Stephen's Liberal Journal: Russia

Showing posts with label Russia. Show all posts

Thursday, 13 September 2018

The Ballad of Alexander and Ruslan (Let's Do It)

With apologies to the late, great Victoria Wood.

Dacha Gardening Time

US Apprentice

Russia Today

Wednesday, 25 June 2014

Dear Mr Putin,

Thank you for not killing my fellow LGBT brothers, sisters and anyone in between. However, the fact that your state allows them to live and exist is not the same as being anti-gay.

Like your nation I come from a socially conservative part of the world, but here in Northern Ireland which only decriminalised homosexuality 10 years before Russia there are other protections to LGBT people which are lacking in your nation.

Firstly there are laws in place that prevent discrimination against LGBT folk in any area of live whether education, access to health service, their employment or accommodation. While I know that not everyone's experience in these areas in Northern Ireland is universally one of acceptance there is at least a fall back unto the rule of law. Indeed sexual orientation is one of the many areas that our public authorities have to promote equality of opportunity within:

75 Statutory duty on public authorities.

(1)A public authority shall in carrying out its functions relating to Northern Ireland have due regard to the need to promote equality of opportunity—

(a)between persons of different religious belief, political opinion, racial group, age, marital status or sexual orientation;

(b)between men and women generally;

(c)between persons with a disability and persons without;

and

(d)between persons with dependants and persons without.

By doing something like this you could eradicate the "fiction" and indeed the fact that LGBT people are being discriminated against, attacked and even killed with little action, protection or reaction from your police officers.

That equality of opportunity should allow them the right to meet in peace in a place they feel safe. Such as a night club or bar that caters for them and where they are not judged by other patrons. Such places exist near your Presidential Palace or your favourite resort town of Sochi.

That equality of opportunity also should allow those who are discovering their sexual orientation should be able to seek out advise on how to deal with this. Without the threat of those offering the counsel and advise of being arrested for providing that service. You call this propaganda to minors, I call that protection, advise and safety in how to live before the possibility of ruining it through lack of education.

That equality of opportunity also means that political leaders while talking about stereotypes on one hand talk about LGBT people as "other types of unconventional sexual behaviour" or "non-traditional sexual relations". That is something that I am still working on with one or two of the larger parties here in Northern Ireland as well as individuals within other major parties across Northern Ireland, USA and elsewhere. However, if you are genuine in how you have to "think of the future and improve our legislation" then the language that you use is a good place to start, so that those LGBT people do not feel that you are anti-gay, or associate them with pedophilia or beastiality.

Saturday, 8 February 2014

#Principle6 is for all not just the Olympic Zone

The Sochi Olympics*

*Usual Terms and Conditions may or may not apply

While the Opening Ceremony was underway in Sochi this was the scene in Red Square, Moscow.

Principle 6 of the Olympic charter states:

Any form of discrimination with regard to a country or a person on grounds of race, religion, politics, gender or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic Movement.

This is clear discrimination against people on the ground of otherwise. President Putin says people can be LGBT as long as they don't touch the children. I see no children in this video.

Thomas Bach in his opening speech last night said:

This is the Olympic Message the athletes spread to the host country and to the whole world. Yes, it is possible to strive even for the greatest victory with respect for the dignity of your competitors. Yes, Yes, it is possible - even as competitors - to live together under one roof in harmony, with tolerance and without any form of discrimination for whatever reason.

It was a part of the message that American broadcaster NBC is facing criticism for editing out.

Yes the host nation if it is abusing Principle 6 of the charter in incompatible with being part of the Olympic Movement. This is what was happening last night and it is time that IOC actually specified that otherwise does include sexual orientation and not leave it vague, and then take action.

Thursday, 6 February 2014

Why Putin Leaving Kids Alone is Detrimental to LGBT Youth

We don't need no education, we don't need no thought control.

Hey Olympians, leave the kids alone!

Seems to be the cry that is repeated today by Russia's deputy prime minister.

However, with the anti-propagation law to minors in Russia and therefore actually leaving kids alone to come to terms with their own sexuality is a dangerous thing. Despite what Putin would have you believe kids under the age of consent are quite capable of coming to their own conclusions about who they are attracted to. Indeed I don't hear Russian authorities crying out about underage sex between people of the opposite sex but I'm sure like in every other nation this takes place.

But what is most worrying about the message to leave the kids alone is that during the teenage years before it is legal to have sex young people the world over pair up. They have boyfriends and girlfriends, that is part of a normal adolescence. But what if your boyfriend or girlfriend has the same gender as you, or what if the person you feel attracted to and want to ask out is of that same gender.

There is a problem you face under the new law. You can't seek advice about these feeling the adult giving that advise would be "promoting non-traditional sexual values". Now can you act upon those feelings and ask the other person, if they reject you they or their parents may report you for "promoting non-traditional sexual values" to a minor. You can't even be open about your sexual, as to be open in who you are and who you fancy is in itself a promotion.

