than sit here commenting on it.

Well that's just a fallacious attempt to discredit me. Saying if i cared i'd do something about it, knowing full well there's nothing i can actually do about it that will make any significance to discredit my motives or concern is ridiculous. Clearly I am concerned or else I wouldn't be here arguing. My ability to change anything significantly is limited, but being part of the greater voice that speaks up against this and raises awareness for those that aren't fully aware and perhaps gets them on board. The more people that talk up against this the more the russian govt will take notice.