Russia is on the Move to Ban Gay Couples from Adopting, Among Other Things

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June 19, 2013 by gabnormal

Russia has passed a measure through it’s lower house of parliament which would make it illegal for gays or gay couples to adopt.

Essentially, Russia is banning not only gay couples, but also straight couples who aren’t married from adopting children. People who are single are allowed to adopt, but not if they are American. Russia banned adoption of its children to Americans as of last year, which seems to be in supposed backlash to a United States law that allowed sanctions on Russians who were deemed human rights violators. The ban is also reflective of allegations that U.S. officials were shamefully negligent in cases involving abuse and death of adopted Russian children.

Currently there are around 600,000 children living in Russia without parental custody.

Russian government has also passed a bill that bans the distribution of “homosexual propaganda,” which basically breaks down to not allowing any information about homosexuals to be spread to Russian children.

There are so many problems with this I don’t know where to begin, but I’ll try to be brief.

First, my heart goes out to children in adoptive agencies in Russia. It seems that with all of these bans and restrictions, and with how long and intense the adoption process is to begin with, these children may never have a home.

Second, the fact that they are preventing the spread of information about the gay and lesbian community (and I’m assuming that information regarding any supposed sexual deviation falls under the same ban as well) just brings up its own mess of problems. The fact that there is so much hatred and discrimination against the LGBTQ community stems primarily from the fact that many people don’t know enough about it. They don’t understand what all these terms mean, they just know that it’s different, and if it’s different, it’s scary, and most of the time scary things are bad and must be gotten rid of.

Part of the solution begins with education. Start there, and move forward.