The LGBT publication The Advocate has named Russia President Vladimir Putin its 2014 “Person of the Year.”
The magazine stated in a press release that Putin’s “crusade against LGBT Russians, and the outrage and protests his actions sparked” earned him the title.
The Advocate added, “Since winning his third term in 2012, Putin has become ever more autocratic, and his antigay ideology ever more extreme. In June 2013, he signed the infamous antigay propaganda bill that criminalizes the ‘distribution of information…aimed at the formation among minor of nontraditional sexual attitudes,’ with nontraditional meaning anything other than heterosexual. Individual violators are fined anywhere between $120 and $150, while NGOs and corporations can incur fines as high as $30,000.
“The prospect of another decade under Putin is devastating. Despite encouraging development such as the International Olympic Committee’s new mandate requiring prospective host cities to sign an antidiscrimination clause, Russia’s LGBT activists report few breakthroughs. What hope they have is precarious and underground.”
The full story is at www.advocate.com/year-review/2014/11/06/advocates-person-year-vladimir-putin.