‘But You Know, I’m a Judo Master and a SAMBO Master as Well’
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s homophobia has led to damaging anti-gay laws banning the “promotion” of homosexuality – making it illegal to tell kids gay people even exist – fueled a nationwide hatred of LGBT people making daily life more dangerous, and most recently, spurred concentration camps in Chechnya for gay men to be detained, tortured, and summarily executed while the Kremlin and local governments insist there’s nothing to see.
Filmmaker Oliver Stone traveled to Russia to direct a Showtime documentary that the Daily Beast calls a “wildly irresponsible love letter to Vladimir Putin,” and “nothing short of hero worship.”
That’s disturbing.
“When America sends its people to interview Vladimir Putin, they’re not sending their best,” Marlow Stern writes at the Daily Beast. “They’re not sending an Anderson Cooper or a Christiane Amanpour, intrepid journalists well-versed in geopolitics and the art of the spiel. They’re sending people like Megyn Kelly, a race-baiter who rode the wave of one semi-challenging debate question all the way to a cushy gig at NBC News, or Oliver Stone, a revisionist history buff who’s spent the past few decades cozying up to dictators like Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, and Putin.”
It’s not surprising Showtime didn’t release a promotional video clip of Putin’s strident homophobia, or of his comments about gay men in his interview with Stone, but here’s how Stern at the Daily Beast explains it:
“A conversation about whether gays can serve in the military in Russia leads to the Stone question: ‘If you’re taking a shower in a submarine with a man and you know he’s gay, do they have a problem with that?'”
Can you guess what Putin will say? Of course you can.
Stern calls Putin’s answer “not only homophobic, but completely bonkers.”
“Well, I prefer not to go to shower with him,†exclaims a cackling Putin. “Why provoke him? But you know, I’m a judo master and a SAMBO master as well. And I can tell you this, that as head of state today, I believe it’s my duty to uphold traditional values and family values. But why? Because same-sex marriages will not produce any children. God has decided, and we have to care about birth rates in our country. We have to reinforce families. But that doesn’t mean that there should be any persecutions against anyone.â€
Yes, Putin thinks his naked body would “provoke” a gay man, thus necessitating him to use his masterful judo skills to defend himself, presumably because he thinks all gay men are sex monsters.
And then, of course, he segues right into God.
But just to be clear, to show he’s not a bigoted homophobe who “cackles” because gay people make him nervous, Putin insists, “that doesn’t mean that there should be any persecutions against anyone.”
No.
Of course not.
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