Ruskie to Yankee: Butt Out

Russian laws for Russians by Russians

From Elena Isinbaeva: “Setting the record straight” at Pravda Ru August 16, 2013

Excerpt, minor edit, brief comment by 

Carolyn Bennett 

Some
U.S. adopting parents
abuse
foreign-adopted children

Three-time world pole vault champion, double Olympic gold medalist, heart and soul of the Moscow World Athletics, “Elena Isinbaeva’s comments about the issue of publicizing homosexual practices among minors may have caused outrage in some quarters in the west but her stand strikes a chord with the hearts and minds of the Russian people. The question is not one of rights; it is one of respect and western moral imperialism.” ─ Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey

Hinchey continues

  

I

U.S. attacks "ally" Pakistan

f westerners wish to live in societies in which one dares not to venture out of the home after dark because of marauding gangs of drug addicts and drunks roaming the streets, smashing bottles and insulting people, pushing over old ladies, urinating in car parks, leaving railway stations dirtier than any pigsty, then that is their business, but not in Russia because Russians do not behave in that way.

I

U.S. drones against
Pakistan
protested

f the westerners who are complaining so bitterly wish to stuff themselves full of junk food, leave school without being able to read, write, spell, count or even speak properly, infest foreign beaches with their obese and tattooed bodies and blindly support their political regimes which have invaded foreign countries illegally, deployed military hardware against civilian structures, which arm and aid terrorist elements to destabilize governments

they want removed, then they do not really have any right to claim the high moral ground, do they?

U.S. military assault
on its own

Butt out

C

ommon decency dictates that you do not go to someone else’s country and tell them how to conduct their affairs.

The bottom line is that Russia’s laws were made by Russians, for Russians, in Russia; and the bottom line is that the vast majority of Russians agree with the law, prohibiting the dissemination of homosexuality among minors.

And who in their right mind would disagree with that?

Therefore, what is all the fuss about and can we please move along to something important, such as the west (F-UK-US [French, British, American] Axis in particular) supplying terrorists in Syria...

Sort of Yank comments 

A

 Russian-born American who writes for a variety of U.S. publications seems to be doing what many Americans let loose in mass media do. He slurs “other” while claiming to champion “otherness”; in this case, Russia, its people and its president. The writer also fails miserably in trying, if indeed he is trying, to put forth a clear and convincing argument. Unintentionally, I expect, Michael Idov’s “civil rights” abuse talk, while absolving the United States, actually reflects the state of affairs in this land we love.  

 

“…The war on gay people” [every utterance in contemporary America is ‘war’ on something  ─ terror, drugs, women, poverty ─ to the extent that “war” becomes meaningless; bracketed comment mine], Michael Idov wrote this week, “is one part of a broader crackdown on civil rights that got out of control.

“Ever since a wave of mass protests in December 2011 shook the Kremlin, the Russian Duma (parliament) has passed a staggering number of restrictive laws: new regulations that make it harder for people to congregate freely; a rule that requires all NGOs that receive funding from abroad to label themselves as ‘foreign agents’; a stultifying ban on U.S. adoptions of Russian children; and a group of decency and anti-piracy bills that makes it easier to shutter inconvenient websites.

“Ironically,” he says, when “it is not being whipped up into paranoid frenzy, Russia is not a particularly homophobic culture.

Its motto on the subject is something along the lines of ‘Whatever you do behind closed-doors is fine’ (In Russia, everyone is doing something behind closed doors). [Sounds like he is making the case for the Duma law.]  

Human Rights
Universal Declaration
1948

He plods on: 

“With new laws against gay people, Americans and the internet, Putin has used the classic dictator’s [more lazy, loose language like “terrorist” and “war on” and “coup-not” and "rebel" and "freedom fighter" and "dictator-lite" and violence-prone-war-making "humanitarian"] gambit of shoring up the most backward [this Russian-American doesn’t seem to like his compatriots] elements of his base by demonizing [Think U.S. versus: Iranians and Libyans and Pakistanis and Afghans and Palestinians and Koreans and Russians and Chinese and Syrians and Somalis and, well, you get my point] everything they don’t understand about the protest demographic. Homosexuality, in this case, is just one part of the semiotic cluster of otherness.”

“Otherness,” indeed. The Ruskie is right:  Best to butt out, Yank.

Until “the greatest democracy in the world,” this land that we love, has cleaned up its human rights record, it should, well, need I say it? Stop bombing and lecturing and abusing and start cleaning up its human rights record. 

  

Sources and notes

“Isinbaeva: Setting the record straight” (Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey Pravda.Ru):

Russian law passed recently by 436 votes in favor, zero against, one abstention: bans the propagation of non-traditional sexual activities in public, with the aim of protecting minors. … [However] there is nothing discriminatory against the LGBT community in this law. … The age of consent in Russia is 16 years of age, regardless of sexual orientation; transsexuals and transgender persons are allowed to change their legal gender; homosexuality is not regarded as a mental illness and it is not a criminal offense under Russian law; single persons can adopt children whatever their sexual orientation, while homosexuals can serve in the armed forces without any type of restriction.

 August 16, 2013, http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/16-08-2013/125419-isinbaeva_record-0/

Copyright © 1999-2013, «PRAVDA.Ru». When reproducing our materials in whole or in part, hyperlink to PRAVDA.Ru should be made. The opinions and views of the authors do not always coincide with the point of view of PRAVDA.Ru's editors.

“Putin’s ‘war on gays’ is a desperate search for scapegoats ─ Russia is not a particularly homophobic culture, but its government is looking to divert attention from recent political discontent … The Winter Olympics were supposed to be President Putin’s big – how shall I put it – coming-out party: a planet-spanning, fortnight-long infomercial for the Russia he had, over 14 years, remade in his image.”

(Michael Idov) August 19, 2013 14:37), http://www.newstatesman.com/world-affairs/2013/08/putins-war-gays-desperate-search-

Michael Idov, according profile sources online, “moved to the United States from the former U.S.S.R. at the age of 16. He settled in Cleveland, Ohio, and later moved to New York City.”

He has been editor of RUSSIA! He is a contributing editor at New York Magazine; and writer whose work has appeared in Slate, Vogue and The New Republic. His Russian publications include Kommersant, Bolshoi Gorod and Snob; U.S. positions: Writer/Cultural Journalist: New York Magazine; Editor-In-Chief: GQ Russia; Editor-In-Chief: The New Republic; Cultural Journalist: The New Republic; Editor: Russian GQ; Editor-In-Chief: New York Magazine. Board Memberships and Affiliations: Representative: Russia! Education: University of Michigan degree in film studies, http://www.zoominfo.com/p/Michael-Idov/528090027

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