Jewish Flag not Gay

 

You may remember that Russia has passed a law banning what it calls "Gay Propaganda" and what that actually means wasn't clearly defined. The first person to be fined by this law was Anna Annenkov for holding a Rainbow flag.

At the time I explained that not only is this a deplorable violation the rights LGBT Russians but could potentially lead to the arrest and finning of others who had nothing to do with sexuality. I forgot one group that's part of the Russian Federation and that's people from the Jewish Autonomous Region which despite the name has a minority population of Russian Jews.


 This was causing the Russian authorities a number of headaches, do they make the JAR change its flag and cause a bit of a rift between Moscow and another border territory or drop the Rainbow Flag from the banned objects lists? Well aparently they took a third option, a team of "flag experts" examined the flag and declared it not Gay. No I'm not joking or exaggerating that's precisely what happened

“Obviously, the above described flag, the flag of the Jewish Autonomous Region, whose foundation is a white cloth, has nothing to do with that,” he wrote.
“This flag does not contradict the current law of the Russian Federation and so there is no basis to cancel or change it,” Vilinbakhov wrote.

your tax roubles at work comrades.

See the difference is that the JAR  uses an"extra" light blue stripe whereas apparently the "Gay Flag" only uses six. I don't know where they came up with this I have seen several variations of Rainbow flags with more then six stripes,but aside from being really strange all this does is provide LGBT Russians a nice loophole to the ban. Simply switched flags they look similar enough to apparently warrant an examination by experts so how's a cop on the beat supposed to know without careful examination.

Besides the Gays have already co-opted the peace flag AKA the original six stripe Rainbow flag. Still credit where credits due the expert does know that a Rainbow is supposed to have seven spectrum colours not six, which means he's as qualified as British nursery school child. Though I guess the the rhyme is a little different in Russia.


UK                                                                                                              Russian Federation
Richard                                                                                                                   Russian
Of                                                                                                                           Oligarchy
York                                                                                                                        Yelps 
Gave                                                                                                                        Gays
Battle                                                                                                                       Break
In                                                                                                                             Internal
Vain                                                                                                                         Victory


So the Rainbow flag isn't Gay, but Elton John is (shocker)

The reason for this campaign is the singer has publicly stated his intention to hold a protest in support of sexual minorities, as well as oppose Russian law,’ the band of parents have said.

  Let that sink in for a moment, this group is advocating a ban on Elton John, not because they don't like his music but because he wishes to support Sexual Minorities. You know Western bigots get a lot of stick for their comments about LGBT people and rightfully so but most of them usually cloak there disdain by focussing on supposed acts that are deplorable, their campaigns against "homosexual propaganda" revolve around often false claims that such and such a person's acts constitute explicit imagery or something.

Oh and in addition to the parents group Elton John faces opposition from the Communist Party if he fails to were Cossack garb. Now I agree that performers and models can wear some very strange and frankly crap costumes on occasion but arguing that clothing can be classified as Gay Propaganda, or propaganda of any sort is absurd. And doesn't the Communist Party have more important things to worry about like the economic situation, the rise of Far Right groups, Putin's autocratic government.
 Nah, clearly Eltons wardrobe takes priority.


Apparently Condemning the the Holocaust and providing a tribute to its victims is also Gay by Russian standards.

The intention of the tribute was to also spread the message about not repeating past mistakes and ensuring something like the Holocaust never happens again.

But the authorities rejected the application, saying paying tribute to gay victims of Nazi Germany could potentially ‘influence’ children on homosexuality.

I don't know about you but seeing Schindlers List doesn't put me in the mood for sex of any kind with anyone. Russian Authorities had a choice here, either side with common decency and say forced exterminations of people is wrong (why should be irrelevant to the fact it happened) or the Nazi's. And they chose to side with the Nazi's.  Also bear in mind that in some parts of Europe and Asia like Russia Nazi like groups are not uncommon so the "it was all in the past" argument doesn't apply.

Well since the Russian government won't condemn the Holocaust in this instance I will.

 

The mortality rate for homosexuals incarcerated by the Nazis was, it appears, relatively higher, in the camps, then that of other persecuted groups. Researchers learned that the gays, marked by pink triangles, were a relatively small  minority in the camps but had a proportionately higher mortality rate than, for example, the more numerous political prisoners, who wore red patches.

 Rudolf Hoess, a high Nazi official, in his Kommandant in Auschwitz(1959), elaborately recounted how he attempted to "re-educate" decadent homosexuals by assigning them them to the toughest work details and by forcing them to visit prostitutes.

 Between 1933 to 1944 at between 50,000 and 63,000.

From  The Pink Triangle: The Nazi War Against Homosexuals.