Last summer, the United States officially legalized gay marriage through all fifty states, a big step for the LGBT community and the overall human race in terms of equality and peace; however, not every nation is on board with marriage equality or very welcoming of sexual orientations and gender identities that are different from the binary. One such country is Russia, where the systematic oppression and discrimination of lesbian, gay, and transexual people is evident in its specific laws made to target the minority, as well as through the societal attitude towards them. Thus it is a valuable question to ask what Russian culture or society would be if the LGBT community were to be welcomed and embraced. Russian legislature and daily life would
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The deep rooted prejudice has most likely been ingrained since around the first emergence of the Russian Orthodox Church, a probable transfer of beliefs from the Catholic Church, its close relative. Many polls and surveys regarding opinions on homosexuality have been held, and although being gay was no longer ruled as a psychological problem since 1999, the rates of homophobia amongst the Russian population has not decreased, but increased, in recent years. In such current polls, “50 percent of respondents said they felt irritation and disgust” towards gays and lesbians, and “eighty percent of respondents opposed granting the right to adopt children to same-sex couples” (The Moscow Times), all of which demonstrate the distrust and negative perception of LGBT that is still ever so prominent …show more content…
In 2009, Kovkov “tested HIV positive” (Clark) and wishes to spread information and education on STDs to Russian youth and the gay community. He has experienced multiple counts of Russian oppression and abuse of LGBT people; in 2015, after a near-death car crash, “the hospital employees refused him treatment” (Lee), and “several months before his car accident, Kovkov and his boyfriend were beaten up on a Moscow subway train by two strangers” (Lee). Upon reporting the incident to the police, “the officers refused to associate the attack with homophobia” (Lee). With his occupation as a lawyer, he has documented all the violence he’s experienced at the hand of prejudice, which unfortunately was and still is unrecognized by the Russian judicial system. He is currently working in America, after seeking asylum in the United States and continues to raise awareness on the maltreatment of
The deep rooted prejudice has most likely been ingrained since around the first emergence of the Russian Orthodox Church, a probable transfer of beliefs from the Catholic Church, its close relative. Many polls and surveys regarding opinions on homosexuality have been held, and although being gay was no longer ruled as a psychological problem since 1999, the rates of homophobia amongst the Russian population has not decreased, but increased, in recent years. In such current polls, “50 percent of respondents said they felt irritation and disgust” towards gays and lesbians, and “eighty percent of respondents opposed granting the right to adopt children to same-sex couples” (The Moscow Times), all of which demonstrate the distrust and negative perception of LGBT that is still ever so prominent …show more content…
In 2009, Kovkov “tested HIV positive” (Clark) and wishes to spread information and education on STDs to Russian youth and the gay community. He has experienced multiple counts of Russian oppression and abuse of LGBT people; in 2015, after a near-death car crash, “the hospital employees refused him treatment” (Lee), and “several months before his car accident, Kovkov and his boyfriend were beaten up on a Moscow subway train by two strangers” (Lee). Upon reporting the incident to the police, “the officers refused to associate the attack with homophobia” (Lee). With his occupation as a lawyer, he has documented all the violence he’s experienced at the hand of prejudice, which unfortunately was and still is unrecognized by the Russian judicial system. He is currently working in America, after seeking asylum in the United States and continues to raise awareness on the maltreatment of