In case you're wondering why I'm pissed off, it's not the usual reasons. I could go on about every bad thing that the Republican Party has done to the United States but that would be a 4,000 page book and would take me years to write. I could go on about the hypocrisy of gay Republicans, the war in Iraq, the failures in the war on terrorism, the economic woes, the elitism displayed by so many Republicans, poor urban planning, the voting woes in this country, the non stop attacks on our hardworking latino citizens. Really, I could go on and on and on and on. But instead, I will focus on an article in the LA Times I was just sent by my mom. It's 5 days old but I did not recall seeing anything blogged about it. It really pisses me off.
http://www.latimes.com/...
To give a brief summary, Russian and Ukrainian immigrants represent a huge new community in Sacramento. Unlike many other Russian communities, the Russian Jews and Russian Orthodox are in the minority. The majority of Russian-Americans are in fact evangelical Christians. These Russians are also very homophobic and have been organizing against gays and lesbians in Sacramento. Russian fundamentalist Christians have become active in Sacramento attacking homosexuals. They have picketed gay rights events, gay pride parades, and have rallied against gays in large numbers. Their goal it appears is to change California and the United States and turn back the clock on gay rights. Now I know that Russia tends to be a very homophobic country. In most places, it is not acceptable to be an open homosexual, gay pride parades are often banned, and gays are often attacked by violent mobs (including a recent breakup of the Moscow Gay Pride Parade where elected officials from foreign countries were beaten and then detained by the police). Homosexuality is not something that is looked upon favorably by Russians. However, these Russians are different. It leads me to the following question.
Who the fuck do these people think they are? They come over here and then demand that we change our values system? Now I won't deny that California Republicans are among the most conservative in the country and that there's been a lot of bad stuff done to gay people over the years (never forget the former Republican star and San Francisco County Supervisor Dan White). But California has been among one of the most gay friendly states. We were the first to pass gay civil rights legislation and the first and to date only state where a legislature approved gay marriage. While there has never been a gay or lesbian elected to congress, several gays and lesbians have been elected to the State Assembly, State Senate, and State Board of Equalization. But that's not good enough for the Russian fundamentalists. They want this to change. They want to rally and promote hatred. I say fuck them. If they don't like it here, they can leave and go back to Russia.
I should take this time to once again defend our much beleaguered latino immigrants. Latino immigrants tend to be culturally conservative (although their kids usually aren't) but they accept the values of Californians. You don't hear about latino immigrants organizing against gays or even bashing gays. Often, latino communities have their own gay districts. I say if we deport any illegal immigrants, we ought to dump the gay hating Russians, not the hard working Mexicans (and Central Americans). I should also point out that these Sacramento Russians tend to be fundamentalist Christians, not the traditional Russian Orthodox and Russian Jews who make up a majority of the Russian communities in the United States. West Hollywood, CA has a huge gay community and also has a very friendly Russian minority (most of whom are Jews). Still, I'm pissed off. Who the fuck do these people think they are? Anyone else angered by this?