What's with the Russians? By Pat Lynch

[dude]

"What's wrong with these Russians?" my friend Joseph asked. "They come in wearing their hate-the-gays T-shirts, they're under age, and when I won't serve them, one of them leans into the bar and says, 'I know what your car looks like.'" He adds, "They're assholes."

Joseph?a 6-foot-plus behemoth?runs a trendy Midtown restaurant. He's an amiable guy, but it's not a good idea to threaten him.

A week later, another friend, a social worker, repeated Joseph's exact words: "What's wrong with these Russians?" He tells me that he was shoved by sign-waving Ukrainian males who gathered at a school to scream at gay students.

But wait. There's more.

A sweet, pretty Russian woman, Tanya, told me she's tired because she had to get up at three in the morning to pray for God to punish gays by defeating pro-gay legislation. She's on a prayer wheel that operates 24-seven, so that every minute of the day and night some Pentecostal Russian is beseeching the Almighty to turn his wrath upon homosexuals.

I called my friend Stevyn.

"Did you know Russian Baptists set their alarms to wake up in the middle of the night to pray against you?"

And Stevyn said what everyone says: "Honey, what's wrong with these people?" He's confused. "Didn't they used to be Communists or atheists or something?"

I don't have any answers. I don't understand the difference now between the former Soviet tyrants and the Sacramento Russian evangelical congregations. Is there a difference? Or are they of a stripe?

It was time to talk to my expert. He works with the Slavic community, has lived in Russia and has a grasp on the history of this immigrant population.

"What's wrong with these Russians?" I asked him. "Why are they persecuting the gays?"

"It's a xenophobia created by their religious leaders to support beliefs that could otherwise be challenged by American lifestyle and tolerance," he said.

He explained that the Sacramento evangelical Russian faith community is both insular and desperately conservative. "When they were in Russia, they suffered because of their Christian affiliation. Some lost jobs; were even imprisoned." They came here, he said, seeking freedom from religious persecution.

"So they get here and they get their religious freedom and they turn around and beat up on gays? What the hell kind of Christian covenant is that?" I asked.

But never mind. I know what kind. And anyway, my expert won't let me get on my soapbox.

He said, "Sacramento's evangelical Russian church is a huge establishment. It totally dominates their children. The kids are so indoctrinated they can't think straight. The practicing faithful don't wear jewelry, drink, dance, smoke or swear. And the kids are taught to cleave to the hatred fostered by their elders."

He was surprised to hear about the gay-bashing Russian punks who mouthed off at Joseph in his restaurant. "They're breaking their church rules if they're drinking."

Aha. Drinking equals bad. Bashing equals good.

"Was there anti-gay prejudice back in the old U.S.S.R.?" I asked.

"Oh, yeah. Gays were called 'go-la-boy.' It means light blue. Since it was anti-Soviet not to produce children, gays were the dregs of society. Some of them got pretty stiff prison sentences."

I wondered who was lower over there before the Berlin Wall went down: gays or Christians? My expert replied that Soviet society pretty much lumped them together, "equally as bad."

You'd think, wouldn't you, that the dregs would sympathize with one another. But not the Christian dregs.

But surely some Russians?even the evangelical kind?are gay.

"I'm sure they're so deep in the closet they can't see the crack under the door," my expert said. "You know they have to feel like hell, all the time."

So here's my theory: the Russian church leaders needed to unite the flock, and a common enemy is cohesive gold. It keeps people together, gives them a mission, deters the youth from being seduced by secular culture and provides everyone with nice, thumping righteousness.

Russian church leaders could have picked the Russian criminal class as their common enemy. Or they could have picked war. Or ethnic discrimination. Even homelessness. But they chose gays. My expert suggested that the leadership perceive the gay "lifestyle" as a frontal assault on the patriarchal family?the basic financial unit of the church.

But I think it's more than that. I think they're thugs and they see gays as easy targets. I think the gay-bashers, both the preachers with their verbal bashing and the punks with their fists, are the KGB of the local evangelical community.

I called Stevyn again. "The Russians are praying! The Russians are praying!" I said. But I had a plan. Since one Russian Christian bestirs himself every twenty minutes to pray against the gays, gay folks need to fight back.

"Every time one of them wakes up to pray, two of you have to wake up and do it," I said. "For every one Russian praying, there should be two gays boinking."

"Brilliant. Just brilliant," Stevyn replied. "Let me tell my boyfriend."

[DesDownunder]

I shall immediately activate the gay community in Australia to your ingenious plan Oh Awesome Dude.

