Want QueersTo Disappear? Don't Talk About Them

In Russia, Saint Petersburg's decision to ban all public activity and discussion of LGBT issues--even on the Internet--was signed into law and took effect on March 12th. 

Saint Petersburg, the second largest city in Russia--and the one that won an award from the United Nations for tolerance--is not the only Russian city to have banned LGBT public activity and discussion.  Archangelsk and Kostroma have also approved such a ban, and Moscow has yet to host a legally sanctioned Pride Parade.

These local decisions conflict with the national Russian Constitution, namely Article 29: Freedom of Speech, Article 19: The Ban on Discrimination, and Article 55: The Ban on Local Governments Infringing on the Rights of Minorities.  Unfortunately, these articles serve to protect the majority, as opposed to minorities, in Russia.  Most non-Russian minorities who are not considered "white" or Orthodox Christian have no personal security in Russia, as police and government officials themselves hold prejudiced beliefs.

Russian justifications for the ban on LGBT public activity and discussion include protection of traditional morals, protection of the family structure, and protection of children from pedophiles and the gay agenda.  While homosexuality was decriminalized in Russia in 1993, and removed from the list of mental illnesses in Russia in 1999, 70 per cent of Russians still believe that gays are mentally ill, and 40 per cent believe they should be isolated from mainstream society.

Before anyone criticizes the Russians for their "ignorance", remember that the religious right in the United States also would promote such a policy where "it's not OK to say 'gay'", as they have in Tennessee and Utah.  American evangelist Scott Lively, originator of Uganda's "kill the gays" bill, had conducted a speaking tour in Russia and wrote a letter to the Russian people to defend themselves from the "fast growing cancer" that would destroy "the family foundations of [Russian] society".

Can Americans learn from this, and not allow religious leaders to take up real estate in the White House, as the Russian Orthodox Patriarch has done in the Kremlin?

This Too is a Form of Terrorism

According to this New York Times article, "A government advisory board is afraid that the details of certain biomedical experiments could be used by terrorists to create deadly viruses and touch off epidemics."

Apparently, the government advisory board believes that active terrorists could be studying and working at university libraries, where such medical and scientific journals would be housed and indexed.  They must also not be aware that access to the online databases which index the articles from those medical and scientific journals are password protected and closed off to people who do not work or study in higher education.  Either that, or this government advisory board must believe that people working or studying in academia have the potential to share this password protected information with others.

If scientific research is censored for fear of "terrorism", then how will people in the medical and scientific fields acquire knowledge about advances in their field, especially when health is concerned?  Will the potential lack of complete published knowledge cause scientific study in the United States to stagnate, or cause millions of dollars to be wasted on repeated experiments?  Or will there be two sets of published information--one "censored" version for the general public, and one "uncensored" version for those working in the field, which would be kept under some strong security system?

If researchers in the United States cannot have full access to the details of published research studies for fear of terrorism, this could mean that such research will be conducted in other countries, and the results sold to us in exchange for our ignorance.  How would we know that what we were sold was the truth, and not in fact results of inaccurate, biased research which could harm us more than help?