What lies behind Putin's homophobia

by Stephen Morgan

The terrible attacks on the rights of the LGBTQI community in Russia are an integral part of Putin's strategy to whip up reactionary ideas, such as nationalism, religion and racism, in order to help him establish a more authoritarian regime. Putin is playing upon the public's ignorance and prejudices towards gay issues and is manipulating people's narrow-mindedness and unwarranted fears over it. As the Guardian pointed out in January 2013, the attack on LGBTQI rights is “part of an official drive to promote traditional Russian values as opposed to western liberalism, which the Kremlin and church see as corrupting youth and by extension contributing to a wave of protest against Putin's rule.

But the attacks on LGBTQI rights are not simply bigotry or prejudice on the part of Putin and the ruling elite. Many of them are, of course, cultural dinosaurs, but there is a deeper political reason behind it. They see the LGBTQI community as a more general threat to the political system and their power and privileges. The Russian elite doesn't only rule because of its control of the repressive tools of the state, it must also depend on the psychology of the population and the maintenance of conventional thinking which supports the status quo.

The key pillar of society and the foundations upon which the state is built are to be found in the traditional family unit and the so-called “values” which go with it. Within the stereotyped family we find the bedrock of class society. At its head stands the all-powerful father, representing the male-dominated ruling class, whose word cannot be challenged, the subjugated, semi slave-like position of the mother, reflecting the status of women as second class citizens and the naivety and blind obedience of the children, who represent the masses.

LGBTQI people, however, challenge this conception and so are seen as a threat to the system. By living and thinking outside the “social box,” they threaten the fundamental premises upon which the mentality and habits of the mass of people are based and upon which the hierarchy of class rule depends. Of course, most LGBTQI people are only demanding an end to discrimination, equality and democratic rights and not necessarily the overthrow of the entire socio-economic system. But the regime doesn't see it like that. It considers these demands to be a dangerous and subversive attack on their rule.

The elite in Russia worries that if such “deviant behaviour” and dissident thinking is not checked and, instead, LGBTQI rights and lifestyles start to gain acceptance from the wider population, it will undermine traditional notions of the family. They are afraid that once that happens, people will also start to think “outside the box” and this wont limit itself to gay issues. What worries them is that people will start thinking more critically in general and lead people to reflect upon the fundamental ideas at the heart of a system, such as the nuclear family, the position of women and the current way society is run. It is for this reason that LGBTQI people are being persecuted and demonized by the regime and it is part of the whole strategy of reinforcing conservative, backward thinking and prejudices through the manipulation of religion, nationalism and racism.

Thus in Russia and in similar authoritarian regimes, LGBTQI issues are inextricably linked to the general struggle for democratic rights and freedom of expression, women's liberation, the defence of ethnic and religious minorities and an end to racism and discrimination, as well as the support for a secular state, combined with an internationalist outlook, which challenges narrow nationalist thinking.

This is exactly what Pussy Riot have done. They have linked all these issues together and fought to break conservative thinking and traditional views. They have exposed the machinations of Putin on LGBTQI issues and similar questions and, in doing so, they have challenged the foundations of the Putin's “Power Vertical” state. This is why they are seen as such a threat to the system and it is why they have been persecuted and imprisoned."

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Pope: abortion and gay marriage "threat to world peace".

 Pope Benedict: “In the 1970s, paedophilia was theorised as something fully in conformity with man and even with children,”

by Frankie Durr

The head of the Vatican state has been praying for hours for peace and other such things as popes have done for centuries when they haven’t been warring and colonizing, spreading Jesus’ word, or their version of it. The Vatican’s public relations managers tell him that the average person would love to have peace and more leisure time to go along with it.   The pope took note of this and in his Christmas message he definitely appears to be moving to the left, even calling for a shorter workweek telling the crowd, "The faster we can move, the more efficient our timesaving appliances become, the less time we have.

This subtle call for more leisure time is not all; “And God? The question of God never seems urgent. Our time is already completely full,", the pope added.  Well, more leisure time would give people more time to go to one of his churches which would increase revenue, but we have to understand that the pope has to be careful how he phrases things otherwise he might lose the support of the hedge fund managers. 

But don’t cut him short.  When he says, that “…the more efficient appliances become the less time we have.” he is telling us that technology and labor saving devices because they are owned by the capitalist class are used to exploit us further, extract more surplus value from fewer workers while they throw those they don’t need on the dole.

The pope spoke eloquently from beneath his ermine fringed robe. I do not recall Jesus Christ being fond of ermine when I was involved in god worship as a kid but no matter, the pope seems to be moving to the left.  Let’s hope he supports this shorter workweek with no loss in pay.

I do have a few questions about Benedict’s approach though as I read more of his message.  When he said, "The great moral question of our attitude towards the homeless, towards refugees and migrants, takes on a deeper dimension: do we really have room for God when he seeks to enter under our roof?" I’m not sure who he is talking to.  The reason I say this is that most people in the world are homeless or near homeless, millions of us are refuges and millions more migrants due to being refugees or homeless. I mean, he appears to be talking to the homeless refugees and migrants and their attitude to themselves.  It’s a bit confusing.

Pope Benedict also called for societies to be built on justice and an end to the conflict in Syria.  I don’t know if he said anything about Afghanistan and Obama’s drone wars in Yemen, Pakistan, Somalia and other parts of the world.  He called on Israeli’s and Palestinians to have the, "courage to end long years of conflict and division".   Hmm! I have a bit of a problem with this you see because I’m not sure it’s just an issue of courage.  And it would be helpful if the pope had mentioned that Israel’s approval of 5500 new illegal settlements on Palestinian land just in the last week might hurt the chances for any settlement at all.  I know throwing stones at Israeli tanks and bulldozers can dent the paintwork of these machines but he could recognize that there is a bit of a difference between the roles of the two sides here. 

And look, the pope did manage to have a go at the gays saying that gay marriage destroys the “essence of the human creature.” and that gay marriage, like abortion and euthanasia, is a “threat to world peace.”.  Oh dear, I’m not sure I agree with these remarks.  I think capitalism, Wall Street crooks and the thugs in the Pentagon are a greater threat to world peace than gay marriage.  As I read on I am not liking what I read; apparently the pope thinks paedophilia wasn't considered an “absolute evil” as recently as the 1970s.  Whaaat! When I was young I was taught that the pope was “infallible”that means he could not sin.  There’s no such thing as sin but I didn’t know that then. Could it be that the pope is saying this to cover up the horrific level of child sexual abuse in his organization?  I think this may be the case; in fact it gets worse as the pope claims that child pornography has been considered  “normal” in our society.  A Catholic victim of sexual abuse by one of the pope’s employees responded differently, “That is not normal. I don't know what company the Pope has been keeping for the past 50 years.” He says.

Perhaps, Der Spiegel, the German Magazine’s ongoing investigation in to the Pope's role in covering up sexual abuse by priests and allowing perpetrators to continue to work with children in the church has some merit.

I think I have to re-think my support for the pope’s call for a shorter workweek. And if you are still a member of the Catholic church and can’t bring yourself to leave it, please don’t ignore the cancer and consider trying in some small way to fight openly to change it like the Nuns on the Bus are doing.

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