(I haven't read all posts above since my last post here)
First I'd like to point out, that this law is likely never going to be abused. It took me a night to grasp it, but it is clear that if russian goverment will start a witch hunt on gays, they will jail them for fake serious crimes, such as fake drug dealing cases, fake rapes cases and so on. It is stupid to suggest that Putin will use this law to hunt down russian gays unless you truly believe that the plan is to fine them into bankrupcy with recurrent $150 fines. This simple point goes to show how silly some western media are about it. They are trying to sell it as oppressing law, but it is essentially a parental law.
To get a better understanding of problems this law is supposed to solve — and I'm not saying that it surely will, — listen to Valeriya Perfilova's interview in english (starts at around 3 minutes mark)
http://www.indexoncensorship.org/201...ses-in-russia/
Her words "I (straight person) feel a minority now and I want to protect my children" is an indication of how many russian parents feel. This law was enforced due to overwhelming and uncontrolled amount of gay propaganda that flooded Russia in recent years. What amount is "overwhelming" and what is not is subjective and debatable of course, but when such a vast majority thinks that it is excessive, you can believe that it probably is.
And this is the same Valeriya Perfilova, who starred in lesbian video to her song:
http://irsolo.ru/pevice-valerii-yaro...bijskom-video/
She has no problem with gays and lesbians and doesn't mind occasionally doing it herself, but she wants to keep her children out of it. That's what a lot of russians feel.
(there's also a certain context about Russian ethnic population shrinking, European's multiculture society "utterly failing" according to the very european politicians, such as Angela Merkel, and Russians being scared by riots in London, Paris and Stockholm and thus being hugely disappointed in europeans ideals of tolerance and openness to other cultures, nations and orientations. But I'm not going much into this.)
What I'm getting at is the very idea of the law. And it is simple:
Your Liberty To Swing Your Fist Ends Just Where My Nose Begins.
This is the very basic of democracy. And this is what this law is all about.
It's all right being gay. Several russian celebrities, such as Surganova, Sosedov, Dmitrychenko are openly gay/lesbian. You have your gay clubs, you can have work and everything you want. But your freedom to be gay ends where noses of my children begin.
You don't tell to your friend things like "I had a great wild oral sex with my wife" when his four years old daughter is around, do you?
Am I not violating your precious human rights by asking you to not talk about wild oral sex when my 4 years old daughter is around? The same way, could you please don't talk about being gay when my four years old is around? Let me put her to bed and we will go in lengthly details over the pleasures of being gay. What are my reasons for asking this? I just don't want my child to hear it, don't I have such a right? I apologize, if you feel that the equity of humanity was offended by this humble request.
This is the same approach, as
"Religion is like a penis, it's fine to have one and be proud of it, but when you take it out and wave it in my face, that's when we have a problem"
Is it too much to ask? Is it really such a big deal? Or is it blown out of proportion for some reason? If you are gay, why are you so hell bent to tell about it to MY children? Aren't you violating MY human rights by telling MY children things that I don't want them to hear? It's not YOUR child, so let ME raise her the way I feel is the best. This is what this law is about. Think of it as a joint declaration of russian parents that they don't want gays to put their views into the faces of their children. What's wrong with this?
Now what if my kid is gay? It's fine. I can take him to the gay club. He is free to search for gay partners there or via internet (there are gay options on most russian dating sites). I can tell him that being gay is ok/awesome since he's 5 years old, if I so wish. I can do everything I want with my own gay kid. But my freedom to do it ends where noses of other children begin