By leaving such kids allow to wallow in aloneness while around them there is nobody they can turn to for advise, while their feelings are being condemned from on high as being non-traditional and non-Russian even leaves them in a vulnerable position.

While I was growing up in Northern Ireland while there was Section 28 in place and homosexuality had only recently been decriminalised there was no outright ban on talking to a young person about such things. It just could not be done in a school context. But when you don't grow up in the big city getting access to such services would have been awkward for a teenager. So like the fate of Russian teens I had to wallow alone, with religious and political leaders telling me that what I was feeling was wrong.

By leaving that kid more or less alone I contemplated taking my own live.

Leaving the kids alone, uneducated about human sexuality that is not across genders, and unable to seek advise about their feelings or even if they did being unable to receive it, Russia authorities are endangering those young people.

Article Three of the UN Convention on the Rights of a Child states:

"In all actions concerning children, whether undertaken by public or private social welfare institutions,courts of law, administrative authorities or legislative bodies, the best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration."

Leaving children alone unable to seek guidance on feelings that they have is a thought control of an adverse type. It creates problems, fear, loneliness, paranoia and suicide. Not to mention the homophobia that others feel able to dish out against LGBT people as seen in The Hunted last night.

Thursday, 19 September 2013

Dear Vlad, there are Gay criminals too

Now while most of the western world are aware of the corruption and sexual offenses that Silvio Berlusconi faces it seems bizarre that Russian President Vladimir Putin should jump to such an unusual defense of his friend:

"Berlusconi is on trial because he lives with women. If he was homosexual no one would have lifted a finger."

Now I have a lesson for Mr Putin, not every gay man, or lesbian woman or anyone who is bisexual or transgender is a law abiding citizen. Believe it or not these do face persecution based on the facts of the case just as any heterosexual would do. When the laws are equal and the charges have nothing to do about the person's sexuality the LGBT community expect justice to be carried out. It may be a case of domestic violence against a same-sex partner, or a fellow clubber. Or it may be corruption charges or grooming minors into sexual activity.

Not everyone is perfect, yet the law of the land should be equal to everyone no matter what their sexuality. However, what many nations believe is that when a nation, such as Russia, makes a law that criminalises someone merely on the grounds of their sexuality or by "promoting" it that is not fair, and people will raise fingers to prevent that happening.

Tuesday, 13 August 2013

Is the IOC having a 1968 moment?

The International Olympic Committee was asked by Gay Star News if they were going to 'make sure the LGBT community in Russia can have a visible, proud, safe presence at the games.'

The response from the IOC was 'Regarding your suggestions, the IOC has a clear rule laid out in the Olympic Charter (Rule 50) which states that the venues of the Olympic Games are not a place for proactive political or religious demonstration.'

Rule 50 states:

No kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas.

The penalty for violating this clause is “disqualification or withdrawal of the accreditation of the person concerned” without appeal. This is what happened to Tommie Smith and John Carlos for making their Black Power salute on the podium in Mexico in 1968 after the men's 200m.

However, near the start of the Olympic Charter are the fundamental principles of Olympism, I'm highlighting just a few of them:

Olympism is a philosophy of life, exalting and combining in a balanced whole the

qualities of body, will and mind. Blending sport with culture and education, Olympism

seeks to create a way of life based on the joy of effort, the educational value of good
example, social responsibility and respect for universal fundamental ethical principles
The goal of Olympism is to place sport at the service of the harmonious development

of humankind, with a view to promoting a peaceful society concerned with the

preservation of human dignity.
The practice of sport is a human right. Every individual must have the possibility of

practising sport, without discrimination of any kind and in the Olympic spirit, which
requires mutual understanding with a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play.
Any form of discrimination with regard to a country or a person on grounds of race,

religion, politics, gender or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic
Movement.
Belonging to the Olympic Movement requires compliance with the Olympic Charter
and recognition by the IOC.

My question to the IOC would be where is the preservation of human dignity by the hosts of the XXII Winter Olympic Games. The practice of sport and spectating is a human right, which should be defended for all without discrimination of any kind. Yet where does a same-sex couple whether a competitor of spectator stand if they are caught holding hands, or maybe kissing their partner after successfully winning a medal?

The IOC itself allowed for a Pride House at both the 2010 Winter Olympics and in London last summer. They had a place where LGBT athletes and supporters could be highlighted and supported in the end to discrimination. As I wrote on the lead up to the Games there was a Team LGB that was visible in London. There is a Team LGB that is hoping to be selected for Sochi.

