For more than a week now we here in the United States have been celebrating our rightful step forward in the march toward equality. But our successes do not mean the end of the fight, either here or elsewhere. To be truly equal we must be equal everywhere. So the blatant, unchecked, institutionalized bigotry happening to the LGBT community in Russia via its own government is appalling. A ban on Pride Parades in Moscow for 100 years. A law banning all “gay propaganda” aimed at minors that essentially criminalizes comparing gay relationships to straight relationships and distributing LGBT rights materials. And just this week a new law banning same-sex couples in foreign countries from adopting Russian children (Russian gays and lesbians couples are already banned from same-sex adoption in their own country). For gays it’s more like “From Russia, with a boot to the neck.”
So into that atmosphere stepped actress Tilda Swinton with a simple, universal act of defiance. Yesterday her agent, Christian Hodell, posted a picture of Tilda on Twitter with a message from her that read simply: “In solidarity. From Russia with love.” And there she is, in front of the Kremlin with a police car behind her, holding up a rainbow flag. Small gesture, big message. Also an illegal gesture that could have gotten her arrested. This kind of bold, open defiance of a clearly unjust series of laws aimed at oppressing one population even further means something. It might now unwrite those laws, or change one single thought in Vladimir Putin’s brutally hard head, but it means we are watching. And, if we could be, we’d all be there with her. Happy weekend, all.
p.s. Yes, I know I’ve crushed on Tilda before. And yes, I know some of you have had problems in the past with other causes Tilda has supported. I’ve addressed those conflicts and just want to celebrate her act of defiance here. OK? OK. Now someone give me a pride flag to wave around.
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