Thread: Sochi Olympics and the Law against Gays in Russia +

Originally Posted by Hanna

Yes, but haven't you checked what the law is about?
It's NOT outlawing actually BEING homosexual, having homosexual relations or going to gay bars..

It's some specific acts that it is referring to, that anybody gay or straight, could refrain from doing.

Just like I can go to Lebanon and refrain from wearing shorts and a tank top, or go to Germany and refrain from constantly bring up the war. Or in the case of Russia; refrain from making a gay manifestation even if I happened to be gay.

A Swedish female athlete competed in Russia today and had a rainbow manicure which she showed off after she jumped. Nothing, of course, happened.

However Elena Isinbayeva, the Russian gold medalist said it was insensitive and showing a lack of respect for her country.

I agree that if it was illegal to actually BE gay, then that would be wrong, since gay people for the most part cannot change.

Thank you for agreeing and understanding that gay people cannot change. (Most of them at some point would wish they could).
Their problem though, interestingly enough, is that sometimes gay people are not difficult to recognize even without any gay manifestion.

Originally Posted by Lampada

Thank you for agreeing and understanding that gay people cannot change. (Most of them at some point would wish they could).
Their problem though, interestingly enough, is that sometimes gay people are not difficult to recognize even without any gay manifestion.

That is so true, Lampada. A close friend of mine is a lesbian and she has told me all about her life and how hard it has been. She often wished she did not have to be gay. She was in the closet for many years and even married a man and had two sons, then later came out of the closet and admitted she was only sexually attracted to women. It took her years to get to the place where she finally found the courage to be honest about who she was. Her sons, by the way, are good kids! One of them is a skydiving instructor. The other one works for a company in Germany. Despite all that their family went through, they stuck together and supported each other.

Forcing people to hid who they are creates more problems than it solves, in my opinion. There are stories in the US media almost every day about some famous conservative politician who has a wife and kids and makes a ton of money, who turns out to be gay.

I could understand if Russia had passed laws against public expressions of pornography (gay or otherwise), or if they had had passed laws against public indecency, running around naked in public, or publicly displaying sexual toys like dildos, etc. But instead, the laws are about "пропаганда нетрадиционных сексуальных отношений".... what does that even mean, "non-traditional"....? Is a live-in arrangement where the couple is not formally married "non-traditional"? It's just so ambiguous.