The ‘Gay’ Video American Right Wing Christians Think Russia Went To War Over
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There’s been a lot of Republicans, Fox News anchors, and Donald J. Trump who have tacitly aligned themselves with Russia’s president Vladmir Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine and are basing it on a more tolerant approach to LGBT in the country.
Much of it stems from a 2014 video. Zelenskyy brought much of Ukraine (and Russia) to its knees with a parody version of a song by Ukrainian Europop boy band Kazaky — that had him dancing and winking in heels and a crop top.
Why are some Evangelical Christians and other U.S. right wingers saying this video is reason to hope Russia succeeds in controlling Ukraine? First, they have no idea what they’re watching. Second, they’re so obsessed with hating LGBT people and culture that they’ll readily sacrifice democratic values and ideals of freedom and liberty.
Zelesnkyy made the video because he’s a comedian and it’s hilarious. His crop-top/stiletto video has much more to say than the Kazaky original, and while it oozes queer esthetic, it is not queer — it’s a tongue-in-cheek statement about Ukrainian history and nationalism, influenced by Russia’s threatening posture that led to the annexation of Crimea later in 2014.
What’s the joke? Zelenskyy and his buddies are re-enacting Love by Kazaky. The group’s name is spelled exactly like the Russian word for the Cossacks, a Turkic ethnic group that figures prominently in the history and culture of both Ukraine and Russia.
They aren’t mocking queer people or Kazaky; they’re daring to embrace them and kick their art up a notch, or several notches. Considering background levels of traditional eastern European homophobia, this is brave stuff — hilarious and cutting without feeling the least queerphobic. In less deft hands it might have ended up offending everyone, but most Ukrainians loved it and experienced it as a thumb in the nose to Putin’s ideals of Russian supremacy in the Slavic world.
Check out the video, which recently resurfaced on YouTube.
