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Russia’s Culture Of Anti-LGBT Bigotry Is Seeping Across Its Borders

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The recent spike of anti-LGBT legislation and animus out of Russia has been as wrenching as it’s been publicized. Videos, reports, coverage – journalists and NGOs and Western governments have called out Putin’s bigoted populism. Criticizing Putin’s focus on majority tyranny has been, fortunately, a common thread of coverage during the Olympics.

Unfortunately, such coverage hasn’t yet dissuaded Moscow from its prejudiced policies. Moreover, as we’ve seen over the past few weeks, such bigotry is seeping into other post-Soviet states.

Take, for example, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, both of which have Russia on their northern borders, and Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, a pair of post-Soviet countries further south of Russia.

While suicides in Azerbaijan and movements against “lesbianism” in Kazakhstan have generated some articles, a pair of calls from the highest religious authorities in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan could potentially be even more worrisome for LGBT rights in the region. (They also reek of even greater hypocrisy than we’ve seen out of Moscow, but more on that in a moment.)

Earlier this month, Tajikistan’s grand mufti, the government-sanctioned leader of the nation’s massive Muslim community, singled out the LGBT community for its especial role in crumbling nations. As the mufti noted:

“I am ashamed that this topic is to be discussed in the mosque. Unfortunately, I have heard about the homosexual orientation of educated and cultural people, who refused relationships with their wives and women and who commit the sin of sodomy,” independent Tajik agencies quoted [the grand mufti] as saying.

“I warn you against such sinful behavior. Each nation, who committed such sins, was punished severely.”

Between the Soviet Union’s disintegration and the horrific civil war that followed in Tajikistan – a small, impoverished ex-Soviet nation just north of Afghanistan – we’re left to wonder if the mufti somehow blames both of these social implosions on the LGBT community.

Not to be outdone, the grand mufti of Kyrgyzstan, Maksan Hajji Toktomushev, recently issued a fatwa against same-sex relations. Kyrgyzstan – a small, Central Asian nation that’s played a key and continuing role in the Afghan War – is a relatively conservative, Muslim-majority nation. And while it’s far more politically open than its neighbors, a recent Human Rights Watch report highlighted the fact that Kyrgyzstan’s social policies and stigmas remain on par with what we’ve seen stem from Russia.

The multimedia report ran through a series of interviews with forty Kyrgyzstani men, whose country legalized same-sex relations in 1998. The results are, unfortunately, unsurprising, and show the cultural legacy and impact of Kyrgyzstan’s neighbor to the north:

Kyrgyzstan police target gay and bisexual men in parks, gay clubs, hotel rooms, and on dating websites. Human Rights Watch documented cases of severe physical violence against gay and bisexual men including punching, kicking, and beating with gun butts, batons, empty beer bottles, or other objects. Several gay men also reported sexual violence by police officers including rape, group rape, and attempts to put a stick, a hammer, or an electric shock device in the person’s anus, as well as gratuitous touching during a search, or being forced to undress in front of police. …

“Police officers in Kyrgyzstan know that they can beat, rape, and otherwise torment gay men and extort money from them without suffering any consequences,” [Anna Kirey, LGBT rights research at HRW,] said. “Nobody should live in fear because of whom they love. Kyrgyzstan’s authorities need to put a stop to police abuse of gay men.”

Only two of the men interviewed, according to HRW, have filed complaints with the police. There have been no prosecutions or charges yet brought in any of the cases.

//www.youtube.com/embed/nnKFVh8SQ9E

There is, however, another aspect of the mufti’s timing that makes his comments that much more preposterous. Toktomushev was only the acting grand mufti – his predecessor, Grand Mufti Rakhmatullah-Hajji Egemberdiyev, was forced to resign in mid-January after a video surfaced showing him consorting with an unidentified young woman, according to The Moscow Times. While the video was, in and of itself, a sufficient scandal, matters compounded when it was revealed that the young woman was – surprise! – not Egemberdiyev’s wife. As if the affair weren’t enough, Egemberdiyev is also currently under investigation for tax evasion.

Unfortunately, the affairs of Egemberdiyev and the bigotry of Toktomushev aren’t the only traits sullying the mufiate’s office. The latter is currently the seventh grand mufti in the last four years, with each of his predecessors booted for further corruption or, in one case, being kidnapped and beaten to death. Not the most principled of positions.

