Putin Gay Update- Other People Are Noticing Now!

There's a joke going round this week:

People seem shocked that

1. Nelson Mandela died aged 95.
2. Tom Daley is gay.
3. England probably won't win the World Cup.

I'm thinking of becoming a fortune teller.

If anything Vladimir Putin's sexuality is more obvious than Tom Daley's was, but a biographer of the Russian president has noticed what I pointed out several years ago:

Author Stanislav Belkovsky claims Putin’s macho man image is a PR invention and his alleged affair with the gymnast Alina Kabaeva was made up.
In the book, Putin, Belkovsky adds: “Sex and a sex life to him are alien.”
He also speculates that Putin, famed for his topless wilderness shots, is “latently gay”.

I wouldn't go on about it, except for the obvious links with his anti-gay policies.

Putin Pics

Yeah, he's still quite gay:

He isn't only playing doctor though, he's also an adorable sailor:

First pic via Julia the 2nd one seen at Harry's Place.

Truly Vladly Deeply

Texas teacher with 'man crush' on Vladimir Putin granted rare interview

Move along, nothing to see.

Putin Gayness Update

I've decided to lay off the speculation about Vladimir Putin's sexuality for a while. After all only a vigourously heterosexual man would be so concerned with getting millions of Russian women up the duff.

So here is a nice picture of Vlad enjoying a day out with some bikers:

Hat tip to Mark Wadsworth

Man Crush

Tough-guy Putin calls DiCaprio 'a real man'

This does not surprise me at all.

Genuine Conversation

This is a conversation I had with a younger friend a month or so ago:

Her: I don't like Gays

Me: Er.... but you have sex with other women, or have done in the past, isn't that a bit gay?

Her: That's different.

Women & Minorities Hardest Hit

One of those pompous group letters from all the usual suspects appears in the Guardian today denouncing the government's spending cuts. They appear to play what must be the full house of victimhood poker:

The £11bn welfare cuts, rise in VAT to 20%, and 25% reductions across government departments target the most vulnerable – disabled people, single parents, those on housing benefit, black and other ethnic minority communities, students, migrant workers, LGBT people and pensioners.

What I'm wondering is in what sense the budgets targets LGBT people, if anyone knows please let me know in the comments. Come to that if anyone knows how black and other enthnic minority communities are especially affected then feel free to elaborate.

Oooh He's So Butch.

In the comments below Yaffle points out more evidence for the "Putin is Gay" casefile:



No doubt further picture will emerge of Vlad the Impaler attending events dressed as a cowboy, a Red Indian and a builder.

Putin: Still Quite Gay

Going on a date with a Hollywood bachelor to watch men getting sweaty. Yep he's still gay.

Teenage Lesbians Stripped....

.... of the right to go to a dance.

I've seen a lot of comment on this story:

A teenager's battle to be allowed to take her girlfriend to her school prom has divided America.

Constance McMillen has filed a lawsuit asking a judge to order the dance to go ahead after her school cancelled it rather than let the same-sex couple attend.

It seems to me that most people who have opined about the matter are just sticking to their preconceived notions.

I'm not like that, when I see a story I actually do some research before sharing my opinion, so I'm going to be googling for "teenage lesbians" for a few moments before commenting.

..

...

This is actually taking longer than I anticipated, I'll be back later.

Labour: Still Not Big On Free Speech.

I see the government remains as authoritarian and contemptuous of freedom now as it has been for the last ten years:

Ministers have admitted defeat in their efforts to remove a "free speech" defence from new laws against inciting homophobic hatred.

MPs have voted four times to scrap it but it has been repeatedly overturned in the Lords, who again last night voted by 179 to 135 to keep it.

Supporters of the bill argued that it was intended to target rare and extreme cases, but as we have all too frequently seen the intended target of a bill is something of a distraction. In fact the police have been used to harass people for their views on the matter even in the absence of any actual law and it is difficult to see how that could fail to get worse if there was such a law.

Execute Homosexuals- Say Labour's European Allies

The Liberal Conspiracy blog has been banging on about the Tories shocking links to eeeevil homophobic MEP's who are going to pass 'Section 28' style legislation in Lithuania. They seem to think that Baltic gay rights a real game changer in a British election, bless 'em.

Rather amusingly the Lib Dem's Foreign spokesman Ed Davey has also denounced the Tories for this, despite the fact that his own party's European allies are in the same governing coalition that is enacting the law.

Anyway how do Labour's European allies compare to the Tories on the whole gay thing, for example what is the opinion of their Russian allies in the Council of Europe, the Liberal Democratic party headed by Vladimir Zhirinovsky?:

Deputy Speaker Vladimir Zhirinovsky has called for the death penalty for homosexuals

I await the official Lib Con denouncement in 10...9....8....

