The Real Reason For The War In Ukraine?

Silly wabbit; it's to save Ukraine from gay rights parades

[P]lenty of rationalizations have been offered for Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine—everything from “Russia needs a buffer state to keep NATO at a distance” (just about every Kremlin apologist) to “Russia is trying to ‘denazify’ Ukraine” (just about no one except Putin and his minions). But in a Sunday sermon, Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, offered a startling new explanation that is sure to resonate with the Sohrab Ahmari wing of the modern American right: It was to save Eastern Ukraine from the gays….

During his fifteen-minute sermon on the Eastern Orthodox holiday known as Forgiveness Sunday (the last day before Lent), the patriarch did not say a word about fellow Christians under fire in Ukraine outside Eastern Donbas. He did, however, return more than once to the evil of gay parades and to his claim that holding such parades was a requirement for membership in the “club” of powerful countries.

Judging by how frightened some religious and political leaders are of the LGBTQ community, these folks have far more power than they’re aware of. Sure, LGBTQ people SAY they only want to live and love genuinely and authentically, but I wonder if they even realize the fear they create in people who hold power?

Particularly in Eastern Europe, those in charge of governments and churches fear the LGBTQ movement like nothing else. Patriarch Kirill, for instance, believes that allowing gay rights parades is a requirement for membership in the “club” of powerful (and probably Western) countries.

That’s right; for years the LGBTQ community has quietly been the power behind the throne of many Western governments. NOTHING happens without it being run through the super-secret gay star chamber, a truly fabulous court where gays, lesbians, and transgenders ruthlessly exercise power and influence over government policy.

Of course, no one really knows what happens in the gay star chamber, because members are sworn to secrecy, especially in places like Russia, where the power and influence of the LGBTQ community reach the highest levels.

Why else would Vladimir Putin be shown shirtless so often?

The patriarch’s insistence that the war in Ukraine is all about gay parades reminded me of a brilliant Russian-language poem someone shared with me on Twitter the other day, written by Russian-Ukrainian poet Artem Polezhaka in late 2013 and titled “Reportage.” The poem hilariously spoofs state-owned Russian television’s hysterical reporting on the Euromaidan protests in Kyiv: the reporter breathlessly recounts the increasingly grotesque horrors he supposedly witnesses—a mélange that features neo-Nazis, jihadists, looters, cannibals, and Jews who “drink Christian babies’ blood by the bucket”—but keeps coming back to gay orgies….

The real irony, perhaps, is that post-Euromaidan Ukraine was not exactly San Francisco. The country still bans same-sex marriage and adoption by same-sex couples, and only about one in five people (similar to the numbers in Russia) believe that homosexuality should be accepted by society. However, for all its problems, Ukraine is sufficiently hospitable to free expression that thousands of people have been able to march under rainbow flags year to year—in contrast to Russia, where attempts to hold such events have ended in violence from both police and anti-gay vigilantes.

Of course, justifying the war in Ukraine as a way to save eastern Ukraine (or ALL of Ukraine) from the unspeakable evil of gay pride parades is patently absurd. It doesn’t help that Patriarch Kirill is on the Kremlin’s payroll and owes his position to remaining in Vladimir Putin’s good graces. While the LGBTQ community is unpopular in official Russia (and in Ukraine, for that matter), to blame the war on the need to cleanse Ukraine of gay rights parades is silly.

Perhaps the Kremlin is so knee-deep in its own propaganda that it actually believes the lies it’s peddling to Russians and the West. Anyone who has access to virtually any non-Russian news source understands that what Russia is selling is pure crap. None of this has anything to do with gay rights parades or homosexuality in any shape, manner, or form. No, it’s about reducing Ukraine to rubble so that Russia can bring an independent, sovereign state (or what’s left of it) back under its control.

That the Kremlin is using homosexuality and gay rights parades (among other justifications) to justify committing war crimes- bombing schools and hospitals, killing civilians, shelling non-military targets- is reprehensible. A war directed against the Ukrainian military is senseless enough, but one directed against noncombatants and nonmilitary targets is absolutely inhuman.

I do find it interesting that governments and churches, particularly in Eastern Europe, are so concerned with what consenting adults do behind closed doors. The fear of homosexuality is palpable, as if those in positions of power are afraid it’s contagious, that coming into contact with anyone who’s LGBTQ will make “the gay” rub off on those in the vicinity. Many governments in Eastern Europe, particularly Poland, Russia, and to a certain degree Ukraine, are openly hostile to those who identify as LGBTQ. While it’s still technically illegal to attack those who are LGBTQ, such laws are often enforced sparingly, if they’re enforced at all.

The result is that many in the LGBTQ community have felt it necessary to emigrate to more tolerant countries in the West for their survival. It’s sad, but when the alternative is living in a place where large numbers of people wish you harm- or worse- there often isn’t another option.