Putin: Anti-Gay Law ‘Does Not Hurt Anyone’ Or Make Gays ‘Feel Second-Rate’

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Putin speaking in Sochi on Friday

Vladimir Putin is going on defense, and his attacks against supporters of equality are becoming increasingly offensive. Putin’s anti-gay laws have fostered the already homophobic climate in Russia into one that is tacitly embraced by Russian officials, from Putin all the way down to local law enforcement.

And now, just weeks ahead of the 2014 Winter Olympics, Putin is on an international mass media campaign to twist and lie about the effects of his anti-gay laws. Those laws, and the ones to come, effectively make being gay illegal in Russia. The so-called laws against exposing “homosexual propaganda” to minors not only tells LGBTQ youth and teens they are unacceptable, it tells LGBTQ adults that they cannot hold hands in public, “like” a photo of a gay couple holding hands on social media sites, or even have a photo of their same-sex partner on their desk.

In short, it makes life living as an openly-gay person illegal.

“It seems to me that the law that we have adopted does not hurt anyone,” the Russian President told a small group of reporters in Sochi on Friday, as ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos, the only U.S. journalist, reported.

“I’d like to ask my colleagues and friends that, as they try to criticize us, they would do well to set their own house in order first,” Putin said. “I did say, after all—and this is public knowledge—that in some states in the U.S., homosexuality remains a felony.”

While there are some states that still have sodomoy laws on the books, they rate unenforceable, after the Supreme Court’s Lawrence v. Texas ruling in 2003.

“How are they in a position to criticize us for what is a much softer, liberal approach to these issues than in their own country?,” Putin disingenuously asked. “There a lot of folks in the U.S. who share the view that the legislation in their state or their nation is appropriate, well-grounded and is in sync with the sentiment of the vast majority of the population.”

“Moreover, individuals of non-traditional orientation cannot feel like second-rate humans in this country because they are not discriminated against in any way,” a preposterous claim. “It has nothing to do with persecuting people for their non-traditional orientation,” Putin added. “My personal position is that society must keep children safe.”

Putin took that claim of trying to keep children safe way over the line on Friday, not when talking with journalists in Sochi, but when talking with Olympics volunteers.

Issuing an ugly warning to gay people planning on attending the Games, Putin singled out gay people, saying they should feel “at ease” in Russia, and then linked them to pedophiles by begging them to not sexually molest children.

“One can feel calm and at ease,” Putin told the volunteers. “Just leave kids alone, please.”

“We have no ban on the non-traditional forms of sexual intercourse among people,” Putin added. “We have the ban on the propaganda of homosexuality and pedophilia. I want to stress this: propaganda among minors. These are two absolutely different things: a ban on certain relations or the propaganda of such relations.”

Either way, Putin is making it clear that he believes being gay and being a pedophile are equally immoral — and dangerous to children.

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Image via the Kremlin

Hat tip: Mediaite