To Russia, with understanding

I landed in Moscow on a ridiculously cold October morning. I was there — among other reasons — to develop an understanding of the Russian perspective of the country’s new gay propaganda law.

As a gay American, I had my work cut out for me.
With the Sochi Olympics upon us, it’s time to look back on a few of the things I learned.

As Americans, we have a tendency to say a decision is universally wrong if we wouldn’t choose it ourselves. We’re not always right about that.

Horrible things do happen to gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer individuals in Russia, and their struggle is vital, relevant and deserving of our support. But this image of Russia as a backward, traditionalist society that we have cultivated in response to that reality is also problematic.

My first night in the country, I went to meet some Russian students in their dorm. While they gave me a tour, I noticed one of them had a small rainbow flag hanging from her wardrobe door.

After the tour finished, I asked her about it. She told me she was an activist, that she didn’t identify as lesbian herself but that she supported GLBTQ people.

Then she surprised me even more. She told me she didn’t feel like the Russian law was that important, that she didn’t think it would make that much of a difference, that she thought there were a lot of bigger problems in Russia that needed to be dealt with.

And she’s right. Russia has a huge problem with political corruption and cronyism — especially regarding recently-privatized state enterprises. Moscow’s automobile infrastructure is absurdly overstrained and media freedom is a farce.

Russia’s population is actually falling. She seemed much more concerned about these problems, and I can see why.

There’s a story about the double-headed eagle seen on Russia’s presidential flag. According to the story, the double-headed eagle was a symbol used by the Byzantine emperors. One of its heads kept watch over the eastern half of the empire, the other, the Western.

When the Russian Czars began styling themselves as Byzantine emperors, they brought the double-headed eagle to Moscow.

Russia is well-represented by this synthesis between East and West. Its relationship with the Europe and the rest of this half of the world is vital to its economic survival, but that same relationship has been a source of strain and tension throughout its history.

For decades the Western world, with the United States at its head, looked at Russia and pointed the way down the path of neoliberalism to prosperity.

For a while Russia dutifully followed. The results were mixed at best, and often the blame for those results was laid at our feet. A bit of a jaded attitude is understandable.
While I was in Russia, I had a conversation with another student who told me he would never agree with me because I was an American.

So it shouldn’t come as a surprise today when the Western world scolds Russia for its anti-gay legislation and the average Russian is less than sympathetic to this latest criticism.

This doesn’t make them right, but it should remind us “basic human rights” as we conceive of them don’t automatically resonate universally across cultures. They are a Western concept best understood from a Western cultural perspective.

­— drlreed@indiana.edu
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Drake Reed
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