U.S. Pastor Celebrates Role in Russian Anti-Gay Legislation
In recent months, Russia鈥檚 president, Vladimir Putin, has enacted a series of draconian laws targeting LGBT people and the so-called 鈥渉omosexual agenda.鈥� He鈥檚 outlawed 鈥渉omosexual propaganda鈥� in terms so vague that nearly any statement about LGBT people that falls short of outright condemning them may be prosecutable; banned the adoption of Russian children by couples in any country that permits same-sex marriage; and allowed for foreign nationals suspected of being gay or 鈥減ro-gay鈥� to be arrested and detained. At press time, the Duma, Russia鈥檚 legislative body, was debating a bill that would enable the government to remove children from the homes of gay and lesbian parents.
In Russia, openly gay individuals report fearing for their jobs and lives in an environment in which, they say, violence against LGBT people is broadly accepted. Abroad, the laws have provoked condemnation from world leaders, including the United Nations鈥� Human Rights office and President Obama, as well as calls to boycott the 2014 Olympic games in Sochi, Russia.
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But those same laws have made Pastor Scott Lively 鈥� who helped lay the groundwork for Russia鈥檚 anti-gay laws in 2007 with a 50-city tour where he characterized the 鈥渉omosexual political movement鈥� as a 鈥渇ast-growing social cancer鈥� and explicitly called on the Russian government to 鈥渃riminalize the public advocacy of homosexuality鈥� 鈥� very happy.
Lively is a Springfield, Mass.-based anti-gay activist best known as the author of The Pink Swastika: Homosexuality in the Nazi Party, a discredited 1995 revisionist 鈥渉istory鈥� which says the Holocaust was masterminded and carried out by gay men. In recent years, failing and often reviled at home, he鈥檚 taken his anti-gay crusade abroad. His influence has been evident in Belize, where American anti-gay activists are battling to keep a colonial-era law criminalizing 鈥渂uggery鈥� on the books. And, in 2009, Lively encouraged Ugandan authorities聽in drafting some of the world鈥檚 most draconian anti-gay legislation, including provisions that would have subjected people who had gay sex more than once to the death penalty.
On July 22, Lively wrote an open 鈥淟etter to the Hungarian People鈥� in which he said LGBT 鈥渕issionaries of evil 鈥� follow the same strategy everywhere to homosexualize cultures.鈥� First, they lay the groundwork with 鈥渉eterosexual pornography鈥� and propaganda devised to weaken marriage and social mores. Next, they spread the idea that people do not choose their sexual orientation (鈥渁 lie,鈥� Lively says). Finally, they implement 鈥渟exual orientation regulations (SORS)鈥� outlawing discrimination against LGBT people.
鈥淭hese SORs are the seed that contains the entire tree of the homosexual agenda with all of its poisonous fruit,鈥� Lively wrote. The only way to stop it is through 鈥渞esolute and unapologetic discrimination鈥� 鈥� where Russia, as he wrote, 鈥渋s a model for the rest of the world.鈥�
