Dear List:Here is some good news from Russia about queers.Brian DauthQueer Buddhist Resisterhttp://www.thegully.com/essays/russia/040513_gay_lesbian_russia.htmlGay Russia TodayComing out of the woods. By Camilla Roubleva MAY 13, 2004. On April 2, the latest attempt in the Russia legislature to recriminalize homosexuality was killed in committee. The bill, similar to the one submitted last year and the year before, was proposed by the Russian People's Party deputy, Gennady Raikov, chairman of the legislature's parliamentary ethics commission. Like many other Russians, the staunch Putin supporter blames gay men for the rise of HIV/AIDS and the disintegration of the traditional family.
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More detail. The People's Party is one of about a billion little parties allegedly created by the Kremlin to draw votes away from the Communists. A lot of these parties are one-issue, and the PP was basically trying to attract the outraged homophobe vote. The PP got about 0.8% of the vote in the Duma elections in the Fall.
Also, HIV/AIDS is not a gay issue in Russia. It is an IV drug-use issue. 95% of HIV cases in Russia are the result of sharing infected needles, and most of the rest are heterosexual.
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