Virulent anti-gay movement on the rise globally

Sanhita SinhaRoy October 17, 2007

A group calling itself the Watchmen on the Walls has built a following on the U.S. West Coast, mainly among Russian- and Ukrainian-speaking evangelical immigrants from the former Soviet Union. The Southern Poverty Law Center reports that the Watchmen have surfaced in California’s Sacramento Valley, and its members are increasingly active in several other gay-friendly cities, including Seattle and Portland, Ore.As the Southern Poverty Law Center's Casey Sanchez writes:Scott Lively [of the anti-gay Oregon Citizens Alliance] identifies "the enemy" as not only homosexuals, but also what he terms "homosexualists," a category that includes anyone, regardless of sexual orientation, who "actively promotes homosexuality as morally and socially equivalent to heterosexuality as a basis for social policy."A sad by-product: anti-immigrant sentiments are growing in these areas, especially against Russian and Slavic immigrants.

Before you go

Reader donations, many as small as just $5, are what fund the work of writers like this—and keep our content free and accessible to everyone. But when donations slow down, it puts our future reporting at risk. To get back on track, we're aiming to add 400 contributions from readers by the end of the month.

It only takes a minute to donate. Will you chip in before the deadline?

Donate

Sanhita SinhaRoy, managing editor of American Libraries magazine, is a former managing editor of In These Times and a former copy editor of Playboy. (Yes, she did read it for the articles.)