AHC: Gay-friendly/friendlier Russia post-1991?

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What would it take for Russia to become a country that isn't such a synonym for homophobia?

http://www.nytimes.com/1993/02/10/w...f-soviet-era-shadows.html?src=pm&pagewanted=1

In a 1991 public opinion poll conducted in Chelyabinsk, an industrial city in the Urals, 30 percent of the respondents aged 16 to 30 years old felt that homosexuals should be "isolated from society," 5 percent felt they should be "liquidated," 60 percent had a "negative" attitude toward gay people and 5 percent labeled their sexual orientation "unfortunate."
Or is it too late to remove entrenched homophobia? Perhaps a no-Stalin USSR would help?
 
The POD has to be way back in the Soviet era. Instead of considering homosexuality a bourgeois western vice or a clinical mental condition that requires therapy it has to be regarded as a variety of human sexual behaviour that an enlightened socialist society tolerates and does not discriminate against unlike western imperialist powers, still benighted by ancient religious superstition. But that can only suceed if such a change in policy is implemented before homosexuality is decriminalised in the UK / US / West Germany for the communist party to have another evidence that socialism / communism is superior to capitalism, otherwise there won't be enough incentive for a move to overcome the deeply rooted homophobia that has historically existed in Russia, with the most likely period being the early 1960's.

Have enough generations grow up in a society where homophobia is considered to originate in counterrevolutionary imperialist bourgeois attitudes or ancient superstition (i.e. religion) and even after an upsurge of homophobia after the fall of communism russian society as a whole will be far more accepting of homosexuality than it is IOTL.
 
You think that Putin has any changes for similar career if he would be openly homosexual? You would need much more.

Not to mention the fact that Putin could have exactly the same career, be gay, hide it, and persecute gays. Do you know how often stridently anti-gay politicians are outed here in the US? I'm gonna guess we've been averaging 2-3 per year for the last 15-20 years.:rolleyes:

That said, one cynical thought is that the wave of Christian conservatism in the US peaks significantly higher in the 1990s and tolerance occurs a bit more slowly in Western Europe, while in Russia anti-Western tendencies kick in earlier. The whole policy is born of spite and could conceivably cut both ways.
 
It would probably help if Russians didn't feel emasculated because their nation can no longer bully its neighbors. A lot of Russia's insecurities about homosexuality tie into the fact that it's no longer a super power, but rather a nation with an economy the size of Italy's dependent on raw materials to prop it up.
 

Old Airman

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What would it take for Russia to become a country that isn't such a synonym for homophobia?
That one is easy. IOTL Russian attitudes toward LGBT are roughly the same as in other countries of the region (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_Poland#Social_attitudes_and_public_opinion). So, all you need to do is to stop a propaganda campaign to present Russian problems with acceptance of LGBT as something uniquely Russian. In a plain speak, it takes not lying to stop a lie. However, the more interesting question might be "how to make Russia more accepting of LGBT than it is now?"
Perhaps a no-Stalin USSR would help?
I would say "non-industrialized USSR". Actually, Bolshevist revolution created a regime which could have been called "a gay heaven" by the standards of the day. This liberal streak continued till mid-1930, when industrialization brought a hordes of illiterate or barely literate peasant to it's cities, and a lot of "rednecks" to mid-level leadership, the cornerstone of Stalin's power. As it is the deal with most traditionalist group, they were deeply disapproving of homosexual practices. Of course, Stalin's personal background as a religious student and anti-homo indoctrination he'd received as a youth didn't help. Those two pressures, from above and from below, made the USSR a pretty unfriendly place to be gay. How to change it? Either get rid of industrialization (dumb) or change the attitude of the country's leaders. You can even keep Stalin at the helm, he just need to see gays as friends and not something threatening his power.
 

abc123

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It would probably help if Russians didn't feel emasculated because their nation can no longer bully its neighbors. A lot of Russia's insecurities about homosexuality tie into the fact that it's no longer a super power, but rather a nation with an economy the size of Italy's dependent on raw materials to prop it up.

Trouble is, Russians, especially in last few years when Russia has strained relations with the West, see homosexuality as something imposed from outside, from the West, so for homosexuals in Russia and their rights it would be the best that Western countries stop caring about them, because it's counterproductive. Something like Israeli support for homosexual rights in Arab countries.
 
That one is easy. IOTL Russian attitudes toward LGBT are roughly the same as in other countries of the region (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_Poland#Social_attitudes_and_public_opinion). So, all you need to do is to stop a propaganda campaign to present Russian problems with acceptance of LGBT as something uniquely Russian. In a plain speak, it takes not lying to stop a lie.

This is a little disingenuous if we're just comparing Russia to its European neighbors. Rather than public opinion, the more salient points of the issue are actual incidents of violence, legal restrictions, and statements from national figures. These factors certainly put Russia at the vanguard, but you're right, not too far ahead of the Eastern European pack.

But it is at least slightly odd that the rhetoric focuses so much on Russia when there are demonstrably countries far, far worse when it comes to gay rights, including countries that abridge the right to be alive while gay. Part of the pressure on Russia is probably *because* it's closer to the West on the issue than it is to the Muslim world (excluding basically Turkey.) It's easier to imagine outside pressure moving the dial in Russia.

But I acknowledge that part of it is also probably that Russians themselves are (in kind of an unconsciously racist-ish way) easier for Westerners to identify with than gay Muslims and/or Africans living in countries with the death penalty for the practice. It's sad, but probably true.

Whether the focus is due to the West looking for a way to demonize Russia, I don't really agree. Maybe in Western Europe that makes some sense, but in the US it just cuts across political lines in a way that's uncomfortable for everyone, and would be counterproductive to any frame job.

On another note, there's also the fact that while Russia was seen as a bad actor in this area for a while, it didn't really become the poster boy for anti-gay rights until the attention brought to the issue by the Sochi Olympics- so that in and of itself is a POD where Russia's not perceived quite so demonically; no Sochi Olympics.
 
Exposure of Gulags and Holocaust in 1991, Communism and Neo-Nazism would be Outlawed in Russia Post-1991.

Then Homosexuality would be More Tolerant Not just in Russia, In All Eastern European Countries(Including Albania and Serbia).

Eastern Orthodoxy, Islam and Roman Catholicism would Accept Same-Sex Marriage.

Soviets were Very Homophobic.

Putin would never Rise to Power(Due to Communist Past).
 
Try to reduce Moskovites' xenophobia (fear of Mongol horsemen invading from the Asian steppes) and fear of homosexual rape.
Fear of homosexual rape drives much homophobia.
 
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