Russian Embassy likens anti-gay attacks to UK ‘gingerphobia’
By Josh Haggis
The Russian Embassy has responded to Channel 4’s shocking Hunted documentary, which shed light on the state of LGBT rights in the country in the wake of Putin’s anti-gay laws.
The documentary, which aired last Wednesday (February 5), focused on Russian gangs who attack gay men and women, luring them in under false pretences before shaming them on camera and uploading the footage online.
In June 2013, Russia passed laws banning the promotion of “non-traditional sexual relations”, and there has been an increasingly hostile atmosphere towards the country’s LGBT community. The laws has coincided with a large number of vigilante attacks on gay people, which LGBT campaigners say are ignored by the police.
The Russian Embassy said in a statement: “The documentary’s emotional appeal is misleading, since the film falls far short of the standards of professional journalistic investigation.
“One could have easily whipped up such ‘documentary’ about a hunting season on redheads in the UK saying that ‘ginger’ people face unmotivated verbal and physical abuse on a daily basis.
“If the authors of the documentary really had evidence of rampant gay hate crimes in Russia, they wouldn’t need to wait until an international sporting event takes place in Russia to raise the alarm. While violent attacks on homosexuals sometimes take place in Russia, just like in many other European countries, this does not mean that they are condoned, supported or, let alone, encouraged by the Government. Such attacks are few and far between and by no means reflect general sentiments of the Russian people.”