Despite the numerous reports of anti-gay violence and rhetoric, not to mention Russia’s dicey record when it comes to freedom of speech, the Russian ambassador to Canada has asked our country not to believe those stories about Russia’s horrible human rights violations. Good luck with that.
According to The Globe and Mail, Georgiy Mamedov spoke to reporters on Tuesday, Feb 25, presumably to try and smooth over Russia’s . . . well, everything.
When the subject of Russia’s gay propaganda law came up, Mamedov reportedly told the press not to believe any of it. “Don’t believe all these scare stories about persecution of gays in Russia. It’s not the case,” he said, apparently assuming we are all idiots.
He also claimed that neither Canada nor the United States could judge Russia, since both countries once had anti-gay laws, saying, “I think you shouldn’t judge others too severely, because you’ve come a long [way]. And it takes time.”
So not only are they asking us to pretend news of Russia’s anti-gay incidents aren’t real, but they’re also saying we can’t criticize them because we used to ban gay marriage? Is that the argument they’re going with here?
Of course we can criticize; that’s what we’re supposed to do. You don’t fix something by pretending it’s fine as it is. When Canada had its own anti-gay legislation, gay rights activists didn’t give the country a free pass. They hammered their own country over it until shit was fixed. Because once again, a government is not entitled to all of its citizens, or the rest of the world, agreeing with everything it does.
Why you can trust Xtra