There will be LGB athletes at the 2014 Winter Olympic Games, some may like Matthew Mitcham after Beijing 2008 been seen with their partner after they have competed. There are also LGBT spectators from around the world who are Olympic-philes, people such as myself. Some will go to any length to watch a Games, or to be in the area where the Games are taking place to soak up the atmosphere. How are the fundamentals of Olympism, going to help them should the new laws in Russia with such a loose definition of propaganda? The talk of coming down on 'non-traditional sexual orientation' does not offer much hope.

Is it time to add coherently sexual orientation into the list of discrimination listed in the Olympic charter rather than including it under 'or otherwise'?

The IOC is heading towards a repeat of 1968. Remember their banning of the two athletes who gave the black power salute didn't prevent their message from being heard, it is heard loud and clear even to this day. Do we have modern day martyrs ready to show the IOC and the Russian National Olympic Committee that such a prejudicial and discriminatory law has not place in a member of the Olympic movement?

Wednesday, 31 July 2013

Why we should go to Sochi

I've been giving this some thought over recent days. With all the talk between the IOC and the Russians about how the application of the anti-gay propaganda law would be enforced in next year's Winter Olympics in Sochi. This has included the first arrests of foreign nations who were interviewing people was a documentary story on the law change.

At first their were calls to boycott Russian vodkas. But I scanned the shelf at Tesco. Smirnoff is distilled in the UK, Stolichnaya is distilled in Russia but bottled in Latvia, in the EU, there are others that sound Russian that actually come from Belarus, Ukraine or Finland. If I were a big Vodka drinker it would really need a lot of knowledge to check the labels as some boycotts would actually be affecting jobs outside Russia, and the home distilled stuff would still be getting produced and drunk in Russia. Earlier today a New York bar and its customers poured Stolichnaya vodka down the drains outside the Russian Embassy, however the company has risked a lot back home when it released this statement opposing the law and supporting LGBT equality.

Then there was the call to boycott the Games themselves.

Now as some of you know I am a bit of a sportsman who once held hopes of appearing the Olympics, and until bowls qualifies I fear that day will never come, but if it does I will try and compete for Ireland. I love the Olympics, if any of your read my histories of the Summer Games or my reports of the Games last summer will attest. I'm not one for boycotting the games, mainly because the people it affects most are the athletes who have given up a four year cycle of their life to try and peak at the right time to win that medal. Think how many of you currently have a goal of what you are going to do in four years time? How many of you are willing to sacrifice more or less everything in order to achieve that goal?

But there is another reason why those athletes should be allowed to go to the Games. The nations that are most likely to object to the draconian nature of the law change in Russia are also those nations that are most likely to have the most openly LGB athletes and allies in their party. They are the nations that are most likely to make a stand live on Russian TV that is carrying the Games as the Olympic Broadcasters. People like openly gay New Zealand speed skater Blake Skellerup who said he will be wearing a rainbow badge. Others both LGB and straight may be encouraged to do likewise.

These Games could well be to LGBT rights what the Blank Panther salute was in Mexico in 1968 for black civil rights in the USA. To boycott them means that the reason for the boycott will probably not get reported in Russia. I know things have moved on a bit since I didn't learn that Saddam Hussein had invaded Kuwait until I exited the USSR and found myself back in Warsaw, 10 days later. But the press there will still be very careful about how they report a boycott, especially because of the new law. But by turning up en masse and making a statement the athletes of the world can show the LGBT population of Russia that we support them.

Others will no doubt disagree with me. But others will agree that unless we follow the example of Tilda Swinton (right) and make a statement that the people in Russia can actually see and hear we are not helping those who are LGBT in Russia. The Russian LGBT network has called not to boycott the Games but to boycott homophobia.

They talk about not knowing and LGBT people, probably because they are scared to say who they are. We are out and proud and those who support us are too, it is time to be proud that there is nothing unnatural about being LGBT and that a law against being born this way was remarkably one of the things that Russians fought and died for in the second World War.

Whether as Russian legislator Vitaly Milonov says the law will be enforced the Games come during a period known as the Olympic Truce. I would like to see whoever replaces Jacques Rogge as President of the IOC in September to make a mention of human sexuality not being a barrier to participation in the Games, in his speech at the Opening Ceremony. Having heard that sort of statement made in a few pulpits in my day I can assure you that it warms the hearts of those who feel oppressed in such situations normally. It can give them hope.

So I say we send the athletes to Sochi 2014 and provide them with rainbow badges to wear.

Thursday, 7 June 2012

Reason not to take Pride in Moscow

It is coming up to Pride season here in the UK. But effectively in Moscow there will not be a sanctioned Pride parade until 2112.

In Moscow applications for a parade have to be submitted not later than 30-45 days before the event. But there is no maximum time before the event that such an application has to be submitted. So gay rights activists submitted applications for each of the next 100 years. Only for City Hall to turn them all down. This decision has since been upheld by the district and city courts.

In a country where a little over 25 years ago there didn't appear to be an end to communism, where little more than 20 years ago homosexuality was still illegal, a decision has now been made that will last more than 4 or 5 times that long.

