So I’m still learning about how gaslight I’ve been about the imperial powers and communist countries. (DPRK blew my mind) I’m now to the point of assuming most of what I’ve known or heard is wrong or straight up lies. All that just to ask, I read some time ago about the terrible anti LGBT+ laws in capitalist Russia. Not to mention how evil Putin is in general. However, since lurking and now joining Lemmygrad, I’m seeing the way people talk about current day Russia and its making me want to ask about its current state especially in regards to LGBT+ rights. I try to look into it online, but honestly, at this point, I trust the people here more than whatever capitalist run outlet I’m likely to find online. I’m pretty sure Russia isn’t a paradise today but I’m wondering what’s actually going on with things.
Thanks
What comrade rainpizza said about context.
I don’t see anyone commenting on the rights themselves though. No gay marriage and it’ll be 3 years in June since the ban on transition. No criminal responsibility for simply being gay, at least, but that’s all the good news.
Even though discussions regarding this topic raises valid criticism against Russia, it is important to also not stay only in the criticism but to understand why it happened(in other words, contextualization is key) and how to avoid it(or solve it) in other places.
What the imperialist did in Russia, along with the current siege and russophobia, is called dialectical baiting:
And there is evidence of the baiting if we check the conversations of Epstein and one imperialist collaborator in Russia:
The imperialist baiting can be defined as: “Co-opting progressive causes to taint resistance. Here, imperialism cynically drapes itself in liberation rhetoric (women’s rights, LGBT rights, secularism) to alienate anti-imperialist movements from global solidarity and frame them as reactionary.”
The USA used that baiting not only against Russia but against countries like China as well:
You can read the entire post on dialectical baiting here in XHS -> http://xhslink.com/o/8smOPYaERUx
In that post, they give their analysis on how to resist the bait. I could also add a couple of examples of failed dialectical baits such as the Zionists saying that the Palestinian resistance hates the LGBTQ.
As for the topic on the LGBTQ+ in Russia, it will take time to heal but it is a battle that has to be fought in two fronts:
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Our Russian LGBTQ+ comrades have to fight the Western identity that fell for the bait and construct a new movement that is native to them. This is a very similar fight that is occurring in plenty of other places in the Global South like Burkina Faso’s LGBTQ+ as well.
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Our Global North comrades have to fight and expel liberalism from the LGBTQ+ orgs and avoid the imperialist using your identity to justify genocide. Example of a dialectical bait where a fascist uses the LGBTQ+ identity to justify genocide -> https://lemmygrad.ml/post/8379615
Soooo… JK Rowling might be an op?
Thanks for this, comrade! Idk who to credit, but the old axiom seems at play: they keep us focused on culture wars to keep us from class wars.
Thank you for such a informative post! I’ll look into these links first chance. I’ve actually always felt connected to Russia because of my ancestral roots but I’m multi gen US now. Disappointed to hear how far its fallen but I hope to see a united, socialist Russia some day. I’ve been learning a ton about Soviet history so contextualization has become second nature at this point.
Thanks again.
They will recover. I see this as a setback that will soon be corrected.
Also, kudos for investigating and contextualizing. Having that mindset helps to find solutions and strategies to plenty of problems such as this one. If you have any other question regarding history or any other topic, you can always ask in Lemmygrad! We have discussed plenty regarding Soviet History here!
Take care!
Dialectical Baiting ^ is a key concept to understand what’s going on in Russia and other places regarding reactionary tendencies.
hello, apologies but is the link working? I can’t seem to make it work, I would love to read more on the dialectical baiting.
In case you are still having issue, I made a post with the XHS content here -> https://lemmygrad.ml/post/11174275
The link works. However, you do need an account in XHS to see the content.
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Sadly, the state of LGBT+ rights in Russia and other formerly socialist eastern european countries is absolutely horrible. Homophobia and transphobia are extremely common among the general population, anti-LGBT legislation is actively being introduced, while even basic civil partnerships are illegal.
Progress is extremely slow and made worse by the fact that LGBT+ issues are seen as an alien element pushed by the West and subversive NGOs. I believe that liberation from imperialism is necessary for conditions to improve in any durable and significant manner.
Just how you would expect from a neoliberal capitalist state with a restored power of the orthodox church, the treatment of queer people in the country is bad.
yeah sorry as someone with familiar connections in russia, lgbt+ people are treated like trash, aggressive homophobia is extremely normalized even amongst turboracist russian libs.
oh yea Russia is bad on LGBTQ rights
From People’s World
Anti-gay crackdown looms after Russian Supreme Court bans ‘LGBT movement’
Russia effectively outlawed queer people on Thursday when the country’s Supreme Court declared any act of LGBTQ activism or advocacy to be “extremist” and illegal. Filing a sham case that named no actual defendant, President Vladimir Putin’s Ministry of Justice got the judiciary to ban what it called the “international LGBT movement” in Russia.
Putin is a conservative russian orthodox, he is anti-LGBT rights
LGBT individuals are seen as mentally ill at best, or subversive western-aligned pedophiles at worst.
Violence against LGBT people is commonplace and goes entirely unpunished by the authorities as there are no hate crime protections.
Russia is about as bad as you can get on queer rights without outright having queer people executed.
Putin, generally, is evil and so are his associates. They’re just a lesser evil when compared to the Great Satan that is the USA. I still hope to see his whole party removed from power within my lifetime and for socialism to return to Russia.
It’s really bad on lgbt rights. The last few years the government has been passing anti trans legislation.
It’s bad. During the time of the USSR they made some progress but the church as usual ruined all that, and the natural result is unfortunately what you’re describing.
Russia is worse than Iran on LGBT rights