I will get the boyfriend to forgo his plan to age gracefully and we will boink as often as we can.

My own feeling on the matter is that the gay penguins probably have the ant- gay Russians outnumbered already.

I can't help feeling we should have a re-run of that old movie from 1966 with Alan Arkin, " The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming."

[colinian]

Dude,

This is very bizarre. I live in Walnut Creek, about 1-1/2 hours from Sacramento. My high school had some Russian immigrant kids. They weren't into anything like what you describe in Sacramento. So, it seems to be a church-sponsored hate thing.

Next time these kids come into Joseph's place and try to order drinks, Joseph should card them, write down their IDs, and threaten to call the cops if he ever sees them in there again. If they threaten him he should pick up the phone right then and call the cops.

Colin

[R.J.]

Even if there is a god to pray to, would he listen to those kind of prayers? It's definitely some faith those Russians have there. Or some god. He's got an infinite patience. Imagine hearing the same things 24/7. Wouldn't that drive you crazy? He must've bought some ear plugs.

[Trab]

Interesting. What others are seeing as a Russian problem, I'm seeing as a religion problem. It seems to me, that the common denominator in much of the gay bashing and hatred is religion, and most often Christian religion. Looking even deeper though, it is the power structure of them that is at the root of it all, not even the pure religious beliefs. It is the corruption of the religion that is causing the worst of the offenses.

[clay49]

So here's my theory: the Russian church leaders needed to unite the flock, and a common enemy is cohesive gold. It keeps people together, gives them a mission, deters the youth from being seduced by secular culture and provides everyone with nice, thumping righteousness.

It's power and control ($$$) over there "flocks" and any other person they can drive down

[Tanuki Racoon]

Interesting. What others are seeing as a Russian problem, I'm seeing as a religion problem.

I agree with His Trabness.

[JamesSavik]

Russians have a long, sorry history of scapegoating their social problems on minoroties.

In fact, the longest running anti-semetic BS ever [The Protocols of the Elders of Zion] was created by Czar Nicholas II of Russia's secret police in 1903 to draw the ire of the populace away from the Czar's inept administration of Imperial Russia and place it on the Jews. [At that time Jews were becoming a mercantile middle class and some were prominent leftist.]

Now, over 100 years later, groups like Hamas and Hezbollah cite this document as justification for their actions against Israel and the United States.

This is simply how the Russian's do business which explains why their country is so wretched and they live like peasents and crime bosses rule like feudal lords.

[DesDownunder]

Russians have a long, sorry history of scapegoating their social problems on minoroties.

In fact, the longest running anti-semetic BS ever [The Protocols of the Elders of Zion] was created by Czar Nicholas II of Russia's secret police in 1903 to draw the ire of the populace away from the Czar's inept administration of Imperial Russia and place it on the Jews. [At that time Jews were becoming a mercantile middle class and some were prominent leftist.]

Now, over 100 years later, groups like Hamas and Hezbollah cite this document as justification for their actions against Israel and the United States.

This is simply how the Russian's do business which explains why their country is so wretched and they live like peasents and crime bosses rule like feudal lords.

Bash the minorities is still quite common in other countries too. It has reached a level of sophistication where a government under the guise of assistance to the minority can implement programs of control over the minority so that the government policies interfere with people's autonomy. All this is for the sake of the "greater good."

Strangely, this becomes an attractive vote catcher for many people at the expense of individual human rights, because the controlling assistance is perceived/presented as necessary without question. It amounts to (somewhat covert) force through diversion being used to disarm dissent, or eliminate difference.

At best it is a case of people trying to do something positive for the wrong reasons or with the wrong methods.

At worst it is a case of people just seeking power at any cost.

[jack scribe]

This is simply how the Russian's do business which explains why their country is so wretched and they live like peasents and crime bosses rule like feudal lords.

Excellent points, James. I would also include the clandestine ex-KGB organization, Dignity and Honor, and Putin's actions of freedom restrictions into the mix. Very curious, indeed. As you suggest, "scapegoating" in an artform in Russia...orchestrated from the top. The Church officials are willing pawns.

[Guest Rustic Monk]

strange, my christian friend over here in england, was arguing with this pentecostal boy (who is, in fact, a closet case). this kid claimed god was speaking through him, and brought him to my friend so he can help her.

i think religion is too much. it's too easy to fall into a mass hysteria when you have hate-mongerers running everything. if it were up to them, we'd still be having witch hunts for sure.

we haven't really advanced much farther since Salem, no matter how much we think we have.

