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News & ArtsMonday, October 12, 2009
Politics God Was With Them
Posted by Eli Sanders on Mon, Oct 12, 2009 at 9:40 AM
Among the protesters rallying against gay rights this weekend: Russian-speaking evangelicals.
"It's important — a big issue," said Aleksey Borisov, 24, a construction worker who drove all the way from Eastern Washington with several other members of Light of the Gospel, a Slavic Baptist church in Spokane, to participate.The rally was a visible demonstration of the increasingly active role that members of Russian-speaking conservative evangelical churches are playing in marriage and gay-rights issues, including the battle over Referendum 71.
"They've been very helpful," said Larry Stickney, one of the leaders in the campaign to reject R-71. "They're helping us get a lot of literature out — door-to-door or at shopping malls, churches. They're fearless."
- Donny Gallegos
Every time I read about the ease with which "fearless" Russian-speaking evangelicals can be mobilized against gay equality, I think about a hate crime that took place in Seattle in 2004—another election year in which legal recognition of gay relationships was a big, churning issue.
The victim: Micah Painter. The assailants: three young Russian-speaking evangelicals. The explanation offered by one of their friends: "Being gay is against our religion."
1
Thanks to them, my coworker (who otherwise would not have voted one way or the other on Ref. 71) is now voting to Approve it. The crazies can be good for something, right?
2
Actually I believe most of these folks are Ukrainian, not Russian, and it wouldn't surprise me at all if they were sympathetic to the Ukrainian nationalist movement (that aligned itself with the Nazis during WW2).
3
Aren't all these former Soviet-bloc immigrants supposed to be members of organized crime? I've never read a story in any media that had the least bit positive news about them. Maybe there is a good reason for that.
6
The really sad thing is that the reason most of them came here was because they themselves belonged to oppressed minority groups in the USSR. Now that the Union is no more, I kind of wish they would move back. They'd fit right back in again, it seems.
7
Some mush-headed liberals just get all warm and fuzzy about diversity when talking about immigration. Yeah, well... if you care about these issues, bringing in a bunch of religious reactionaries may not be a fine and dandy thing.
The GOP had high hopes for the Latinos on this issue and abortion, but they keep scaring those voters into the arms of the other party, by merely being... their usual selves. Now, white, Christian immigrants who don't like gays and abortion? Oh, they'll fit in in the GOP juuuuust fine. (And for some reason, they probably won't be accused of being covert Communists with evule plans by the red state tinfoil hat brigade, unlike Putin and Obama.)
(Disclaimer: not saying Putin doesn't give me the creeps, or that he doesn't have evule plans, but I strongly doubt it's all a secret "they never stopped being Commanist over there and they're still planning Commanist world domination" plan.)
The GOP had high hopes for the Latinos on this issue and abortion, but they keep scaring those voters into the arms of the other party, by merely being... their usual selves. Now, white, Christian immigrants who don't like gays and abortion? Oh, they'll fit in in the GOP juuuuust fine. (And for some reason, they probably won't be accused of being covert Communists with evule plans by the red state tinfoil hat brigade, unlike Putin and Obama.)
(Disclaimer: not saying Putin doesn't give me the creeps, or that he doesn't have evule plans, but I strongly doubt it's all a secret "they never stopped being Commanist over there and they're still planning Commanist world domination" plan.)
8
Two comments: 1) the Seattle Times webpage yesterday had this story as a top 3 headline (sympathetic to the anti-71ers...dozens protested) and no coverage of the Yes 71 march (which had 1000s). 2) the 20-ish year-old guy they showed protesting 71 was HOTTT. ...smokin'... ("hate fu*k", anyone?)
11
Ayyyyy... I live in Spokane, there are Russians and Ukrainians both. I know some nice guys who are (one of them was a shy kid that keep running away from a girl he had a crush on the other was a drama student), and a lot of the girls are very sweet. But the rest...
Let's put it this way, when I was in high school there's a parked police car outside it because every. single. day the Gangsta-wannabes and Russians always get into brawls, and it's about 50-50 who started it.
The Slavic countries have this huge "Machismo" culture - they gotta be tough, hard-drinking, hard-fighting and no sir, no one's a sissy gay. It's really kind of sad to see since the more 'traditional' guys are chauvinists and bigots to a man.
Let's put it this way, when I was in high school there's a parked police car outside it because every. single. day the Gangsta-wannabes and Russians always get into brawls, and it's about 50-50 who started it.
The Slavic countries have this huge "Machismo" culture - they gotta be tough, hard-drinking, hard-fighting and no sir, no one's a sissy gay. It's really kind of sad to see since the more 'traditional' guys are chauvinists and bigots to a man.
12
I make the same connection here... The sizeable community outside Sacramento had similar involvement in Prop 8 and in hate crimes down in California, as well.
13
Gotta throw this out there, but us russian jews make some excellent immigrants for the most part, so it isn't all russsians.
15
I forgot to say .. what that is .. our blog entry about the people who set up SUPPORT I-71 stands in alot of the gay bars in Seattle
17
I live in Lynnwood and was one of the very few pro R 71 supporters who made our own signs and stood on the sidewalk among these people. They would surround us and block our signs with their boddies and signs. If we moved to an open space, they moved there and tried to block us. At least 90% of them seemed to be under the age of 18. They had numerous groups in cars that drove up and down the main streets waving numerous signs out of their windows, honking thier horns, yelling - clogging up already busy streets and distracting other drivers. I understand that a few of them got ticketed for jaywalking and blocking traffic. I'm happy to say that we out-lasted them and that the local people were giving us the thumbs up and thanking us for being there - including a few civil servants.
Here are a few blogs to check out - including ones from their group:
http://lynnwood.komonews.com/content/pro…
http://referendum71.blogspot.com/2...009…
http://www.protectmarriagewa.com/index.p…
Here are a few blogs to check out - including ones from their group:
http://lynnwood.komonews.com/content/pro…
http://referendum71.blogspot.com/2...009…
http://www.protectmarriagewa.com/index.p…
18
Thank you ELI for the reminder of Micah; I lived blocks away from where he was assaulted in 2004. The ugliness of hate crimes and "legal" discrimination speaks for itself.
How much longer are we going to allow society to VOTE on our due rights? Don't we believe we are more than animals or slaves that are submissive to the "powers that be"?
NEW RULES -
http://gaytaxprotest.blogspot.com/2009/1…
How much longer are we going to allow society to VOTE on our due rights? Don't we believe we are more than animals or slaves that are submissive to the "powers that be"?
NEW RULES -
http://gaytaxprotest.blogspot.com/2009/1…
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