Snowden director Oliver Stone praises Russia for ‘sensible’ anti-gay laws
US film director Oliver Stone during an interview with the President of Russia Vladimir Putin in the Moscow Kremlin. (Alexei DruzhininTASS via Getty)
Snowden director Oliver Stone has praised Russia’s law banning gay ‘propaganda’ in an interview with Vladimir Putin.
The American director, who has been criticised over his promotion of conspiracy theories and closeness with the Putin regime, made the claim in an interview with the Russian President.
According to an official transcript of the interview released by the Kremlin on Friday (July 19), Stone hit out at the acceptance of LGBT+ people in the US, and praised the Russian approach.
Oliver Stone praised Russia for anti-gay ‘propaganda’ laws
He had said: “I have to tell you, I’m shocked by some of the behaviours and the thinking of the new generation. It takes so much for granted.
“And so much of the argument, so much of the thinking, so much of the newspaper, television commentaries about gender, people identify themselves, and social media, this and that, I’m male, I’m female, I’m transgender, I’m cisgender. It goes on forever, and there is a big fight about who is who.
“It seems like we miss the bigger point.”
US film director Oliver Stone during an interview with the President of Russia Vladimir Putin in the Moscow Kremlin. (Alexei DruzhininTASS via Getty)
He added: “It’s not a healthy culture. Years ago when we were talking about homosexuality, you said that, ‘in Russia we don’t propagate it’… It seems like maybe that’s a sensible law.”
Putin, whose controversial ban on the “propaganda of non‑traditional sexual relations” has been decried on human rights chiefs, responded: “We have a law banning propaganda among minors.
“It is aimed at allowing people to reach maturity and then decide who they are and how they want to live. There are no restrictions at all after this.”
Russia’s anti-LGBT stance violates human rights standards
Stone did not challenge the leader’s claim that there are “no restrictions” on LGBT+ people in Russia, which has been rebuked by the European Court of Human Rights three times in three years for violating the human rights of LGBT+ people.
In the most recent ruling on July 16, the court issued a fine to Russia for blocking the formation of three LGBT+ groups, finding that it had discriminated on the grounds of sexual orientation and violated people’s right to freedom of association.
In its submissions to the court, the Russian government had cited its laws prohibiting “propaganda of non‑traditional sexual relations aimed at minors,” and claimed that the aims of the groups is “contrary to national traditions, to the State family policy and to Russian law, which provided that marriage was the union of a man and a woman with the aim of giving birth and raising children.”
In previous interviews with Stone, Putin has said he’d refuse to shower with a gay man and claimed that it is his “duty” to stop gay people getting married so that people have more babies.