And, btw, Sacramento is dumb. it's full of tweakers and radical foreigners and maniacal christians and other dumb sorts of white-washed (if not white) people. like chinese christian. or native american christians. oops, those are sell-outs. sorry, but it's true. i never thought I'd really go there. but G*D D*MN IT!! can't anyone f**king come to this country without having to ruin it for the rest of us? i mean, jesus f**king christ! if he were here right now, i'm sure he'd be slapping a b*tch or two.

i'm more scared of getting hit up there by the KKK than anything else. but, just for your information, don't go to sacramento, ever. i mean, just the fact that there's tweak and the KKK should be enough. but now there's russian pentecostal A55H0135, too? i'm about angry enough to give someone my pirogi.

seriously, though. does anyone think these russians became thugs so they'd fit in more?

[jack scribe]

i'm more scared of getting hit up there by the KKK than anything else. but, just for your information, don't go to sacramento, ever. i mean, just the fact that there's tweak and the KKK should be enough. but now there's russian pentecostal A55H0135, too? i'm about angry enough to give someone my pirogi.

seriously, though. does anyone think these russians became thugs so they'd fit in more?

Here's an update of a Sacramento homophobic attack/murder that occured in July. One suspect (a Russian) has been apprehended. The other suspect is back in Russia.

http://www.towleroad.com/2007/08/one-of-two-susp.html.

[JamesSavik]

seriously, though. does anyone think these russians became thugs so they'd fit in more?

No. Thuggery is an established industry in Russia.

Reminds me of an old spy movie spoof where the hero is outnumbered and he goes to a shop called Hired-Goons-R-Us.

Russians were thugs for the Czars for centuries, then they were thugs for Communists and now they are thugs for Putin and/or thugs for the Ruskie Mob.

One should have a good grasp of history because it is a lot like television: there is only so much original programming and then they go to re-runs.

[aj]

Interesting topic. I have also had a few experiences with Russian Baptists...I started my career at the health department up here, working in the TB clinic. We screened all the registered immigrants for TB as part of our work, and saw quite a bit of it from Russia. Once case was particularly severe, and one of the neighbor's infants had also been infected after contact with the primary case. The parents refused to allow the child to be treated or even monitored because "If God wanted the child to be healed, He would heal the child."

Needless to say, this didn't go over well with the health department, but we worked out a compromise wherein the child was seen every week for monitoring but was not given the preventive meds that would ordinarily be prescribed. Since it was an inactive case of TB - the bacteria was present but not actively reproducing - we went with that.

cheers!

[Adam Donaldson Powell]

Do not be fooled into believing that this is a "Russian problem" or a "Russian phenomenon" alone.

As the West liberalizes its laws and regulations regarding gays and lesbians, and at the same time

seemingly infringes upon the civil rights and increases blind suspicion of others in world society

and newcomers to Western societies, reactions increase all over the world - even in the West.

Not only in Russia and previous Soviet block nations, but also everywhere - in the form of attacks

on young gays, immigrants, Moslems, Blacks, young jews and others who may be "perceived" as

responsible for the differences in treatment and opportunity between those who represent the

Western controlling society and their values - and those who feel that they are on the periphery

or the outside. These include nationalists, young "new nazis", religious fanatics , the

impoverished, the powerless, those who feel that their religious customs are demeaned, the jobless,

and others who are desperate, angry and easily corrupted and indoctrinated by others with a divide and conquer

agenda. Gaybashing and other forms for terrorism are not uncommon in the USA or in Europe these days,

also in spite of (or perhaps in some cases as a reaction to) liberalization and relaxation of attitudes regarding

those of us who have stood on the outside of society previously as well as increased isolation of cultures

that do not easily assimilate themselves into current global molds. What is the solution ? Stronger legislation

regarding hate crimes and more education on the school levels. And, dare I say, a more aggressive

re-education of young gays regarding the history of "gaytude". All that we have achieved

can be reversed at any time - like the survivors of the Holocaust say: "we must never allow

the new generations to forget where we have been, and the possibility of ending up there again."

Increased respect and listening to disadvantaged populations across the globe and less arrogance

from Western leaders and politicians would also help to reduce many of the tensions worldwide.

When individuals and social groups feel that they cannot be heard, they often resort to harassment

of those perceived as the weakest in society ...

Join organizations such as Amnesty International, P.E.N., Human Rights Watch, and show solidarity

with gays, the poor, women, the disadvantaged across the globe. And drop the "America, love it

or leave it" and the "Europe, love it or leave it" attitudes. We live in a globalized world, where

we are all dependent upon one another - like it or not.

?GALIT? OU ANARCHIE !