Aisling Curtis | Contributing Writer
In June of 2013, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed into law the hotly-contested, widely-derogated ban on so-called “gay propaganda”. Replete with vague definitions and hazy proclamation, the law effectively bans any positive words or actions regarding homosexuality, exposing the individual making such illicit statements to possible arrest and fines. Even judges and lawyers can’t mention tolerance for fear of punishment under Putin’s draconian regime. Still more seriously, another law has recently been passed that forbids the adoption of children by homosexual couples, as apparently homosexuality can now be classified akin to alcohol, drug and child abuse.
These violations of fundamental human rights may shock us. But chilling parallels exist between our own increasingly liberal society and the stranglehold of Putin’s regime. A mere twenty years ago, Ireland’s attitudes were an eerie precursor for Russia’s now; Catholicism gripped us with the same iron fist with which the Orthodox Church now chokes the former USSR. Our own pro-homosexuality law was initially rejected on the grounds that it posed a threat to the “Christian and democratic nature of the Irish State”; and in Russia identical medieval attitudes are touted by citizens and the government, as their society turns to religion to fill the void left by communism’s fall.
The same year that Ireland relinquished its hold on its anti-gay tradition Russia also ushered in a new age of equality, decriminalising homosexuality in 1993. But while their advancement stagnated, and with the advent of Putin ultimately declined, we have somehow managed to do things right. Consistently and vigorously, student bodies in Ireland campaign to implement rights for LGBT people; no student institution would be complete without a statement proclaiming their efforts towards an elusive equality. In August of 2013, two months after Putin’s inflammatory law, 4,000 people marched in Dublin in support of the right to marry; the age demographic was primarily student-formed. 79% of Irish students say they wouldn’t mind if their best friend came out as gay.
But in a disturbing coincidence, this exact statistic is entirely upturned in Russia, with the same percentage of students proclaiming that homosexuality is “unacceptable”. The atrocities committed by some Russian young people on their peers are awful; people are lured into coming out, isolated and victimised, attacked and sometimes even killed. As Irish students open their arms to equality – it’s quite nearly vilified to be anti-gay in our social world – Russians raise fists against anybody who doesn’t sexually identify as it’s perceived they should.
Is there hope for them? Can societal transformation be kindled, as it was with us? I definitely think so. As a whole, younger generations are more accepting than their older counterparts, allowing deviation from preconceived norms more readily than their parents or grandparents ever would. Twenty years ago the Irish polled as even less lenient towards the LGBT community than the Russians are right now – look how far we’ve come. And that’s taking into account how overwhelmingly amateurish we are at holding huge protests; we’re not ones for sudden flash-flood improvement, that’s for sure. Grand sweeping gestures towards change have always been beyond our grasp, but we’ve come an unexpectedly long way from the close-minded attitudes held by our forebears. At a snail’s pace, perhaps. We certainly wouldn’t win any prizes for speed. But change has sparked nonetheless and change continues and will continue daily, incrementally, until we mutate into a society that we can’t really complain about anymore.
All is not perfect. Gay marriage still eludes us. Adoption is still dangled out of homosexual couples’ reach. Inequalities still litter our social landscape. And yet Russian students can look towards us and take heart, because we’ve managed to tackle the problem of acceptance, which is arguably the most important step of all. Change doesn’t have to be epic and angry; Russian students don’t need to turn out in huge crowds and risk imprisonment, fines and beatings, because that’s not the only way it has to be done. As it did for us, change can arrive in small increases, in student groups that usher each other gently towards acceptance, creeping like subtle gossip into the minds of their friends. Ultimately, Irish student attitudes have changed; subsequently, through quiet grassroots pressure, so has Irish society. Russian students can certainly provoke the same.
