Our LGBT kindred in Russia, after the Winter Olympics in Sochi

I know it's been a while since I blogged, but I've been very very busy. However, here's something I think we need to be aware of.


If you're truly committed to helping LGBT Russians, you may want to consider how many you'll be able to take in after the Winter Olympics are over. 

Yep, that's what I said, take in. Vlad tipped his hand before the Olympics by supporting legislation outlawing homosexuality in Russia, and between the police and the hate groups, the LGBT community there very well may see a pogrom of epic proportions executed against them. 

I spent 14 years in special operations intelligence with a focus on the Soviet Union. I speak Russian. I've been to Russia. They hate gays and lesbians! They merely dislike Jews, but they hateLGBT people. 

Russia is huge. There are already prisons scattered throughout central Russia and Siberia that would take very little to be turned into prison labor - or extermination - camps. Basically, modern day concentration camps or gulags. Russians have a history of dealing harshly with those who oppose authority or who go against the grain. 

This is a pot that I've watched simmer since I was a soldier and it was still the USSR. The fall of the Berlin Wall, the break-up of the Soviet Union, and "democratization" - as such as it exists there - have kept the focus off LGBT issues and the real hatred a-bubble right under the surface. It took very little for it to boil over, though.

Post-Sochi, the best these folks can hope for is for Putin to denounce violence against gays. Putin is well respected among the Russians and they'll pay a certain amount of attention to his demands, but that's only if he requires this. Frankly, he probably won't. 

When Adolf Hitler began his persecution of homosexuals, Jews, and foreigners, he began with gays. All of those he sought to suppress needed to flee the country as even hiding would do no good once the pervasive cloud of Naziism took hold. Other nations reached out to Jews and foreigners, but then, as now, no one reached out to gays (or lesbians, bisexuals, or transgendered).

If others won't, who will? Will we be the new Germans, those who turn aside when they see their neighbors oppressed, or will we step up and say 'not only no, but HELL NO? 

Electronic activism won't do a damned thing for the LGBT community in Russia after the Olympics, if things should go sideways; the Russians don't give a damn what people do on Facebook and Vlad damn sure doesn't care. 

There may soon come a time when we - WE - will be called upon to open our wallets and our homes and not merely our gadgets. There may come a time when WE become the partisans who find it necessary to create an Underground Railroad for our sisters and brothers in Russia. Will we? Will we step up and say 'count me in', or will we scroll past that TowleRoad item and look for a slightly less disturbing article?

Well, I'll go on the record here, and now:  Count ME in! My home and my resources will be open to help. I hope that a peaceful solution can be achieved, but I give it almost zero chance.

Be vigilant, because when it starts, it will go like wildfire. One thing about having so many former military members, as Russia does, is that they know how to assault an objective and overwhelm it. They're actively organizing, even now, so they're already ready to attack. 

The Soviets kicked off invasions of both Poland and Czechoslovakia with single-word radio transmissions. My point is, violence against our brothers and sisters could happen at any time, like a lightning strike.

Let's not let the worst happen.

Female Complacence and the Rise of Bro Culture, Bromance, and DL Sex: Why Your BF Has Sex With Guys

What follows is a response to a thought-provoking piece on Daily Beast, found here:

 I think the cold, emotionless approach to casual heterosexual sex that many young women engage in is partially responsible for the rise in heterosexual males who seek the company of other males, whether hetero-, bi-, or homosexual. 

I see a direct correlation between the rise in heterosexual males' dissatisfaction with their opposite-sex hookups and the increase in "bro culture" and "bromance", but taking it even further, in the geometric increase in the number of males willing to accept, and sometimes even actively seek out, companionship with gay men. I see that many or even most of these relationships are usually on the DL, occur late at night, most often at the gay male's home, and are initiated either online or with mobile apps designed specifically for the purpose, and in which both parties are satisfied sexually and emotionally. That satisfaction may be to a minor degree as in a hookup where the straight male doesn't feel like he's going to get kicked out as soon as he orgasms, or even to more intense emotional affairs that might go on for months, or even years.

Because of this, I have come to the opinion, and I stress that's what this is, that there may be good cause to view as different sexual identity and sexual preference. That is to say that while many males who have sex with other males may still consider themselves straight, their actual preference may have migrated to homosexual contact, not only because they find the sex more fulfilling, but because of the mutual enjoyment, they feel generally desirable, and actually, specifically desired. 

That said, even in the most casual of hookups, usually for oral sex, the straight male may find it easier to orgasm, zip up, and walk out without fear of having to engage in making excuses for leaving so abruptly, often by prior agreement that nothing but sex will come out of it. Due to the gay male's sexuality, the straight male might view their contact clinically and emotionlessly, whereas with any female with whom he would hookup, he may feel that he runs the risk of becoming attracted.

I base my beliefs here on personal observations of the relationships my fellow gay males have with straight and bisexual guys, and on my own experiences with the same. I have had two 5+ year relationships with self-professed-straight males - one while I served in the US Army with a fellow soldier - and once since.