Russia is known for being famously anti-gay—homosexuality was classified as a mental illness until 1999, and in 2013, Vladimir Putin banned symbols that promote "non-traditional values."
Now, thanks to an apparently very crafty political party, there is a new flag just for straight people. Putin's United Russia Party showed off a "straight" flag at a celebration of the Day of Family, Love, and Fidelity (a holiday, by the way, invented to promote getting it on, in the face of Russia's declining birth rate).
"This is our response to same-sex marriage, to this mockery of the concept of the family," said the head of Moscow's United Russia branch.
But if the flag is meant to rival the gay pride flag, it's a bit drab in comparison: the flag shows white cutouts of a man and a woman holding hands with three children on a blue background. Below that are the words "#realfamily" in Russian.
Besides lacking some pizzazz, the flag is also unoriginal—it looks remarkably like the flag for French anti-gay marriage group La Manif Pour Tous, which features two parents holding hands with two kids.
A spokesperson for Stonewall told the Independent, "A #realfamily is not determined by sexual orientation or gender identity, but love. That sentiment is certainly missing from this flag as is, in our opinion, a splash more colour. It’s also another example of how much work we still have left to do to combat homophobic, biphobic and transphobic attitudes and behaviours."
And really boring flag design.
[via the Independent]
