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Originally Posted by valo403
Ah yes, the old 'let countries do what they wish' response. That's worked out oh so well in the past. Let them round up and beat the people who only ask to be treated as humans. Let them deny basic rights. Hey, let's turn a blind eye to those train cars while we're at it.
I'm glad this topic came up in FOI, it really exposed a whole new group of scumbags.
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I'm not entirely sure how being a proponent of staying out of other people's business makes me a scumbag, but I respect your right to think whatever you want about me.
My point is that Russia isn't a country being ruled against its wishes by an evil tyrant or a group of radicals that have gained authoritative control through violent, illegal means. Russia is a country with a democratic election process and a legally-elected and well-respected (
63% approval rating) President.
Russian citizens are overwhelmingly against the acceptance of homosexuality. The country is not being oppressed. The country is passing laws through their own, legal, parliamentary process, and those laws are an accurate reflection of the wishes of the citizens they are being created for.
Also, as has been reported by many media outlets, Russia's response to the concern about gay rights during the Olympics, has been to say that they will respect the privacy and rights of the athletes, and that they ask that the athletes respect the laws of the nation they are visiting.
Russian authorities aren't looking for gay people to drag out into the street and condemn in front of the world. The Russian
people just don't want public events that are geared towards promoting homosexuality.
It's not illegal to be gay in Russia. It's illegal to hold public events that promote homosexuality to people who (by a very high margin) don't want to have homosexuality promoted to them.
Again, my point is that there is a time and place for interfering in the affairs of foreign nations. Freeing a country from oppression and genocide is a good thing. Freeing people who are being tortured and executed by an illegal regime is a good thing. Forcing our own views and beliefs upon a legally governed nation whose citizens overwhelmingly believe the opposite of what we do is not.
Personally, I am in favour of people being able to love and marry whomever they want to, regardless of their sexual orientation. I also believe that Family Law should just be focused on the various issues involved with familial units, and not on the specific orientations of the individuals that make up those units.
I'm also in favour of not pressuring other people to believe in the same things I do. Whether that's the angry old guy defending his front lawn down the street, or the citizens of the country of Russia.
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Some facts about rights and legal issues in Russia, as they relate to the sexual orientation of individuals:
- The age of consent currently stands at 16 since 2003, regardless of sexual orientation.
- Transsexual and transgender people can change their legal gender after corresponding medical procedures since 1997.
- Homosexuality was officially removed from the Russian list of mental illnesses in 1999 (after endorsing ICD-10).
- There is currently no legal recognition of same-sex unions in Russia, and same-sex marriages are not allowed. Public support for gay marriages is at 16% as of 2013.
- As far as adoptions of children: single persons living within Russia, regardless of their sexual orientation, can adopt children. Russian children can be adopted by a single homosexual who lives in a foreign country provided that country does not recognize same-sex marriage. A couple can adopt children together, as a couple, only if they are a married heterosexual couple.
- Gay people (at least officially) can serve in the military on a par with heterosexual people since 2003.
Public opinion in Russia tends to be among the most hostile toward homosexuality in the western world, and the level of intolerance has been rising. A 2013 survey found that 74% of Russians said homosexuality should not be accepted by society (up from 60% in 2002), compared to 16% who said that homosexuality should be accepted by society. In a 2007 survey, 68% of Russians said homosexuality is always wrong (54%) or almost always wrong (14%). In a 2005 poll, 44% of Russians were in favor of making homosexual acts between consenting adults a criminal act; at the same time, 43% of Russians supported a legal ban on discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. There is a visible LGBT community network, mostly in major cities like Moscow and Saint Petersburg, including nightclubs and political organizations.
Same-sex marriages are not allowed in Russia. At a press conference, head of the Moscow Registry Office Irina Muravyova declared: "Attempts by same-sex couples to marry both in Moscow and elsewhere in Russia are doomed to fail. We live in a civil society, we are guided by the federal law, [and] by the Constitution that clearly says: marriage in Russia is between a man and a woman. Such a marriage [same-sex] cannot be contracted in Russia."
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