American "conservatives" are over here drooling at the possibilities.

This is just standard fascism. They need a constant stream of enemies weak enough that they can't defend themselves. Whom they can paint as responsible for all a societies woes.

Fascism 101. We see Republicans employing that heavily here in the United States.

They need a new enemy every now and then. If the current enemy happens to be exterminated, they'll need one sooner, but they'll need a new one anyways.

That's it. Putin and the Russian conservatives are going after gays because it's an easy win with their conservative base, and they can claim moral superiority. Also distracts from Ukraine.

There you said it. They don't care about gay people. They need an easy win with conservative public before future (mock) elections and to distract people from Ukraine. And they also want a weapon to proclaim anyone they dislike an extremist.

Can you prove you aren't gay? Let's see. It'a either you record a video of apologizing for being gay, or we stuff a broom up your ass and you record a video of apologizing for being gay 🤗 Either way, 10 years in a joint.

I've recently seen a good article in a ru-language blogosphere. These pieces of shit who climbed to the power in the 90s and 00s break every ladder to their positions, they want to establish themselves as new nobles, and they need a variety of tools to persecute whoever they dislike. They want the good ol' serfdom. They build it as we speak.

It's not bad if you are gay and noble. Gref, Volodin, others are gossiped to be gay. Rather it's bad to be not in their club, like most do. Then you are in a risk of being persecuted and robbed of everything over nothing.

It's 21th century and neo-feudalism is on the rise! Fuck, I hate it here.

Its a very bad time to be gay in Russia.

I don’t think not being gay changes much in this statement

Ironically, Russians think they are fighting Nazis in Ukraine.

No, Israel has nukes. The Jews have a space laser though, which is better. Netanyahu lost his space laser privileges a long time ago, I could maybe petition the Council to let The Gays have his time slot?

So what I'm hearing is give The Gays™️ nukes....

"But Vladimir, you were never going to find any Nazis out there! The Nazis were in you all along!"

both can be true

"Seriously? I'm being arrested for being gay?" Extremely gay.

Actual quotes from Hexbears that I got when discussing Russia with them:

"Those reactionary shitstains [the Russian government] has little to be proud of."

"Russia is extremly Reactionary [...] thats why Russia has a Real Problem with "White Supremacy" , [and] no problems with hunting down LGBTQ+ [...]"

Now I don't exactly see anybody on Hexbear presently discussing this particular bit of news about crackdowns on LGBT+, but I'll go post about this news on Hexbear and see how the people there react. I have a feeling it's going to be consistent with my previous experiences discussing Russia with Hexbears, which is also going to be the reaction that I'd expect from an instance that skews heavily LGBT+.

My daughter is queer and if Trump wins, we will probably have to seek refuge in Canada. I have an uncle there, which will also help, but this is a good resource. Thanks.

That's because they're all 12 years old and have no brain. When you talk to them it's quite clear they don't actually know what they're talking about. My favourite thing to do is quote events and dates at them of things that that didn't happen, and most of the time they don't pick up on it.

They're creating lists of people and looking into their associated social networks. Do you want to be on a list of people your government has suddenly associated with crime and terrorism because your cousin went to a gay bar?