Following the announcement by the Kremlin that Vladimir Putin would meet with singer Sir Elton John, to discuss any issue including LGBT rights the Russian president held an interview with 60 Minutes yesterday.
The Advocate reported that Putin told CBS News anchor Charlie Rose said he didn’t see “anything undemocratic” about his country’s ban on what Russia calls “gay propaganda.”
Russia enacted a law banning “propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations” in 2013, basically prohibiting any positive treatment of LGBT issues in forums accessible to minors. And ever since, the group Human Rights Watch has documented an increase in antigay violence and harassment in Russia that it calls a “license to harm.”
“I believe we should leave kids in peace,” Putin told Rose in the interview, portions of which were broadcast last night. “We should give them a chance to grow and help them to realize who they are and decide for themselves … do they consider themselves a man or a woman? A female? A male? Do they want to live in a normal natural marriage or a nontraditional marriage?”
