Right-Wing Media Act As Russia's PR Agents In Anti-Gay Crackdown

[William769]

Russia's recent crackdown on its LGBT community has been condemned by everyone from President Barack Obama to grassroots gay rights activists. But since Russia passed a series of sweeping laws banning the dissemination of "gay propaganda" and prohibiting the adoption of children by Russian same-sex couples and any foreign couples from nations with marriage equality, many right-wing media figures have instead rallied to the country's defense.

It's not surprising that far-right figures from anti-gay hate groups like the American Family Association (AFA) and Americans For Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH) have enthusiastically endorsed President Vladimir Putin's draconian crackdown on gays. As the Russian news agency RIA Novosti recently reported, AFTAH President Peter LaBarbera has championed Putin's cause. In a statement on his group's website, LaBarbera said, "Russians do not want to follow America's reckless and decadent promotion of gender confusion, sexual perversion, and anti-biblical ideologies to youth." The AFA's Bryan Fischer praised Putin's anti-gay laws, stating that the country isn't being homophobic but "homorealistic."

But AFTAH and AFA are not alone in endorsing Russia's right to arrest anyone who offers a positive depiction of homosexuality, as the new laws will allow. Outlets and figures within the mainstream of the conservative movement have also jumped on the bandwagon.

On the August 7 edition of his radio show, Rush Limbaugh justified Russia's anti-gay policies by citing the country's economic and demographic challenges:

LIMBAUGH: Feminists are starting to lose themselves in these philosophical discussions, which of course are rooted in self-absorption and maybe tinges of guilt. Because what's going on here is -- it's continual -- a full-frontal assault on what has always been considered normalcy. And so the Russians -- just to close the loop on this -- the Russians and Putin are putting their foot down. They're saying, 'Enough of that. We aren't going to have that here. We need a growing population. We need a country that's growing. We need more people. We need more people working. We need more productivity. And we're not going to sign up for all this new-age, so-called elitist brilliance. So ergo, the reason why the ban on gay athletes at the Olympics.

http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/08/12/right-wing-media-act-as-russias-pr-agents-in-an/195359

[Hong Kong Cavalier]

1. A comment at the link summed it up nicely

The Right-wing is praising the former head of the KGB, most likely a Communist himself in the past, for this horrific "crack-down" on GLBT rights, and yet they call Obama a Communist and/or a Socialist.

They won't ever see it, either.

[William769]

2. So true.

[Rex]

3. The GOP is aligned with racism, homophobia

misogynists - generally any hatred for minorities will do. Is it any wonder their favorite place to beg money from is China? They wish we had a closed system of government like China and adore their workers able to work 100 hours a week and be quickly replaced after dying on the job.

Russia and China are two role models for the GOP. Another reason our country sucks...one half of our two party system is criminally insane.

[William769]

6. I don't use it as a source & think it's a piece of shit source.

But can we leave that element out of this discussion? I know some people have a hard time believing this, but they are separate issues & when you bring the other element into it, you diminish this one.

[msanthrope]

7. Absolutely. In fact, I will delete my post. nt

[ornotna]

5. It's part of their agenda

The American Taliban at it's best.

[Dawson Leery]

8. This is the Nixon/Reagan legacy.

They turned the GOP into the party of the confederacy, greed, hate, theocracy and anti-intellectualism.