So, gays can feel safe and at ease in Russia with the Olympics on? Funny, but I don’t believe that…why not?
Oh yeah…that’s why. An antifascist group of LGBT rights supporters, on October 6 of last year, found out just how safe you really are under Russian law if you go against the prevailing “wisdom” that all gays are dangerous pedophiles who must not be allowed to “influence” children. They carried a banner saying “Hitler also killed the gays. No to fascism in Russia!” They were completely peaceful; they harmed no one. All they did was speak out against homophobia and fascism. And they got beaten, arrested, and brutally harangued by the crowd for that.
Others have fared even worse:
And gay-bashing murders are not unheard of, either. And the sentences for such crimes are shockingly light. Russia has no hate-crimes legislation, after all.
Gee, I wonder if Johnny Weir still thinks he’d be safe if he went there now.
