This 'Putin as a gay clown' image is now illegal in Russia, so please do not share it

[L. Coyote]

Link to tweet

[democratisphere]

1. OK. Whatever you say. NOT!

[cwydro]

2. Yeah, because calling someone gay is such a cool insult to use.

[ProfessorGAC]

3. Yeah, Just Clown Is Fine

Why "gay clown"? Also, thug, punk, slime, mobster, et al work pretty well.

The only relevant part is that the "resident's" buddy is making political criticism illegal in Russia. That part is concerning.

[Hekate]

9. Because apparently the murderer thinks this is the worst insult that can be hurled at him

[Generic Other]

4. Was it created to protest his anti-LGBTQ stance?

Maybe it should be framed as a statement against censorship of gays. Otherwise it risks being offensive.

[wishstar]

7. Yes, one poster of the clown has "Stop Homofobia" across his forehead

There are many images of Putin in makeup that have proliferated in recent years, it is not even known which particular image has been banned, but the images are all in protest of Putin's homophobia and crackdown of individual rights and freedom of expression.

Wash Post article this week about this=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/04/05/its-now-illegal-in-russia-to-share-an-image-of-putin-as-a-gay-clown/?utm_term=.80bb93caf130

[L. Coyote]

8. That should be obvious to anyone with exposure to politics and the outside world.

Huge D'oh unless you hide in a cave somewhere.

[Generic Other]

10. Clearly it causes offense

So the message is not as clear as you believe. Having it say "Stop homophobia" clarifies the message for me.

[LanternWaste]

12. Inferring the obvious can be quite difficult sometimes.

Inferring the obvious can be quite difficult sometimes.

[Generic Other]

14. I would prefer the "Stop Homophobia"

Message on his forehead as it is very much a pointed statement. I am surprised that it has been censored by the Russians. Putin seems a bit thin-skinned for such a strongman leader.

[Gothmog]

5. Putin pretends to be macho and so this hits him where it hurts

[wishstar]

6. See Wash Post article that explains serious civil rights and freedom of speech issues involved:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/04/05/its-now-illegal-in-russia-to-share-an-image-of-putin-as-a-gay-clown/?utm_term=.80bb93caf130


Russian news outlets are having trouble reporting exactly which image of the Internet's many Putin-gay-clown memes is now illegal to share. Because, you know, it's been banned

That poster became popular in 2013, after Russia passed a law banning propagandizing to children about “nontraditional sexual relations,” and gay rights protesters were beaten and arrested.
But gay Putin memes have proliferated as Russia has cracked down on both sexual liberties and online speech in recent years.

The Kremlin has also become fairly adept at controlling what people say about each other on the Internet.
Russia passed its first “Internet extremism” laws in 2013, according to the Moscow Times — a year after Putin returned to the presidency and began restricting civil rights.
A year later, the paper reported, Putin signed a law imposing prison sentences for people who give so much as thumbs-up to a forbidden online post. Those include an article about a theoretical coup, which landed a philosophy professor in detention.

In 2015, Russian authorities began shutting down websites of Putin critics, and restricting nearly all anonymous blogs, The Washington Post reported. And Russia's Internet censor has long allowed public figures to file court complaints if they run across a meme that misrepresents their “personality.”

[MineralMan]

11. It Doesn't Belong Here, Either, IMO.

Sorry, but...

[Saviolo]

16. Thanks for this

I agree, for the reasons I've posted below.

[SticksnStones]

13. At the midnight, double feature picture show

In the back row-oh-oh ~

[Saviolo]

15. Calling Putin "gay" as an insult does not fight homophobia

It enforces it. I understand the impetus behind the image, and I understand the amusement that many people have about it, but as a gay man, this is just someone yelling "fag" at Putin. Images and jokes like this are homophobic and transphobic, and do not make most gay people feel safer, but more marginalized. Same thing with that huge billboard of Putin and Trump kissing outside of the RNC.

This tweet says it very pithily:

Link to tweet

My gay, trans, and queer friends are beautiful people who are trying to live their own reality (and me my own, for that matter), but here we have the implication "LOL, this dictator hates gay people, and wants to hurt and kill them, so we're going to associate his image with queer regalia to mock him." By using queer regalia to mock someone who hates queers, you are not empowering LGBTQ folks, you are mocking them, too.

Of course, this is only my opinion, and I know lots of people want to really needle Putin with this image, I just want to maybe make you think twice. If you think of yourself as a LGBTQ ally, maybe think twice about this, otherwise those that you would like to be allied with may look twice at you, wondering if they can really trust you not to appropriate their images in a mocking way.

[MineralMan]

17. It seems to me that using "gay" as an insult

is always questionable, at best, and very offensive at worst. The implication that being "gay" is a negative seems to me to be the reason that such images are not a good idea, whatever the intent.

That's about all I can say about that, really.

[Saviolo]

19. I made an OP about it here:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10028905824

Interesting discussion there about context, but I agree with you wrt. the context we're seeing this picture in North America.

[LexVegas]

18. Offensive.

[Warren DeMontague]

20. Damn, Randy Rainbow has not aged well since the election.