Russia, May
2013: Vladislav Tornovoi, a young Russian man of 22, is stripped, abused with
beer bottles, and then beaten with a concrete block. As if that wasn’t enough,
his killers also try to set his body on fire. Two men are arrested for his
murder and, according to the authorities, they are Vladislav’s friends. With friends
like that who needs enemies?
When asked by
investigators why they killed their friend, one of the men says, “Because he
was a fag.”
Vladislav’s
injuries were so severe that doctors advised his father not to see the body.
There are talks
that young Vladislav Tornovoi wasn’t gay and that his killers only said that to
gain public sympathy because, in Russia, being gay is considered to be a crime.
Unfortunately
for many, homophobia is still a problem in the present day. Not being gay
myself, I have no problem being among gays as a few of my friends are
homosexuals.
Activists will
now attempt to hold a gay pride in Moscow, and this is a real hard thing to do
in Russia because such things are banned there. The activists have already been
warned that they will be breaking the law.
In modern
Russia, the government has decided the children don’t need any education about
gay rights. In order to 'protect their morality', the country’s parliament is
in the process of passing a federal law that will deem all such information
‘homosexual propaganda’, and punishable by a hefty fine. It is unlikely to
challenge attitudes in a country where, according to the latest polls, more
than three quarters of the population already think homosexuality is either a
bad habit, a disease or the result of trauma.
The hate
never ends…
Don’t we ever
learn?
My e-book Talk about
Proust is now available on Amazon
