I was honoured to be asked to post on a topic on The Outlier Collective, check me out in my new frock, you can see it here
Having never written for another blog before I was a bit nervous feeling like an agoraphobic venturing out of the confines of this blog, especially when told of the serious subject matter being Russia’s anti-gay law. You’ll probably know I am rarely serious on my blog and I never took the opportunity to be serious there either.
Of course we should be rightly outraged by what is happening over there, but I also believe humour to be a great tool when highlighting the idiocy of something.
For example, in the UK now there is a group set up called Straight Pride, thank you to The Pink Agendist for highlighting them. The group feels that as heterosexuals that they are given less rights than homosexuals, a statement which is frankly ludicrous. But a group has set up a site with an almost identical name parodying their site, they look identical but mocks them without being aggressive, a stance bound to irritate the original group no end, they also commandeered their Twitter site. What the group are looking for is an argument, they want conflict, we don’t have to retaliate with that. I wouldn’t be in the least surprised if this guy was involved in other groups targeting other sections of society, some people are so unhappy in their lives that they have to mar everyone else’s.
But of course this one guy’s paranoia is nothing compared to what is happening in Russia, which is basically like the Government opening hunting season but with LGBT people as the target. Despite recent column inches, it is being brushed under the carpet. The Olympics was used as a device to persuade them to change the laws but everyone has shied away from this.
Russia is currently hosting the World Championships, they have the Olympics and they have the World Cup in 2018. They have been rewarded richly with these competitions, they will be the focus of the World, and seemingly don’t care about the impression they give to the world, an ominous stance.
Also check out Leo’s post on the subject, he perfectly manages to say what I couldn’t.
I like how we both inadvertently started our post titles “From Russia with Love” This really is the first thing that comes to mind, but the way they are going it won’t be for much longer.
londonsurvival 
pinkagendist
/ August 15, 2013Don’t forget that there’s also a whole opportunistic side to this. Fuelling homophobia, as surprising as it may seem to some, actually creates jobs. There are whole organizations that only exist and whose employees only get paid if they can keep the fear of the LGBT community alive. The people behind Straight Pride UK may simply be trying to jump onto the bandwagon.
It works like a mafia protection racket, they scare you by breaking your shop windows then offer to protect you for a price. In this case they fan the flames of hate, then ask for donations so they can protect you from the big bad gays. If you look up any of the bigger organizations, like NOM, you’ll see they’re money machines and their leaders make A TON of money.
joehoover
/ August 15, 2013It’s a depressing world sometimes, I will never understand people’s hatred towards others, their manipulation, it’s such an alien concept to me.
Fear is probably one of the world’s greatest weapons
My comments may be closed on here now as people need to go over to the other site to debate