"Traditional" values are portrayed as what makes Russia strong. "The church is taking a more and more prominent place in Russia, and Putin and his government constantly talk about spiritual values," she said. While the average Russian may not attend church frequently or pray fervently, the Orthodox Church still holds sway over public opinion, Mikhailova said. In comparison, 69 percent of Russians say extramarital affairs are unacceptable, 62 percent disapprove of gambling, and 44 percent say abortion is immoral. Another 9 percent say homosexuality is not a moral issue, and 72 percent say being gay is unacceptable. Few Russians say religion is central to their lives the country scores on par with many Western European countries in terms of lack of religiosity, but only 9 percent of Russians say homosexuality is acceptable in the new survey. Likewise, the most religious countries tend to be less accepting of gay rights, Pew has found. Among Americans, 74 percent of nonreligious people approve of gay marriage, compared with only 23 percent of white evangelical Protestants, according to a Pew survey.
In most countries, religiosity is linked to anti-gay attitudes.
The Russian Orthodox Church is a major driver of anti-gay public opinion, Mikhailova said, but there is a paradox at play. "Where gays are allowed, pedophilia will soon flourish," says Russian Orthodox priest Sergei Rybko in a new BBC documentary, "Hunted," released this month, that explores violence toward Russian gays. The head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill I, said in July that gay marriage is a "very dangerous apocalyptic symptom." And church leaders regularly link homosexuality with pedophilia. With rape and homosexuality equated, it's easy for leaders to insult gay people unapologetically. Men who were raped were known as "roosters," a term that is still one of the "most painful words" to call a man in Russia, Mikhailova said. "For a long period of time Russian men and Russian women who were kept in prisons were subjugated and sexually assaulted in order to keep them complacent," she said. One reason, Mikhailova said, is the popular tendency to conflate erroneously homosexuality with pedophilia and rape. Stalin's anti-sodomy law was repealed in 1993, one of many Stalinist laws removed in the aftermath of the collapse of the USSR.īut acceptance has not come easily. Prison often meant the Gulag, where convicts were forced into hard labor, Healy said. By 1934, homosexuality was again illegal in Russia, with a minimum sentence of three to five years in prison. Joseph Stalin, who consolidated power over the 1920s, and his secret police appointee, Genrikh Yagoda, drafted a new law penalizing homosexuals, whom they portrayed as spies and scoundrels. This progressive approach to homosexuality did not last long. It's not clear why, Healy said, but it's possible Russia's new leadership was following a tradition set by the French Revolution that dumped religion-based laws.
The revolutionaries threw out the Czarist legal code and drew up their own, which did not criminalize homosexuality.
In 1835, Czar Nicholas I extended the ban on male same-sex relationships to civilians. In 1716, homosexuality among military men was made punishable by flogging, rape and forced labor, according to Dan Healy, a professor of Russian history at Oxford University. Traditional gender roles fell to revolutionary ideology, and the family structure was seen as outdated, she said.īefore the revolution, Czarist Russia was hardly friendly to gays. Russia's October Revolution of 1917 threw Russian society into upheaval, Mikhailova told Live Science. Understanding Russia's widespread gay sentiment requires a look back, said Tatiana Mikhailova, a senior instructor of Russian Studies at the University of Colorado, Boulder.