Brian Camenker of MassResistance chatted with Mission America’s Linda Harvey over the weekend to discuss his article about how gay rights activists and athletes will “smuggle pro-LGBT propaganda into Russia” during the Olympics.
The anti-gay activist said he isn’t sure how many athletes would go along with the efforts to protest Russia’s law criminalizing pro-gay rights speech, explaining that gay people aren’t athletes because the “the psychological issues that are going through you in the homosexual lifestyle” undermines their “stability [and] alertness.”
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If you follow sports much you’ll notice there are almost no homosexual athletes in the major sports, certainly not in the professional sports and none that I know of in the college sports except for very, very minor roles. It’s interesting because if you go into any public school you see a large percentage of the teachers, at least where I live, are out homosexuals. I think that, my own analysis of that is that it’s so difficult to become an athlete at that level that the psychological issues that are going through you in the homosexual lifestyle just don’t cut it. Because you just need this very high degree of stability, alertness, everything else, so you see almost no athletes, you know, homosexuals in the professional sports or the high level, football leagues or baseball or anything like that, almost none.
Camenker also told Harvey that he hopes Russian authorities will stop LGBT rights organizers before any demonstrations occur…just as Russian intelligence alerted the US to the Boston bombers. “What I really think will happen is the Russians will do a good enough job of figuring out who is going to do what to stop it beforehand because they don’t want to be embarrassed,” Camenker said. “I’ll bet you they’re smart enough to effectively stop it, they were the ones that figured out the Boston Marathon terrorists were terrorists long before the FBI did.”
Harvey defended Russia’s new anti-gay laws and insisted that no “logical” person would believe such laws are related to the rise in homophobic violence, doubting that such violence is even occurring.
On the other hand, Camenker didn’t doubt that violence directed at gay people in Russia is taking place…but said it is the fault of gay people: “If you’re going to do something that most of the population considers bad or immoral or disgusting in public, you’re going to get a certain reaction. I think that they push that as far as they can and sometimes you just can’t do it.”
Harvey agreed, maintaining that “there’s some provocation going on” from Russia’s gay community, while Camenker said gay couples being affectionate in public and the people who attack them are two sides of the same coin.
“The natural way people react to homosexuality — outside of all the diversity training — is a certain amount of revulsion. So if two men start kissing in the public street, you can expect a certain reaction from people,” Camenker explained. “I think that there is probably a lot of, shall we say, reckless behavior on that side and I’m sure on the other side there’s probably a lot of wanton, running around, just beating people up, which you don’t want to have either.”
He even compared gay-bashing Russians to gay rights advocates in the US, lamenting that American law enforcement doesn’t go after them for all the “horrible things [they do] in public.”
Harvey: They’re maintaining that people that are homosexual, who in anyway display that they are homosexual in Russia are beat up by gangs, do you have any documentation that that is actually happening or that it is actually happening and is not being punished as it ought to be or is just hype by them?
Camenker: Well, it’s hard to say. I would say that a lot of it is probably true. The natural way people react to homosexuality — outside of all the diversity training — is a certain amount of revulsion. So if two men start kissing in the public street, you can expect a certain reaction from people.
Harvey: From certain levels of people, thugs and the people inclined to violence anyway, right?
Camenker: I think that there is probably a lot of, shall we say, reckless behavior on that side and I’m sure on the other side there’s probably a lot of wanton, running around, just beating people up, which you don’t want to have either.
Harvey: And it’s punishable in Russia like it is anywhere else. Of course it is Russia, we’re talking the way they are, so.
Camenker: It’s sort of interesting, apparently in Russia you get away with that but here it is just exactly the opposite, the homosexuals can disrupt churches, they can disrupt anything, they can do all kinds of horrible things in public as they’ve done at events where I’ve been and nothing happens. I would imagine that there probably is some of that and it’s unfortunate.
Harvey: But that doesn’t mean that this is a bad law, it means that this is a law that protects children and that will be a separate issue, and if we were dealing with logical people and a logical movement they will see it as a separate issue if they were being just and fair but they’re not just and fair.
Camenker: And the other thing is, and it even is true here, if you’re going to do something that most of the population considers bad or immoral or disgusting in public, you’re going to get a certain reaction. I think that they push that as far as they can and sometimes you just can’t do it.
Harvey: Right. There’s some provocation going on. Not justifying violence in any way for all of these people listening and wanting to spin this the way they will want to do.
