A top Russian lawmaker demanded the Russian government to shut down Facebook over its support of the LGBT movement after the United States Supreme Court ruled a decision to legalize same-sex marriage in all 50 U.S. states.
Russian lawmaker Vitaly Milonov was particularly upset by Facebook’s newly introduced function that allows its users to decorate their profile picture with the rainbow flag of the LGBT movement.
“It [decorating profile pictures with the LGBT colors] is a crude violation of Russian legislation. Facebook has no age limits, it is impossible to control how many minors are there,” Milonov said during an interview with ‘Russian news service’.
“That is why it would be completely normal to pull the plug on Facebook in Russia,” he added.
The lawmaker threatened to go to Russian President Vladimir Putin and FSB in case Roskomnadzor (Federal Supervision Agency for Information Technologies and Communications) ignores his letter.
“Any normal person would not leave this unnoticed. If Roskomnadzor does then they play on the side of those who wish harm to our homeland,” Milonov expressed his confidence.
The function that allows Facebook users to decorate their profile pictures with the rainbow colors was introduced after the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling to legalize same-sex marriage across the entire country on June 27. One of the first ones to decorate his profile picture was the founder of the social network, Mark Zuckerberg.
Among the users of Facebook who supported the idea were Hillary Clinton, a candidate for U.S. president in 2016, Arnold Schwarzenegger, ‘Coca Cola’ company, MasterCard, YouTube and many others. Meanwhile, the U.S. government celebrated the ruling by lighting the White House with the rainbow flag of the LGBT movement.
Vitaly Milonov is famous for his provocative and scandalous statements in and outside Russia. In particular, he is the author of a legislation to ban gay propaganda, which was introduced before a similar federal law was adopted and came into force in 2013. The latter law triggered international controversy and prompted the West to criticize Russia.
Milonov also blamed such singers as Madonna and Lady Gaga in promoting gay relationships. The lawmaker even suggested creating a vice police squad as well as forcing all teachers and doctors to pass pedophile tests.
Proud to be Gay and Russian
Earlier in June, Milonov went as far as suggesting to prohibit people from walking shirtless in Moscow. Well, doesn’t Milonov know that his beloved President is a fan of walking shirtless? (reference to the photographs of Vladimir Putin riding horses shirtless and walking along a river on a camping trip)
The lawmaker is also famous for his efforts to ban the HBO TV series ‘Game of Thrones’ in Russia because the show is ‘harmful’.
“Every tenth character [in Game of Thrones] is a sexual deviant,” Milonov told the Russian daily Izvestia newspaper. “Through such works and their popularizing, a new matrix is being inserted in our consciousness, according to which things like that are normal.”
Milonov then clarified that he had not watched a single episode of ‘Game of Thrones’.
However, it is important to note that many Russians decorated their Facebook profile pictures with rainbow colors in a show of support for the U.S. historic ruling. Furthermore, some Russians showed their disrespect to Milonov by adding a rainbow filter to his picture and sharing it on social media.
Russia might find some friends among Western conservatives
In Russia, homophobia remains a wide-spread issue in the country with many (the specific number is unknown for obvious reasons) Russians being gay but afraid to tell that even to their relatives.
And who can blame them? Ever since Putin came into power for the third time in 2012, he has been actively promoting ‘traditional values’ and thus forcing Russia to be an antithesis to the West.
Putin was also the one who signed off the law, which was influenced by Milonov’s previous initiatives, banning gay propaganda and display of homosexuality in front of minors. Does it mean that Putin will once again support Milonov’s point of view and shut down Facebook in Russia? He might, Putin has been very unpredictable lately.
The reason for such homophobic policy can be explained that Russia is in need of a set of values that would be opposite to the Western set of values.
If the West was the one who banned gay propaganda, Putin’s Russia would probably hold gay parades at Moscow’s Red Square on May 9 annually, while gay weddings would be an everyday thing among Russia’s famous celebrities as well as politicians, who would be highly encouraged (or even forced?) to come out as gays.
But today, we see the opposite. The West is the one who supports the LGBT movement, while Russia is happy to spread its homophobia beyond its borders.
The most dangerous thing in this situation is the fact that such homophobic values coincide with the Western conservatism, which gives Russia an opportunity to gain some international ‘friends’ when spouting its narrative of how bad gay relationships are during RT reports, a Russian state-owned and sponsored channel, which becomes highly popular among conservative people of the West.
Shirtless Putin spotted at the gay pride parade in London
Putin’s dummy was spotted at the gay Pride parade in London, riding the Armata ‘tank’ and ‘shooting’ the participants of the parade with an inflatable gun.
With his shirtless tanned body, in khaki military pants, Putin sat in a tank and amused the people gathered to celebrate the annual Pride parade just a day after gay marriage was ruled to be legal across the U.S.
The parade, which is believed to be the biggest event in London to date, featured dancing men and women of all races. Many of them were semi-naked, wearing headwear, including military style hats. There were also many men who combined the Soviet Union symbols with BDSM toys. Milonov and Putin were probably furious to see that on TV.
