Russia's Latest Treatment Of LGBT People

Russia is taking time out from shooting down commercial passenger planes to continue to persecute its LGBT citizens at home.

From Gay Star News:

A gay activist in Russia was fined for holding a LGBTI rights protest yesterday (22 June).

Nikolai Alekseev, who has just been sent to prison for 10 days, will now be fined by the court 20,000 rubles ($370, €330) for the organisation of a brief protest outside the mayor's office in Moscow.

On 30 May, Alekseev rode a quad bike with two others while carrying a rainbow flag and orange smoke flare down the main Tverskaya Street.

And once again, we see which side is actually intolerant:

Around 30 homophobic thugs hurled eggs and threw rocks and bottles at them, but the activists were undeterred.

And here we see them shifting their own goalposts to persecute LGBT people. A play that has been performed in Russia has run into trouble:

A play based on the true story of a gay son coming out to his parents is under threat in Moscow, after complaints from a protest group.

‘All the Shades of Blue’ - ‘blue’ is a slang term for being gay in Russian - is currently being performed at one of Moscow’s most established theaters, the Satirikon.

The play shows a sympathetic portrayal of a gay teenager coming out to his parents, who force him to attend a rehabilitation center to cure him of his homosexuality.

After being taken to an exorcist by his grandmother, the boy is taken to a prostitute by his father, who believes the experience might turn him straight.

And no matter what the directors do, they can't win:

Audience members wishing to view the show must be over the age of 21 - a measure designed to uphold Russia’s controversial law banning the promotion of homosexuality to minors, which passed in 2013.

Despite stringent measures to keep children away from the theater, director Konstantin Raikin has been called for questioning by prosecutors, after obscure group Art Without Borders lodged complaints detailing the play’s ‘swearing, propaganda of amoral behavior and pornography’.

They're actually following the law, but they still can't win. Russia won't play by its own rules if it means allowing a pro-LGBT play to go ahead.