Isinbaeva: Setting the record straight

Elena Isinbaeva's comments about the issue of publicising homosexual practices among minors may have caused outrage in some quarters in the west but her stand strikes a chord with the hearts and minds of the Russian people. The question is not one of rights, it is one of respect and western moral imperialism.

Elena Isinbaeva is a hero of Russian sport. The 3-time world pole vault champion and double Olympic gold medalist has been the heart and soul of the Moscow World Athletics Championships held in Moscow this week. Her comments at yesterday's press conference will have endeared her to the Russian people as much as her heroic sports performances.

Let us firstly report what Isinbaeva said and not take her words and meaning out of context, as western media outlets like to do: while respecting the rights of others, she stated that she stood against any form of discrimination against people because of their sexuality, however she requested that others respect Russian laws inside Russia.

And that brings us to the question of the Russian law that was passed recently by 436 votes in favor and zero against with one abstention by Russia's DUMA, or Parliament: it is a law which bans the propagation of non-traditional sexual activities in public, with the aim of protecting minors. In other words, it is a law which prohibits the distribution or dissemination of homosexual acts in places where children could be influenced by them.

As we can see, there is nothing discriminatory against the LGBT community in this law. After all, the age of consent in Russia is 16 years of age, regardless of sexual orientation; transsexuals and transgender persons are allowed to change their legal gender, homosexuality is not regarded as a mental illness and it is not a criminal offence under Russian law; single persons can adopt children whatever their sexual orientation, while homosexuals can serve in the armed forces without any type of restriction. Therefore there is no discrimination in Russian law against the LGBT community.

Now let us be crystal clear about one thing: Russian laws were drawn up by Russians, for Russians, in Russia. If westerners wish to trade in filth, show pornographic images to children and indulge in perversion, in public, sit in parks watching homosexuals kissing each other tongue-in-mouth or lesbians cavorting on the grass in public parks like bitches in heat, then that is their business, but not in Russia.

If westerners wish to live in societies in which one dares not to venture out of the home after dark because of marauding gangs of drug addicts and drunks roaming the streets, smashing bottles and insulting people, pushing over old ladies, urinating in car parks, leaving railway stations dirtier than any pigsty, then that is again their business, but not in Russia because Russians do not behave in that way.

If the westerners who are complaining so bitterly wish to stuff themselves full of junk food, leave school without being able to read, write, spell, count or even speak properly, infest foreign beaches with their obese and tattooed bodies and blindly support their political regimes which have invaded foreign countries illegally, deployed military hardware against civilian structures, which arm and aid terrorist elements to destabilize governments they want removed, then they do not really have any right to claim the high moral ground, do they?

For a start, they have not bothered to read the Russian law and find out what it is about. Secondly, common decency dictates that you do not go to someone else's country and tell them how to conduct their affairs. The bottom line is that Russia's laws were made by Russians, for Russians, in Russia and the bottom line is that the vast majority of Russians agree with the law, prohibiting the dissemination of homosexuality among minors.

And who in their right mind would disagree with that? Therefore, what is all the fuss about and can we please move along to something important, such as the west (F-UK-US Axis in particular) supplying terrorists in Syria...

Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey

Pravda.Ru