http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._N._Taber
[Update April 24 2017]: A conversation with a Russian born gay woman married to an Englishman recently confirmed how, tragically, many basic freedoms are being denied in Russia. New laws brought in by Vladimir Putin's government in 2013 have targeted basic human rights.
The result is a Russia where people are increasingly gagged from talking about their political beliefs, stopped from expressing their gender and sexual identity, and banned from involvement with any non-governmental rights groups.]
As regular readers may recall, I had a Russian boyfriend some years ago if only for a short while. He was studying in London and we kept in touch after he returned to Russia, but only briefly and I never heard from him again. Hopefully, he has been able to live the life and love of his first choice unlike so many gay people worldwide who - for one reason or another - have felt obliged to settle for second best. There re too many gay men and women all over the world having to live in fear simply for a sexuality that is as much a natural part of them as any limb.
February is LGBT History Month in the UK (October in the United States) and I have published several poems on the blog in an effort to show solidarity with gay readers worldwide living - as I did as a teenager and young man - in a predominantly gay-unfriendly society. Even here in the West, though, while society may, on the whole, be less anti-gay, homophobia remains very much alive and kicking if more closeted due to legislation in defence of political correctness.
LGBT History Month is also as good a way as any of getting across to the less enlightened heterosexual what it means to be gay, a good excuse - if excuse were needed - for schools and parents to discuss the subject sensitively and intelligently with older children and young people. Unfortunately, too few parents or schools (ever) do this, thereby - if only by default – allowing misleading and offensive stereotypes still attached to gay boys and girls, men and women, to spread (worldwide) unchallenged and unchecked.
Bigotry and prejudice are, by their very nature, reluctant to get real. We can but remain hopeful that the 21st century,as it progresses, will eventually leave a more positive impression about gay people upon even those majorities across the world where gay and other significant minorities continue to suffer various socio-cultural-religious injustices.
This poem is a villanelle.
SOFTLY, SOFTLY, SEXUALITY... or GAY IN MOSCOW
In the shadow of the Kremlin,
eager for public debate,
Russia’s gay men and women
Still (by many) considered a sin,
same sex lovers date
in the shadow of the Kremlin
Where politics rarely lets us in,
human rights running late,
Russia’s gay men and women
G-A-Y asking society to listen,
unafraid to talk straight
in the shadow of the Kremlin
Subjected to various injustices
approved by the state,
Russia’s gay men and women
Hypocrisy, demanding religion
take Putin’s part…
In the shadow of the Kremlin,
Russia’s gay men and women
Copyright R. N. Taber 2016
[Update April 24 2017]: A conversation with a Russian born gay woman married to an Englishman recently confirmed how, tragically, many basic freedoms are being denied in Russia. New laws brought in by Vladimir Putin's government in 2013 have targeted basic human rights.
The result is a Russia where people are increasingly gagged from talking about their political beliefs, stopped from expressing their gender and sexual identity, and banned from involvement with any non-governmental rights groups.]
As regular readers may recall, I had a Russian boyfriend some years ago if only for a short while. He was studying in London and we kept in touch after he returned to Russia, but only briefly and I never heard from him again. Hopefully, he has been able to live the life and love of his first choice unlike so many gay people worldwide who - for one reason or another - have felt obliged to settle for second best. There re too many gay men and women all over the world having to live in fear simply for a sexuality that is as much a natural part of them as any limb.
February is LGBT History Month in the UK (October in the United States) and I have published several poems on the blog in an effort to show solidarity with gay readers worldwide living - as I did as a teenager and young man - in a predominantly gay-unfriendly society. Even here in the West, though, while society may, on the whole, be less anti-gay, homophobia remains very much alive and kicking if more closeted due to legislation in defence of political correctness.
LGBT History Month is also as good a way as any of getting across to the less enlightened heterosexual what it means to be gay, a good excuse - if excuse were needed - for schools and parents to discuss the subject sensitively and intelligently with older children and young people. Unfortunately, too few parents or schools (ever) do this, thereby - if only by default – allowing misleading and offensive stereotypes still attached to gay boys and girls, men and women, to spread (worldwide) unchallenged and unchecked.
Bigotry and prejudice are, by their very nature, reluctant to get real. We can but remain hopeful that the 21st century,as it progresses, will eventually leave a more positive impression about gay people upon even those majorities across the world where gay and other significant minorities continue to suffer various socio-cultural-religious injustices.
This poem is a villanelle.
SOFTLY, SOFTLY, SEXUALITY... or GAY IN MOSCOW
In the shadow of the Kremlin,
eager for public debate,
Russia’s gay men and women
Still (by many) considered a sin,
same sex lovers date
in the shadow of the Kremlin
Where politics rarely lets us in,
human rights running late,
Russia’s gay men and women
G-A-Y asking society to listen,
unafraid to talk straight
in the shadow of the Kremlin
Subjected to various injustices
approved by the state,
Russia’s gay men and women
Hypocrisy, demanding religion
take Putin’s part…
In the shadow of the Kremlin,
Russia’s gay men and women
Copyright R. N. Taber 2016
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