U.S.-Russia Tension on Display at the Winter Olympics
LGBT Oppression and Repression: Who's Calling Who Intolerant?
February 3, 2014 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
The Olympic Games feature breathtaking athletic performances. But in a world dominated by capitalist-imperialist nations with fiercely competing interests, they are even more defined by the promotion of ugly “my country #1” chauvinism. Such is the case with the 2014 Winter Olympics, where much of this is taking the form of promoting the USA as a bastion of gay rights, contrasted with repression of LGBT people in Russia.
Russia, under Vladimir Putin, has enacted outrageous anti-gay legislation. It conflates same-sex relations with child abuse and pedophilia. In some ways, this equating of same-sex relationships with pedophilia (adults having sex with children) parallels the way that very prominent and powerful voices of vicious intolerance in the United States try to conflate same-sex relationships with bestiality.
The United States and Russia are different countries, different societies, and have different histories. And there are differences in the legal status of LGBT people within the United States, and between the U.S. and Russia.
But seriously: who’s calling who intolerant?
Gold Medal Hypocrisy
We are supposed to believe that having openly gay and lesbian athletes (figure skater Brian Boitano, tennis great Billie Jean King, and Olympic ice hockey medalist Caitlin Cahow) in this delegation shows that life in the U.S. for those in the Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual, and Transgender (LGBT) community is not the same compared to their counterparts in Russia. Obama sends his delegation, telling the world how great it is for the LGBT community in the U.S.
Really? In 2004, Obama was still questioning “should they [gays] get married?” Even his 2012 statement endorsing gay marriage failed to give anyone any hope that he would do anything about it and that statement came across as an election ploy. And now his delegation is the great spokespeople for this? Come on Billie Jean King, Brian Boitano, and Caitlin Cahow. Stop being a spokesperson for U.S. imperialism and tell the people of the world what it is really like to be lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, or transgender in the U.S. and how we have to put an end to all this madness coming down on the LGBT community in Russia.
It’s a good thing that athletes are speaking out for LGBT rights, and it’s good that Caitlin Cahow says that politics should be at the Olympics allowing athletes to speak their mind about issues they feel need to be addressed. But when Cahow says “the delegation is not about criticizing the policies of Moscow but celebrating progress and diversity in the United States,” we say that’s bullshit! And that lie has to be taken on.
The truth is the opposite; while there are differences, overall, both countries continue to demonize and discriminate against their LGBT people, and life for those in the LGBT communities in both countries is fraught with the daily danger of violence against them, including murder just because of their sexual orientation.
The Situation for Gay Athletes in the USA
In the United States, big-time professional sports are not just significant profit centers, they play a huge role in defining the culture of this society, projecting “role models” and values that get pumped through TV, video games, sports-talk radio, etc. And, just how many openly gay athletes are there in the major U.S. professional sports (NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL)? Zero, with the exception of Jason Collins, an NBA center who courageously came out as openly gay while hoping to land a contract to extend his career. The world watched to see if the NBA powers that be would prevail on some team to sign Collins. Nobody signed him, and Collins has not played a game in the NBA since coming out publicly.
You want a window into the state of tolerance for gay athletes in America? Consider this from former Minnesota Vikings punter and gay rights advocate Chris Kluwe:
“Near the end of November, several teammates and I were walking into a specialist meeting with Coach [Mike] Priefer. We were laughing over one of the recent articles I had written supporting same-sex marriage rights, and one of my teammates made a joking remark about me leading the Pride parade. As we sat down in our chairs, Mike Priefer, in one of the meanest voices I can ever recall hearing, said: ‘We should round up all the gays, send them to an island, and then nuke it until it glows.’” Kluwe was an excellent punter for eight years with the Vikings but has been run out of the league. Priefer remains a coach.
The U.S. Record on Gay Rights
In the U.S., state sodomy laws (laws that outlaw several sex acts, mainly those between people of the same sex) were not overturned until 2003. If that had not happened, 14 states would still have those laws on the books. Discrimination around a person’s sexual orientation or what became more known as “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy in the U.S. military was not ended until 2011. Transgender people are still banned from the military, and face terrible prejudice in society, and dangerous conditions in prisons. A little known fact is that it was Thomas Jefferson who authored a Virginia law that men who engage in same-sex relationships will be castrated.
There has been a huge battle over same-sex marriage in the U.S., and attitudes are changing rapidly. Currently only 17 states have legalized same-sex marriage and six of those states only reversed their previous ban on same-sex marriage in 2013. Right now 33 states ban same-sex marriage.
