How the horrible anti-transgender policies of Russia became a reality
What the political process leading to the Russian ban on transgender people tells us about the mindset causing transphobia.
Over at eX-twitter Jeannie the Gaywyck Owl 🏳️⚧️ has written a thorough and very helpful thread about what has happened in Russia and the reasons for it. We have republished the thread over at Transgender World.
It is absolutely clear that what drives the Russian politicians, Putin included, is a deep felt fear of diversity and personal integrity. They cannot comprehend that there are people who cannot or will not live up to the strict binary of the past, and they see “traditional family values” as the key to protecting their totalitarian political system.
Sure, some of them may play along out of political opportunism. It isn’t that long ago since Putin’s regime had one of the more liberal gender ID laws in Europe. But now that Putin’s war against Ukraine is failing, he is in desperate need of new scapegoats, and the LGBTQA community fits the bill. He can present queer and trans people as agents of the liberal left, and therefore - according to the absurd logic of the Russian government - NATO and the Ukrainian “Fascist” government.
There is some truth to Putin’s paranoia. Thanks to the Russian attack on Ukraine, NATO and Ukraine have become allies in a war against totalitarianism. NATO and Ukraine have become some of the main defenders of liberal democracy in Europe. The real Fascists here are the ones in the Kreml.
It is interesting to see how the Russian regime is recycling arguments made by the European far right, the Republican Party in the US and so-called “gender critical radical feminists.” This says a lot about the mindset that drives transphobes all over the world. You could say that as far as the health of a democracy goes, trans people are the canaries in the coal mine.
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Jack Molay