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Western media crossed the bounds of common sense as they grow increasingly adamant in their desire to disrupt the Sochi Olympics over a Russian law banning homosexual propaganda to minors, which left them fuming with rage. Opponents of the law post angry comments on the online forums of leading American newspapers, calling Russia a “plague”, accusing it of ethnic and racial discrimination and demanding a boycott of the Games. However, the worst may yet to come. Cyd Zeigler, the founder of California-based Outsports.com, raised many eyebrows recently when he suggested something offbeat. He said that we must allow the Olympics to take place, and foreign athletes must travel to Sochi, but the International Olympic Committee must bar Russian athletes from Olympic sporting events. That’d kill two birds with one stroke… gay athletes wouldn’t have to miss the Olympics, whilst it would duly punish Russia for presumably abusing the rights of the so-called LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) community.
Zeigler’s absurdity is just one episode in a vehement anti-Russian campaign unleashed in the Western media. As we know from our Soviet past, whenever a campaign’s launched, it quickly turns into a farce. Sergei Mikheyev, General Director of the Centre for Political Information think tank, told VOR, “After the breakup of the USSR, the West assumed the role of a victor and mentor, the sort of mentor who beats lazy pupils on the head with a ruler and gives others bad grades for failing to grasp the lesson properly. Therefore, this campaign virtually never ever stopped. It just changed topics. The one that’s being mulled now is about gays and other such communities, which gained legitimacy in the West. In my opinion, the West is experiencing a profound ideological crisis. What was condemned for centuries as perversion is now a norm, and, still worse, this norm is proclaimed a sign of a civilised society and progress”.
Oddly enough, the current campaign didn’t immediately follow the adoption of amendments to the criticised law. In fact, this law is an amendment to a previously adopted law, On the Protection of Children from Information Causing Harm to Their Health and Development. The RF Gosduma passed it in early June. Initially, there was some immediate criticism from the West, but not too severe. At present, six weeks later, it occurred to someone to link the gay issue to the 2014 Olympics. Western media were quick to take the cue. Since then, the Sochi Olympics has received mention almost exclusively in the context of a threat to gay athletes’ rights and safety. Pundits draw provocative parallels with the 1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany. Moreover, it all happened within a very short time.
Aleksei Mukhin, Director of the Centre for Political Conjuncture, said, “The rapidity with which mainstream Western media reoriented themselves shows that hidden commercial interests might be involved. The LGBT community represents a branched business system with large amounts of merchandise sold within its framework. There’s a potential market for those goods in Russia. After Russia entered the World Trade Organisation, companies producing those goods began eyeing Russian markets. It seems to me that all that gay hysteria is just about one thing… marketing”. In the West, gays are an important consumer segment, hence, their political influence. As most gays have no children, for reasons easy to understand, they usually have no one but themselves to provide for. Normally, most gays aged between 30 and 50 are successful businessmen with handsome fortunes. Billions are easier to make on luxury car sales or extravagant trips to Thailand than on family fast food or Pampers.
Mukhin said, “Contrary to widespread biased stereotypes about Russia, it’s a very open country with fairly-liberal legislation. I’d like to point out that the law slammed by the West stipulates only administrative and not criminal punishment for the propaganda of homosexual sex among minors. I don’t think that it’s something the LGBT community can’t bring itself to accept”. The Russian authorities stopped in the middle of the road. They imposed fines for gay propaganda, but didn’t propose criminal prosecution for such offenses. Many Muslim and Southeast Asian countries have much stricter anti-gay laws. Russia’s half-measures cost it the embarrassing situation it found itself in with torrents of foul accusations pouring from all sides. In the end, it’ll probably have to tolerate gay protests during the Olympics. Meanwhile, supporters of all-inclusive tolerance permit themselves such nasty and racist remarks, compared to which the amendments to the law on child protection are baby talk.
