(July 11, 2014 at 4:34 pm)Wyrd of Gawd Wrote:(July 11, 2014 at 7:20 am)Napoléon Wrote:
All I see here is excuse after excuse for intolerance.
Should a society tolerate murderers, thieves, arsonists, rapists? By criminalizing homosexuality the Russians are saying that the activity is voluntary and therefore a national security concern because it reduces the needed population growth.
If the behavior is genetic then it can be considered to be a birth defect, which might be cured. So do you want people to be subjected to all kinds of lab experiments or do you want them to be imprisoned? Simply leaving them alone to do what they want to do doesn't seem to be an option.
People do not have freedom when they live in a group. Someone will always tell you what you can and can't do. You will conform or be punished.
You are funny because you're saying the Russian law criminalized homosexuality, and that is of course a lie. Being gay in Russia is not illegal and punishable, you cannot arrest people for being gay or living with their gay partners, you can't justify violence against gay people because they are gay, you will be punished just like you will be if you commit violence against another group of people.
If Russians don't like gays, that is another problem (and they don't because the majority of Russians support the anti-gay law) and it is not going to be solved trough laws that enforce tolerance and acceptance
Sure we can disagree all day and say Russia's anti-gay law is baseless and stupid, however it is hypocritical to call it one of the most anti-gay-rights laws in the world since there are countries where it's illegal to be gay. Sure there are restrictions to freedom of speech - You can't propagate gay lifestyle to minors - But that's it, I don't think anyone has gotten arrested yet for this, at most people will pay some heavy fines. Instead of worrying about Russia's anti-gay law we should worry about Uganda's or other cases where being gay gets you jail time and the death penalty, or were there isn't punishment for persecuting gay people.
Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you
