IN FOCUS GLOBALIZING HOMOPHOBIA: How the American Right Supports and Defends Russia’s Anti-Gay Crackdown Introduction single people in countries that allow marriage equality. Shortly afterward, a member of the In the summer of 2013, as part of a larger Duma proposed a law that would revoke gay effort to channel political dissatisfaction people’s custody of their biological children. by scapegoating minorities, the Russian The bill’s sponsor said in an interview that government escalated its crackdown on children would be better off in orphanages the rights of gay, lesbian, transgender and than with a gay mother or father. bisexual citizens. President Vladimir Putin and his allies found support and guidance in Throughout this process, Russian gay rights their anti-gay efforts from a group eager for groups reported a surge in anti-gay hate an opportunity to notch some victories in the crimes. battle against LGBT freedom and equality: the American right. Russia’s crackdown on LGBT people comes amidst a broad crackdown on the rights On June 11, the Russian Duma passed a law of minorities and political dissenters or, in banning “propaganda” about homosexuality the words of one lawmaker, a campaign to minors, essentially a gag rule criminalizing “to defend the rights of the majority.” On any advocacy for LGBT equality. (Moscow the same day the Duma passed its ban on had already instituted a 100-year ban on gay gay “propaganda,” it also approved a harsh pride parades.) Weeks later, on July 3, Putin anti-blasphemy law promising jail time for signed a bill banning the adoption of Russian “offending religious feelings.” The blasphemy children by same-sex couples abroad and by measure was meant to strengthen the National Organization for Marriage leader Brian Brown spoke to Russia 1’s Vesti news program 2 laws that led to the political prosecution of figures in the the feminist punk band Pussy Riot, whose American THE BILL’S SPONSOR members were sentenced to two years in anti-gay a penal colony for a performance that was movement, SAID IN AN deemed to offend “religious sensibilities.” National INTERVIEW THAT Organization Russia’s repression of LGBT people and For Marriage CHILDREN WOULD BE the Pussy Riot case have provoked an president BETTER OFF IN AN international outcry, intensified by the Brian Brown. country’s role as the host of the 2014 winter ORPHANAGE THAN Olympics. Brown had WITH A GAY MOTHER worked But throughout all this, one group has cheered closely with OR FATHER. on Putin’s actions: the American Religious the French Right and its international allies. anti-gay movement in its protests of the country’s Even as tensions have grown between Russia marriage equality law, traveling to Paris to and the United States, several Religious Right demonstrate against the law and signing leaders have spoken loudly in favor of Putin’s onto an email to members of the Collectif crackdowns on gay people and political Famille Mariage, one of the most prominent dissenters (see sidebar on page 7): groups working to oppose marriage equality in France. (Excerpt:“You are the people who American conservative groups haven’t just invented Gothic art and built these wonderful praised Russia’s crackdown on gays. Working cathedrals soaring toward the sky, inspiring through several channels, American anti- the entire civilized world…The new cathedral gay activists quietly provided intellectual that you are building right before our eyes backing and international support that directly is composed of living stones: you, dear and indirectly fueled the resurgent anti-gay Resistance fighters, young people and adults, movement in Russia and in other former Soviet men and women, boys and girls!”) states like Lithuania, Moldova and Ukraine. The French activists joining Brown were far- In this report, we investigate how American right thinker Aymeric Chauprade; activist activists influenced Russia’s anti-gay laws by Odile Téqui; François Legrier, president of funding anti-gay activism in Russia, testifying the Mouvement Catholique des Familles; and before the Duma, providing false research to Hugues Revel, president of Cahtoliques en fan the flames of anti-gay laws abroad, and Campagne. building an international movement to back the harshest anti-gay laws around the world. The French delegation was led by Fabrice Sorlin, head of the far-right nationalist group 'Today the Whole World Is Looking At Russia' Dies Irae, which is named after a liturgical poem about the Day of Judgment, has been On June 13, 2013, just days after the Russian accused of racist and anti-Semitic behavior Duma passed laws banning gay “propaganda” and, according to Box Turtle Bulletin, “had and actions that “offend religious feelings,” been working to create autonomous militias a delegation of five French Catholic anti-gay in France under the inspiration of American activists --at least one with ties to the far-right white nationalist William Luther Pierce’s Front National party -- traveled to Moscow conspiracy-laden novel The