16 August 2013
Dmitri Babich
Voice of Russia World Service
http://voiceofrussia.com/2013_08_16/Olympics-for-gays-or-apotheosis-of-foul-ideology-2333/
Editor’s Note:
Russian sources tell me that one of the reasons why there are no criminal penalties in the law on homosexual propaganda is that the Church demanded such a stance. This is a wise position. Compare it to the Russophobic outburst of Christopher Calin of New York City. I’d say that reasonable people would agree with me… “One of these things is not like the other”. ‘Nuff said…
BMD
Voices from Russia 
Olympics for Gays, or, Apotheosis of Unfair Ideology
Tags: 2014 Winter Olympic Games, 2014 Winter Olympics, Cyd Zeigler, Duma, Gay, Gay Lesbian and Bisexual, homosexual marriage, homosexuality, International Olympic Committee, legal affairs, LGBT, mass media, media, Media bias, Olympic, Olympic Games, Olympics, political commentary, politics, RF Gosduma, Russia, Russian, Russophobia, sexual minorities, Sochi, Sochi Olympics, State Duma, United States, US media, USA, Western media, Winter Olympic Games, Winter Olympics
______________________________
Western media crossed the bounds of common sense as they grow increasingly adamant in their desire to disrupt the Sochi Olympics over a Russian law banning homosexual propaganda to minors, which left them fuming with rage. Opponents of the law post angry comments on the online forums of leading American newspapers, calling Russia a “plague”, accusing it of ethnic and racial discrimination and demanding a boycott of the Games. However, the worst may yet to come. Cyd Zeigler, the founder of California-based Outsports.com, raised many eyebrows recently when he suggested something offbeat. He said that we must allow the Olympics to take place, and foreign athletes must travel to Sochi, but the International Olympic Committee must bar Russian athletes from Olympic sporting events. That’d kill two birds with one stroke… gay athletes wouldn’t have to miss the Olympics, whilst it would duly punish Russia for presumably abusing the rights of the so-called LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) community.
Zeigler’s absurdity is just one episode in a vehement anti-Russian campaign unleashed in the Western media. As we know from our Soviet past, whenever a campaign’s launched, it quickly turns into a farce. Sergei Mikheyev, General Director of the Centre for Political Information think tank, told VOR, “After the breakup of the USSR, the West assumed the role of a victor and mentor, the sort of mentor who beats lazy pupils on the head with a ruler and gives others bad grades for failing to grasp the lesson properly. Therefore, this campaign virtually never ever stopped. It just changed topics. The one that’s being mulled now is about gays and other such communities, which gained legitimacy in the West. In my opinion, the West is experiencing a profound ideological crisis. What was condemned for centuries as perversion is now a norm, and, still worse, this norm is proclaimed a sign of a civilised society and progress”.
Oddly enough, the current campaign didn’t immediately follow the adoption of amendments to the criticised law. In fact, this law is an amendment to a previously adopted law, On the Protection of Children from Information Causing Harm to Their Health and Development. The RF Gosduma passed it in early June. Initially, there was some immediate criticism from the West, but not too severe. At present, six weeks later, it occurred to someone to link the gay issue to the 2014 Olympics. Western media were quick to take the cue. Since then, the Sochi Olympics has received mention almost exclusively in the context of a threat to gay athletes’ rights and safety. Pundits draw provocative parallels with the 1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany. Moreover, it all happened within a very short time.
Aleksei Mukhin, Director of the Centre for Political Conjuncture, said, “The rapidity with which mainstream Western media reoriented themselves shows that hidden commercial interests might be involved. The LGBT community represents a branched business system with large amounts of merchandise sold within its framework. There’s a potential market for those goods in Russia. After Russia entered the World Trade Organisation, companies producing those goods began eyeing Russian markets. It seems to me that all that gay hysteria is just about one thing… marketing”. In the West, gays are an important consumer segment, hence, their political influence. As most gays have no children, for reasons easy to understand, they usually have no one but themselves to provide for. Normally, most gays aged between 30 and 50 are successful businessmen with handsome fortunes. Billions are easier to make on luxury car sales or extravagant trips to Thailand than on family fast food or Pampers.
Mukhin said, “Contrary to widespread biased stereotypes about Russia, it’s a very open country with fairly-liberal legislation. I’d like to point out that the law slammed by the West stipulates only administrative and not criminal punishment for the propaganda of homosexual sex among minors. I don’t think that it’s something the LGBT community can’t bring itself to accept”. The Russian authorities stopped in the middle of the road. They imposed fines for gay propaganda, but didn’t propose criminal prosecution for such offenses. Many Muslim and Southeast Asian countries have much stricter anti-gay laws. Russia’s half-measures cost it the embarrassing situation it found itself in with torrents of foul accusations pouring from all sides. In the end, it’ll probably have to tolerate gay protests during the Olympics. Meanwhile, supporters of all-inclusive tolerance permit themselves such nasty and racist remarks, compared to which the amendments to the law on child protection are baby talk.
16 August 2013
Dmitri Babich
Voice of Russia World Service
http://voiceofrussia.com/2013_08_16/Olympics-for-gays-or-apotheosis-of-foul-ideology-2333/
Editor’s Note:
Russian sources tell me that one of the reasons why there are no criminal penalties in the law on homosexual propaganda is that the Church demanded such a stance. This is a wise position. Compare it to the Russophobic outburst of Christopher Calin of New York City. I’d say that reasonable people would agree with me… “One of these things is not like the other”. ‘Nuff said…
BMD