As recently as 2007 the then Mayor of Moscow Yury Luzhkov considered attempts to hold a Pride parade in Moscow as 'satanic' so I guess here in Belfast we are lucky that one of our leading politicians only thought we were repugnant last year. There has never been a sanctioned Pride parade in the Russian capital and more cities across the country are taking the same stance as St. Petersburg in banning the dissemination of any homosexual propaganda, that included health issues both physical and mental pertinent to the LGBT community that exists there.

I remember how just 22 years I was distributing literature in the USSR that was illegal to be distributed, that was the bible then. I'm sure that these bans won't last 100 years, or even 10 years. But we need to be clear when telling the Russians that there are concerns of health, suicide and well being of young LGBT individuals that without literature and advise many young people will feel that they are alone.

There are concerns that by trying to hide the Russian LGBT community it is doing untold harm to those individuals. It is on a par to what was repressed by the communists before the Soviet Union dissolved to allow greater freedom, but with that freedom comes responsibility something that those in authority seem to be ignoring with these anti-LGBT decisions.

Tuesday, 17 August 2010

Homophobe Needs to Learn to Read the Bible Properly

There is something that often irritates about some of the so called 'Christian' extremists who preach things like kill the gays and brandish the word abomination around while enjoying their prawn in their polyester/cotton mix clothing.

However, today's 'learn to read the bible' award goes not to an American but Russia's first legal billionaire German Sterligov. He said that he wanted all gay men and women killed when he was interviewed at the weekend on the popular Moscow radio station Echo Moskvi.

When challenged by the host Ksenia Larina:

"I want to understand, German, what what you want to do … what to do not only with atheists but also with gays and lesbians?"

Mr. Sterligov responded:

"As it is written by the Apostle Paul, Let it be their blood upon their heads."

Other guests on the programme chipped in. One asked:

"This is what is written about gays and lesbians?"

"Yes," replied Mr. Sterligov. "This is what is written about the homosexuals."

Now for some facts, yes it is written in the bible,"Let it be their blood upon their heads" you can find Paul saying it in Acts 18:6. However, here is where Mr Sterligov falls down, you cannot take a sentence in the bible out of its context to make it say what you mean.

The context of this passage is Paul visiting the synagogue in Corinth. He was testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. However, they resisted and blasphemed. So Paul shook his clothes (ie getting the residue of them off him) and said:

"Your blood be upon your own head! I am clean. From now on I shall go the Gentiles."

So instead of it being about homosexual is actually about some of God's chosen people, the children of Israel rejecting the message that Paul was giving to them. It has nothing to do about sexuality and all to do about rejecting the message. Seeing as you who I would expect to accept the message have rejected I'm going to those that you think don't deserve to hear it.

Harsh words and equally applicable to Mr Sterligov. You say that some people deserve to die for who they are. As I've mentioned before people like Mr Sterligov are very particular about which of their priestly laws from Leviticus they want to uphold and which it is ok to ignore in this day and age. Generally if applies to sleeping with man as with woman and includes death keep, if it involves sea food, or slavery or clothing we can ignore that now.

End result of course is a total image of hate, when actually Paul would have been turning his back on that hate and taking his message to those that Mr Sterligov has shown such hatred to. Sadly a recent poll of Russian opinions shows that Mr Sterligov is in a majority. 74 per cent of Russians believe gays and lesbians are morally dissolute or mentally defective, while only 15 per cent think they are normal.

There is still a long way to go in certain parts of the world. But if you are going to have an argument based on biblical references at least use the passages that relate rather that totally twisted, that is debate rather than diatribe.

Tuesday, 28 October 2008

Governments Move to Green Up Our Act

Yesterday the Scottish Parliament ~~voted~~ announced it is to set annual targets to ensure continuous progression to the reduction of emissions by 80% by 2050. They also voted to include all six major greenhouse gas emissions* rather than just Carbon Dioxide (CO2) in these targets.

It comes the day ahead of the Westminster vote which looks likely to include aviation and shipping emissions in UK targets. Ed Miliband has also said earlier this month that he is looking to increase UK reductions from 60% to 80% matching the Scottish target.

With both the Governments in Westminster and Holyrood taken emboldened steps to include more of the proposals of the Kyoto Protocol we need them to reach out to others, especially USA, Russia and China, to also do their bit. The three largest contributors to climate change through their emissions have yet to make bold or indeed even tentative strides to do much in line with many others in the world. We need the big three on board before much longer. It is not an excuse for them to rely on market forces alone, nor of China to say it needs to catch up industrially to hide the fact that cleaner alternatives and practises are available and should be encouraged as much as possible.

* The other five are methane, nitrous oxide, Hydrofluorcarbons (HFCs), Perfluorocarbons (PFCs), Sulphur Hexafluoride (SF6).

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