Which One Is Banned? Russia Won’t Say.
An image depicting Vladimir Putin “with eyes and lips made up,†suggesting “the president of the Russian Federation” has a “supposed non-standard sexual orientation” is banned now in Russia. It’s actually unclear which image as the list of banned “extremist” materials does not actually include a depiction of the image that is banned, but it probably looks something like the photo above.
Or, this one:
Or, this one:
Or, this one:
Or, this one:
Or, something.
Putin has a long history of creating a hostile environment for LGBT people. Under his watch, people perceived to be members of the LGBT community are openly attacked, and unable to protest or reasonably advocate for their rights.
A ruling banning the image, Radio Free Europe reports, “stemmed from a criminal case against a man named Aleksandr Tsvetkov, who was accused of stoking hate speech by posting the photograph of Putin in makeup on the popular Russian social-networking site Vkontakte.”
“Russian news outlets are having trouble reporting exactly which image of the Internet’s many Putin-gay-clown memes is now illegal to share,” The Washington Post reports. “Because, you know, it’s been banned.”
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Image by Darren Johnson / iDJ Photography via Flickr and a CC licenseÂ
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