Vladimir & His Life Partner.

To return to one of this blog's most familiar themes*, the glaring obvious homosexuality of Vladimir Putin, here is a link to a photo gallery of him and Dmitri Medvedev.

{via the Agitator}

* I don't know whether I was kicked off the meme, but if you google "Putin" "Gay" then this blog is the 4th most popular result, and all the higher ranked results are more recent.

I'm So Sorry That People In The Past Weren't As Morally Worthy As Myself.

One of the reason apologising for historic wrongs is usually a bad idea is that there is often a very strong subtext of self congratulation masquerading as regret, comparing the moral failings of others and contrasting it with one's own enlightened and modern sensibilities.

I say subtext but in Gordon Brown's clunking fist it just becomes text, as today's apology to Alan Turing who died over half a century ago:

I am very proud to say: we're sorry, you deserved so much better.

How can you be sorry and proud at the same time? There is nothing for Gordon Brown to be sorry for, he isn't responsible for something that happened when he was a toddler. Equally he has nothing to be proud of, the treatment of Alan Turing was disgraceful and tragic but that applies to a lot of events in history why feel proud simply because we live in an era with slightly different moral codes than that which existed at other times?

Historic apologies are just an excuse for sanctimonious moral preening.

{via Plato}

Does Parliament Lead Or Follow Public Opinion?

Benjamin Disraeli once said something along the lines of "I am their leader, I must follow them". This seems more likely than the idea that the public follows the lead of the political class.

Oliver Kamm writes about a survey showing increased public acceptance of homosexuality:

Acts of Parliament turned out to be important in changing public attitudes. Given that Labour is shortly to lose office in a big way, it's worth noting what the Government has done to eradicate discrimination against homosexuals.

I don't think it is true that Acts of Parliament have been important in changing public attitudes because the exact same trends have occurred in every other Western country in the last 30 years. The World Values Survey asks the question " Is Homosexuality justifiable" and the numbers who think it is never justified have fallen steadily in every comparable country to Great Britain over that time scale (except Italy):




So unless the same processes have occured in all countries it looks to me more as though Acts of Parliament have been as a result of changes in underlying public opinion and not vice versa.

As Disraeli said

Told You So.

Putin likes a big juicy sausage. I'm not sure why this is news I've been going on about it for almost a year.

Putin Still Gay.

I pointed this out months ago, to the chagrin of some*, but now the Sun have also noticed that Vladimir Putin is gayer than Liberace ice skating to Village People in a tutu.



* I quote- "A couple of months ago, the individual who blogs at 'Unenlightened Commentary' wrote what I think was meant to be a satirical piece concerning Vladimir Putin's sexuality.". Nope not satire, just a response to the ever more ludicrous propaganda emanating from the Kremlin, shooting a tiger for fuck's sake!

Great Moments In Sociology.

On another blog I've been having a discussion about the gayness or otherwise of American Football with reference to this study that claims that one in three American Football players had had gay experiences. The sample used might be considered to be somewhat unrepresentitive but the sociologist in question doesn't think so:

He said the study was not biased by talking to sportsmen who were now cheerleaders

No of course not....

Unlikely Statistic Of The Week.

Teenagers who watch Sex in the City [sic], Friends and other TV shows featuring sex scenes and discussions of sex are far more likely to get pregnant or get someone else pregnant than their peers

Ok I'm just about prepared to accept that teenage girls who watch Sex & the City are more likely to get pregnant. However it seems unlikely that teenage boys who watch it are more likely to get someone pregnant. Gay sex does not result in pregnancy.

Is Putin Gay?

I saw Vladimir Putin on the ITV news grappling with a fit young man supposedly practiscing Judo. This is the latest in a long line of publicity stunts by the Russian dictator that seek to make him appear more manly.

• Shooting a tiger, with a TV crew coincidentally on hand to capture the moment.
• Being photographed strolling around bare chested on holiday.
• Having rumours spread that he is going out with a much younger woman.

I can think of two possible reasons for this, as a short, slightly built, middle aged man who has only ever worked as a bureaucrat he is desperate to appear more like action man or secondly he is in the closet. When you combine the rather desperate attempts to be more masculine with other aspects of his life, such as:

• his membership of the KGB (MI-6 famously attracted a lot of homosexuals so I'd guess the same dynamic is true for the KGB).
• Surrounding himself with young male advisers, including the Ken doll lookalike who succeeded him as president.
• Holidaying with Prince Albert of Monaco, who is widely rumoured to be gay.

I'm not saying he definitely is gay and it doesn't bother me if he is, although being a mass murdering dictator does bother me, but it explains a lot. It might also be why he doesn't want a free press to operate in Russia.

Update : In the comments Alison points to Vladimir's rather flamboyant aesthetic tastes. It's very Elton John like.