The horror of what it means to be an LGBT person in the U.S. is the violence committed against them. A report from the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and HIV-Affected Hate Violence in 2012” describes that a huge part of that violence is inflicted by the cops. For instance, transgender people are three and one-half times more likely to incur police violence than those who are not LGBT and gay men are three times more likely to incur police violence.
The Status of LGBT People in Russia
None of this minimizes the terrible and dangerous situation for LGBT people in Russia, or the importance of people speaking out against and protesting that—everywhere in the world. In Russia, there has been increased violence on the LGBT communities as described by Masha Gessen, a lesbian who has written a book about Pussy Riot, Words Will Break Cement: The Passion of Pussy Riot. She was interviewed recently on the NPR show Fresh Air, where she said, “There’s an incredible rise in anti-gay violence. I mean that’s the most immediate effect of all this propaganda and all this anti-gay legislation. ... it’s what happens in the streets. And there are many different kinds of anti-gay violence. ... people are just getting beaten up and the police stand by and watch basically.”
A somewhat different view was taken by Anita Rani, who has a travel show on BBC2, where, on her recent trip to Russia, she found that there is an outwardly gay community in St. Petersburg. “On the one hand, we hear about all the negative stories that are coming out about things like gay rights in Russia, but at the same time, there were Queer Fests going on right in front of me,” explained Rani. “Queer Fest is a gay festival that happens in St. Petersburg. ... It was an absolutely legal festival that they were having. Nobody was there closing it down.” On the other hand her co-presenter found that in rural Russia there were openly anti-gay sentiments among the population “who hold really homophobic views.” (“Russia on 4 Wheels,” by Anita Rani and Justin Rowlett, January 16, 2014.)
In some ways this parallels the situation in the United States and other countries as well, where there is more acceptance of LGBT people in larger cities and more enlightened areas, and vast areas of the country where being openly LGBT will cost one their job and their friends, get them denounced in church, and subjected to legal and extra-legal threats and physical danger.
So for the U.S. to be calling out Russia for its anti-gay law is like the “pot calling the kettle black” or the U.S. calling out Russia for what the U.S. is doing too.
In Common: Religious Bigotry and Patriarchy
The principal thing to understand about Russia and the United States is that they are both capitalist-imperialist countries, even with some differences between them. What this means is that the laws, the dominant culture, and the relationships between people support and reinforce the capitalist-imperialist system of each country. This is not cut and dried as a one size fits all, but is based on the particular necessities each country faces at any particular time, as well as the struggles of the people in each country that go up against the capitalist-imperialist system.
One very important similarity in each country is the role of religion and how that has impacted the LGBT communities in each country. In Russia, Putin is a born-again in the Russian Orthodox Church. Masha Gessen talked about how Putin’s main base of support comes from the Russian Orthodox Church along with the “traditional values” that support the Russian Orthodox family. In her NPR interview, she said: “Many Russians identify as Russian Orthodox and have this vague idea of a Russian national identity that is tied to the Orthodox church.” And it was just reported that the patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church preached against same-sex marriage saying that “the traditional family structure is needed for the survival of humankind.” (christianpost.com, January 30, 2014)
Does this sound familiar?
In our article, “The Shutdown, the Showdown, and the Urgent Need To Repolarize... For Revolution,” Revolution/revcom.us, October 8, 2013, we discuss the two forces in the ruling class and talk about the dominant force within the Republican Party as being a fascist force that “demand(s) a forceful reassertion of ‘traditional American values’ that include “the outlawing of abortion and restriction of birth control, and the all-round re-imposition of the traditional, openly oppressive subordination of women, justified by archaic religious dogma.” We go on to point out that, “In short, these Republi-fascists uphold white supremacy, the subjugation of women, nativism (that is, a hatred of those not born in the U.S.), and religious fundamentalism, along with a general glorying in ignorance and irrationality. Added to this is the very important fact of fascist strength in the military.”
As the article “Same-Sex Marriage: A Basic Right, a Just Demand” (April 7, 2013, Revolution/revcom.us), pointed out: “There are conflicts within the ruling class of the U.S. over how to handle this. Some sections of the ruling class (more or less associated with the Republican Party) argue that a brutal enforcement of ‘traditional values’ is the only way to maintain the system in times of great social and economic turmoil. Within that mix, the head of the Christian fascist Family Research Council, Tony Perkins, told a right-wing talk show host that ‘I think you could see a social and cultural revolution if the Court goes too far on this.’ By ‘revolution,’ Perkins and others of his ilk mean violent fascist repression in one form or another.”
You want a world of tolerance, equality, and liberation? Then don’t get played into being a cheerleader or cheering on a system of intolerance, inequality, and oppression, of “your own” or any other oppressive ruling class.
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