Turner Diaries.” at the invitation of the Duma committee on (The group has denied the charges.) Sorlin family, women and children to discuss, among is also a former candidate for the far-right other issues, Russia’s plans to tighten its ban Front National party, and chair of a group on adoption by same-sex couples abroad. called Alliance France-Europe Russia, which Joining them was one of the most well-known is dedicated to forging a “strong connection between Europe and Russia” and uniting WWW.PFAW.ORG 3 “the Anglo-Saxon world” committee on foreign against the emerging affairs and its committee economies of China and “EVERY CHILD SHOULD on family, women India based, in part, on HAVE THE RIGHT TO HAVE and children – whose shared “Christian values.” NORMAL PARENTS: A chair, Yelena Mizulina, The project of building authored the ban on gay a stronger alliance with FATHER AND A MOTHER.” “propaganda” and the Russia is a project held adoption bill. dear by the French -National Organization for Marriage far-right. President Brian Brown in a speech to The other event was a the Duma roundtable discussion on Le Figaro notes that "Traditional Values: The elected officials at the Future of the European front of the French anti-marriage movement Peoples," hosted by the St. Basil the Great did not respond to the Duma’s invitation Foundation – a Russian Orthodox group to attend the meeting for fear of being run by Konstantin Malofeev, the head of a “associated with a campaign of homophobia private equity group and spirited anti-gay directed by Moscow” but that the name of the activist – and also sponsored by the Duma’s far-right Le Pen family “was mentioned several family committee, the right-wing Center for times” at the event. Social-Conservative Policy, and a new multi- party group of Russian MPs formed, with According to Russian news reports, the French approval of the Russian Orthodox Church, to activists and Brown attended two events in “protect traditional Christian values” and fight Moscow. One was a joint meeting on changes “aggressive liberalism” in reaction to Pussy in international adoption laws with the Duma’s Riot’s protests. Among the measures pushed Protesters against Baltic Gay Pride in Riga, Latvia International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia in Russia.Photo by RainbowFLASH 4 by the group was the new law imposing jail time for “insulting religious feelings.” “...TODAY ANOTHER DANGER The National Organization for Marriage did THREATENS FRANCE AND not publicly announce Brown’s participation in EUROPE—THAT OF THE LOSS this international meeting of anti-gay minds. However, his presence was mentioned by OF ITS BEARINGS, OF ITS Revel in a blog post about the visit, in which TRADITIONAL VALUES; IN he noted that Brown gave a “remarkable speech in the Duma.” SHORT, THE SUICIDE OF OUR CIVILIZATION.” The NOM leader also spoke to Russia 1’s Vesti news program. According to a re-translation - Fabrice Sorlin, French nationalist leader of the Russian translation of the interview with Brown, he told the reporters that restricting about Brown’s trip and a copy of the speech Russian adoptions to gay and lesbian couples he gave to the Duma, but did not receive a was a way of halting a slippery slope of “very reply. But luckily, the committee that hosted negative developments all over the world”: the activists posted copies of all the speeches on their website. Right now you’re having the fight about adoption, but the adoption issue is In his speech to the committee (again, indivisible from the marriage issue. If translated from English to Russian and back you don’t defend your values now, I’m again to English), Brown warned of the afraid we’re going to see very negative dangers of allowing gay people to adopt developments all over the world. children, saying, “Every child should have the right to have normal parents: a father and a We reached out to NOM for more information mother,” and sharing some of NOM’s favorite stories of the supposed religious persecution following marriage equality in the U.S.: But we are now convinced, having heard the presentations of our French brothers and sisters, that we are talking about very serious problems indeed. We are talking about violations of rights, we are talking about the rights and problems of children in their education. We should not shy away from this and should not forget about it and create an illusion for ourselves. A reconsideration of the definition and understanding of marriage is in fact a real threat to rights. Very soon after a law was passed that legalized same-sex marriage in the state of Massachusetts, we saw that religious organizations were closing down, religious organizations that dealt with adoptions and that A fundraising email from NOM’s Brian Brown for the French anti-gay group Collectif Famille Marriage WWW.PFAW.ORG 5 2011 protest against Russia's banning of Moscow Gay Pride Photo by Peter Gray via Flickr did not support adoption by same-sex with the World Congress of Families,” a families.