commentary to student safety in St Petersburg

[Alina Israeli]

On Nov 28, 2009, at 3:52 PM, Dustin Hosseini wrote:
>
> I did not take that extreme point of view, but if that is the case,  
> then
> perhaps the US should vocally criticize Russia for it's lack of
> care/protection towards these groups (racial minorities and gays)  
> then.

We cannot even articulate the support of Tibet let alone some  
minorities elsewhere. And if anyone raises their voices these are  
usually non-governmental voices; should I remind you how the  
apartheid has ended? It was all those students protesting in NY, who  
first forced their universities to divest, which led to the  
divestiture by the US government, which brought the S African  
government to the table.

So it's the grass root organizations and the NGOs that did it (I  
don't want to minimize the internal struggle, but it went on for  
decades).

> I think you mistook my point.  I do not think the average Russian  
> welcomes
> foreigners barging into Russia with their 'foreign' ideas.  The gay  
> rights'
> movement in Moscow is one example of this kind of 'barging in'.

The dislike of things foreign actually unites the US and Russia. I  
can't recall what US senator said not long ago "we don't need no  
European influence" (not verbatim).

Are you telling me that Moscow gays loved being in the closet and in  
prisons? Soviet laws http://temp.1gay.ru/cccp.shtml considered  
homosexuality illegal. And the beauty of Russian prisons has been in  
evidence lately. The description of Soviet camps and their treatment  
of homosexuals can be found in the vast prison literature.

You are possibly confusing gay rights and gay parade. Only those gays  
afflicted by self-hatred and the Stockholm syndrome can be against  
having equal rights with heterosexuals, although self-hatred and  
shame are not uncommon among minorities of all stripes.



Alina Israeli
Associate Professor of Russian
LFS, American University
4400 Massachusetts Ave.
Washington DC 20016
(202) 885-2387 	fax (202) 885-1076
aisrael at american.edu





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