‘Let The Witch Hunt Begin’
Celebrated and award-winning actor and author Harvey Fierstein was early on the scene, warning the world about Russian President Vladimir Putin‘s war on gays. His New York Times op-ed, and subsequent MSNBC appearance were the culmination of months of bell-ringing and clarion-sounding. They really were what brought the world’s attention to the plight of Russia’s LGBT community and kicked off recent calls for boycotts of all things Russian — including the 2014 Winter Olympics.
Now, Fierstein is imagining concentration camps may be in the future for Russia’s LGBT people.
The latest abomination to grace Russia’s Duma — their House of Representatives — is a law that would effectively give the government the authority to forcibly kidnap any child under the age of 18 from their parent or parents if any one of them exhibits “non-traditional” sexual behavior.
“This law is horrifying enough on face value, but imagine a circumstance where a mother has been granted custody of her children after a messy divorce,” Fierstein writes at the Huffington Post. “The father could now gain custody of the children simply by accusing his ex-wife of being a lesbian.”
She would then have to prove, in an already unfriendly court, that she is not a lesbian, and that she is virulently anti-lesbian and promises to raise her children to be homophobes. If not she may never see her children again. It doesn’t stop there. This law is an open invitation for witch hunts of every kind. It was designed to be abused not only by citizens, but by politicians looking to rid themselves of opposition.
Fierstein, himself born to Eastern European Jewish immigrants, writes that what “makes Putin’s war on homosexuals so frightening is that the methodology is perfectly simple. His recipe is time-tested and depends, almost entirely, on the most dependable truth of all — human nature.”
All that Putin needed to begin was the spark of a widely held, if only whispered prejudice such as homosexuals being pederasts and sex offenders. Feed the glowing embers with government concern for the innocent people whose good will has been abused by the gays as they spread their message that their life-style is somehow acceptable. Low-level laws controlling the spread of these messages can now be enacted. Police are now empowered to search homes, seize computers, arrest and fine anyone they feel might be breaking the newly enacted laws. Emboldened by these bans, vigilantes have implied instruction to protect their communities from the rampant evil. Intolerant speech in the streets as well as the media, street violence and gang organizing are all normalized. And now the government comes in with “concern” for the gay community’s safety. They are rounded up for their own protection and isolated for the sake of the children at risk of infection. Welcome to the return of concentration camps.
Fierstein, who is advocating a boycott of the Sochi Winter Olympics, says the choice is simple. “I beg you to ask yourself which is more important: to crown who’s fastest down an artificial slope, or to know that when you come home from work your children will not have been kidnapped by the police?”
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Original image via Wikipedia
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Related:
LGBT Journalist: I Will Out Closeted Anti-Gay Russian Lawmakers
Comparing Homosexuality To Child Abuse, Russian Lawmaker Moves To Ban Kids From Gay Parents