Russian President is a 62-year-old hunk. He is a man’s man, virile and muscular. If he were on Scruff, he would be snapped up. But he can’t be gay, right?
I guess you never know.
A controversial new biography by a Russian political columnist, Stanislav Belkovsky, suggests that our buddy Vladimirovich may be “latently gay,” which would help explain some of his mysterious anti-gay conduct this past year.
The book, titled simply “Putin,” declares that Vladimir Putin is a sexless man who may be ‘latently gay.’ Released in December, Belkovsky, a known opponent of the Russian president, speculates that “sex and a sex life are alien” to the politician. Don’t expect that guy to get invited to the Kremlin anytime soon.
The March issue of the Advocate has a good feature about ‘love in Putin’s Russia,’ pointing out that life for gays and lesbians is ‘clandestine and convoluted.’ It’s just that when your country’s leader feels a need to expose his chest on horseback, well, heck, that’s what guys used to do in the gay magazines of the 50s.
To enhance the mystery, Putin divorced his wife of 30 years last summer. He now lives alone in the Presidential mansion with his two dogs, a female Labrador named Koni, and a Bulgarian Shepherd named Buffy.
Putin does have a great sense of humor — or a scary one — you decide. In a 2007 interview he said like everyone he has bad moods, and explained: "In those situations I try to consult with my dog Koni, who gives me good advice.” Don’t worry; even the present Obama White House has had some dogs as advisers too. Really, ‘Between two Ferns’?
Anyway, according to a recent Spiegel Online review of the new book, the publication depicts Putin as an extremely wealthy but “traumatized” and a “lonely person,” who shuns human contact.
As expected, a Putin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov declared to Spiegel that the allegations are “total rubbish.” Of course, a day later you see the Russian media releasing a picture of a shirtless Putin wrestling a Bengal tiger. What is he trying to prove?
Realistically, the country’s dominant homophobic Russian Orthodox Church supports coming down on LGBT lifestyles in Russia. Don’t forget that the new Russia is not a dictatorship. Putin had to get popularly elected to win his office. It was not easy, either. The parliament had imposed term limits, and they had to be lifted for him to serve again. He’s popular, even more so now after showcasing the country in the Olympics.
Sponsoring, supporting, and speaking out for the anti gay legislation which poisoned the Russian canvas is being seen as an astute political moves. Putin says he is protecting kids from pedophilia. There are many Michele Bachman clones populating the former Soviet Union.
Over the years, have we not seen that historically those who are most strident about the integrity of their personal lives are the people who have something to cover up? How many preachers have had something going on behind their robes?
Meanwhile, Putin declares he is not homophobic, and as proof points out there are states in the U.S. with restrictive laws similar to their own. We can thank Arizona, Utah and Kansas for giving life to Putin’s excuse. Homophobic laws spread hate and invite discrimination. They force people into hiding. The whole world is opening up to homosexuality, and in Russia they are trying to shut it down.
As American playwright Harvey Fierstein stated last summer in a New York Times, op-ed, "Mr. Putin’s campaign against lesbian, gay and bisexual people is a strategy of demonizing a minority for political gain taken straight from the Nazi playbook. Can we allow this war against human rights to go unanswered?”
After the gay propaganda law passed, Kvir, which means, “queer” in Russian, a print magazine with a monthly circulation of 35,000, was pulled from bookshelves nationwide. It is only accessible online. A gay oriented press in Russia is even considered a privilege. In the Soviet era, it was illegal to print the word homosexual, not that Florida in the 70s though was much better.
Meanwhile, Putin has now shifted the international focus from being a homophobic crusader to a Crimean invader. Ironically, conservative tea party leaders in America and FOX News analysts are celebrating this man like he is some great leader, instead of a ruthless dictator. So speaketh the former mayor of Rudolph Giuliani, who gushed praise upon Putin for being so decisive about the Ukraine. Forgive me for the analogy, but Hitler was also decisive about the Jews, and I don’t know many political leaders heaping praise on the Nazi leader.
There is irony here. The former mayor of New York shared an apartment with two gay men when he was getting divorced in Manhattan. Now, here he is cheering on a guy who wants other gay men hung by their genitals in a public square. I mean, Putin has become the Russian czar of homophobia.
When you enact laws declaring the LGBT community should be closeted and secret, you are saying to every kid in your country their behavior is evil. You invite mistreatment, hostility, and eventually, brutality. Here in America, on the other hand, our President has openly celebrated our gayness, been a voice for diversity, standing tall internationally for equal rights for the LGBT community. And Fox News is celebrating whom?
Meanwhile, Putin insists gays are treated equally in Russia; that their laws do not discriminate. Unfortunately, he is inviting people to do so. The guy who authored and engineered the passage of one of the harshest laws against LGBT freedom of expression anywhere in the world is no Abraham Lincoln. He isn’t exactly freeing the Ukraine, either, or saving their people from repression.
Vladimir Putin may have been lawfully elected but he is instilling a Russian democracy in their unique dictatorial, way, with armed forces, a red boot, and troops circling the border of a once free Ukraine. We may be in the 21st century in this world of ours, but that is not democracy the way we intended.