Still, Toktomushev’s words are the most prominent we’ve recently seen pertaining to same-sex relations in Kyrgyzstan, which is widely considered the closest thing to a functioning democracy Central Asia knows. However, between this recent fatwa, and the continued practice of “bride-napping” - which is often less prosecuted than livestock theft – it’s clear Kyrgyzstan has a social climb ahead of it.

And it remains obvious that Moscow doesn’t stand as the outlier in the post-Soviet region when it comes to LGBT rights. Rather, much as it does politically, Russia stands as the trend-setter for the bigotry of the former Soviet sphere.

Image via YouTube

 

Casey Michel HeadshotCasey Michel is a graduate student at Columbia University, and former Peace Corps Kazakhstan volunteer. His writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Slate, and Talking Points Memo, and he has contributed multiple long-form investigations to Minneapolis’s City Pages and the Houston Press. You can follow him on Twitter.

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News

Trump Campaign Furious Walz Using Trump’s Own ‘Reckless, Dangerous Rhetoric’ Against Him

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October 14, 2024

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The Trump campaign lashed out at Minnesota Governor Tim Walz on Monday after the Democratic vice presidential nominee quoted the Republican presidential candidate who repeatedly over the weekend has been saying he would like to use the U.S. military against American citizens.

As NCRM reported, the Republican presidential nominee said he thinks the U.S. Armed Forces should be used against Americans who oppose him, called his critics “the enemy from within,” and declared they are more dangerous than America’s greatest foreign adversaries, including Russia, China, and North Korea.

“I always say we have the outside enemy, so you can say China, you can say Russia, you can say, Kim Jung-Un,” Trump told supporters at an Aurora, Colorado rally on Friday. But, he added: “It’s the enemy from within, all the scum that we have to deal with that hate our country. That’s a bigger enemy than China and Russia,” he said as the audience cheered.

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Then, on Sunday, Trump told Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo of his desire to use armed forces against Americans on Election Day.

“I think the bigger problem are the people from within, we have some very bad people, we have some sick people, radical left lunatics. And I think they’re the — and it should be very easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard, or if really necessary by the military.”

Trump War Room, the official social media account of the Trump campaign, posted video of Walz on Monday speaking with supporters.

“Donald Trump over the weekend was talking about using the U.S. Army against people who disagree with him,” Walz had said. “Just so you’re clear about that, that’s you. That’s what he’s talking about. This is not some mythical thing out there. He called it the ‘enemy within.'”

The Trump War Room social media account wrote: “Tim Walz peddles a disgusting lie that President Trump will use the U.S. Army against his political opponents: ‘That’s you, that’s what he’s talking about.’ This is reckless, dangerous rhetoric,” the campaign stated. “Tim should be ASHAMED of himself.”

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See the videos below or at this link.

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News

MAGA Furious After Kamala Harris Agrees to Fox News Interview

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13 hours ago

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October 14, 2024

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The right wing freakout is in full force after Fox News announced Vice President Kamala Harris will sit down for an interview with then network’s chief political anchor Bret Baier on Wednesday in the critical battleground state of Pennsylvania.

It will be the Democratic presidential nominee’s first official Fox News interview, after entering the race in July, less than three months ago.

“While Trump became the first major presidential nominee to back out of the traditional pre-election ’60 Minutes’ interview, Kamala Harris has agreed to sit down with Fox News for an interview this week,” noted Zeteo News’ Justin Baragona.

“Harris has upped her media appearances recently, having sat down with Stephen Colbert, 60 Minutes‘ Bill Whitaker and Howard Stern, among other personalities,” Deadline reports. “But she’s also been urged by some supporters to make an appearance on Fox News, populated by voices on the right, even though Baier is on the network’s news side. With an average of 2.3 million viewers, Special Report has ranked among the most watched cable news programs.”

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Trump recently did pull out of a previously agreed-to interview with CBS News’ “60 Minutes,” and has refused to do any more debates with Harris after losing the first one on ABC News. Before that debate Trump had suggested a condition of him participating in the ABC debate would be Harris had to agree to two others, which she did. Next week she will appear in a CNN town hall, which originally was to be a debate until Trump pulled out.

“As of today, it has been **one month** since Trump’s been interviewed by a mainstream media outlet,” noted Harris campaign spokesperson Ian Sams, “as he has backed out of 60 Minutes and refuses to debate again.”

“Meanwhile Harris is willing to even go on Fox,” he added.

During the 2024 campaign Trump has done virtually no interviews with mainstream media outlets, avoiding The New York Times, ABC News, CBS News, CNN, and MSNBC. He did sit down with NBC News’s “Meet the Press” for Kristen Welker’s first interview as the show’s new moderator last year in September.

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The Nation’s John Nichols commented that Trump is “running scared.”

Trump supporters “swarmed all over Fox’s Bret Baier today like he was a Capitol Police Officer on J6 after he posted on Twitter that he will be interviewing Kamala Harris this Wednesday,” MeidasTouch News reports. “Baier received 2,200 comments on his tweet announcing the interview in just the first hour after he posted it.”

“Most of the MAGA comments to Baier follow a consistent theme – that they lost all faith in Baier after his tough interview embarrassed Trump last year, and that they expect him to go into this interview with guns blazing to win back their favor. They also mentioned some of the previous Harris interview conspiracies – that her earrings were airpods where she was getting the answers, that she was given the questions ahead of time, that Baier and Fox called the 2020 election too early for Biden, etc.,” MeidasTouch editor-in-chief Ron Filipkowski reported.

Journalist Mike Rothschild, who has written books on right wing conspiracy theories, observed: “This is smart from the VP. She has nothing to lose by appearing on the news arm of Fox News (as opposed to the screeching infotainment arm) and if she breaks through to a fraction of their viewership, it’s worth it. It’s almost like the Harris campaign knows what it’s doing.”

The news Harris will appear on Fox News comes on the heels of one of that outlet’s former top hosts, Geraldo Rivera, denouncing Donald Trump and endorsing the Vice President’s run for President.

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OPINION

‘Is He OK?’: Trump’s Dark of Night Rage Posting Backfires

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16 hours ago

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October 14, 2024

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After a weekend of speeches dehumanizing immigrants and threatening to use the U.S. military on Americans who oppose him, Donald Trump in a 1 AM dead of night post lashed out at his Democratic presidential opponent in what some are saying was projection.

“I believe it is very important that Kamala Harris pass a test on Cognitive Stamina and Agility,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform at 1:12 AM. “Her actions have led many to believe that there could be something very wrong with her. Even 60 Minutes and CBS, in order to protect Lyin’ Kamala, illegally and unscrupulously replaced an answer she had given, which was totally ‘bonkers,’ with another answer that had nothing to do with the question asked. Also, she is slow and lethargic in answering even the easiest of questions. We just went through almost four years of that, we shouldn’t have to do it again!”

Late Monday morning Trump posted the same message on the social media site X. He also recently called Vice President Harris “retarded,” according to The New York Times.

“So, let me get this straight,” noted Zeteo News media columnist Justin Baragona. “The 78-year-old GOP presidential nominee, who has been showing serious signs of age-related decline, refuses to release his medical records — but he is now demanding his much younger opponent take a cognitive test?”

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SiriusXM host Michelangelo Signorile observed, “Trump is furious that Harris is saying Trump’s ‘staff’ won’t let him do 60 Minutes or release his medical records.”

“Claiming Harris is ‘slow and lethargic’ is a heavy lift even for this pathological liar and his MAGA mob.”

The Harris campaign mocked Trump in response.

“Trump posts at 1:12am that VP Harris must take a cognitive test,” wrote campaign spokesperson Ian Sams. “As he refuses to release his medical records, sit with 60 Minutes, or debate her again— instead retreating solely to rambling rallies where he’s increasingly making no sense.”

“Is he okay?”

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Republican Voters Against Trump, a project of the Republican Accountability PAC declared, “It’s always projection with Trump.”

Before Trump’s post on Saturday, MSNBC’s Ayman Mohyeldin told viewers: “For Trump and his party, the strategy in this final stretch to the election is about one thing and one thing only: projection.”

“Everything Trump and his party accuse Democrats of doing ultimately ends up being a cynical projection of themselves, from defending democracy to free speech, reproductive rights, and free and fair elections.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

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