Author of Russian Anti-LGBT Law: ‘Human Rights Aren’t Everything.’

Russian lawmaker Ivan Nikitchuk thinks giving rights to gay people is like giving rights to someone who wants to “piss in the street.” He believes homosexuality only exists in his country because the West has forced its “demonic desires” into the rest of the world.

And according to him, it’s all part of a larger Western plan that is “corrupting the youth, disorienting us, and plotting to weaken our birth rate.”

That’s why he helped draft a law that would prohibit anyone who is not heterosexual from displaying any affection in public. Hugging and kissing on the street can earn you a fine. Doing it at an “educational or cultural institution”? That would earn you 15 days in jail.  

Co-written by deputies from Russia’s Communist Party, Russia’s lower house of parliament is set to review a draft of the bill next week.

Ahead of that debate, Russian news outlet Meduza published the transcript of a phone interview with Nikitchuk — who wants everyone to know this bill won’t stop “sick and crazy people” from engaging in “you-know-what” at home, just in public places.

And his definition of public places? Anywhere you are not alone.

“Sorry, guys, but this is Russia. This is our country, where we’ve always respected traditions, where we’ve always had and still have today a conscience and the concept of shame,” he said. “And all these bearded men kissing is nothing but nauseating.”

When Meduza correspondent Daniil Turovsky pushed Nikitchuk to explain why he thinks two people in love should be arrested just for holding hands, it was clear the journalist and the lawmaker were not going to find common ground.

“You mean a man loving another man? That’s called love?” Nikitchuk asked.

“Is it so impossible?” Turovsky responded.

“I don’t think it’s possible,” Nikitchuk said. “Decent people won’t accept that. Only sick, perverted people can believe that.”

And don’t even get Nikitchuk started on whether gay rights are human rights.

“Listen, human rights aren’t everything!” he shouted, before making an out-of-the-blue reference to mass sexual assaults that allegedly took place in Cologne, Germany, on New Year’s Eve. “We’ve reached the point of absurdity, when it comes to talking about human rights. This is especially true in the West. Just look at what’s happening in Cologne! Take it in, folks: human rights.”

Before Nikitchuk abruptly hung up on him, Turovsky sought to sum up the lawmaker’s intense reaction to homosexuality. “I’ve come to realize that you think all homosexuals are mentally ill people,” he said.

This time, it was the Duma deputy who shot back with a series of questions:

“And what about you? Are you a normal, decent person?” Nikitchuk asked. “Do you start pitching a tent in your pants every time you see another man? So you can shove it into the guy’s backside? That kind of thing is okay by you?”

Image Credit: OLGA MALTSEVA/AFP/Getty Images