Friday, April 24, 2015

Blog #10: Russian court rejects complaint from gay teacher fired for ‘immoral’ behaviour




Summary:

In Russia, a teacher’s photo was released all over the Russian social media due to an anti-gay activist from St. Petersburg releasing it on his profile along with the name of the individual and their place of employment. The teacher intended for this photo of her kissing another woman to remain private, as she made the photo inaccessible to the public. Somehow the photo got into the wrong hands, and with this, the release of this photo began to spread awareness to the parents, of the children who attend the school, of the teacher’s personal sexual life. With awareness of the sexual orientation of the teacher came complaint after complaint from the parents as well as eventual dismissal of the teacher. With reason of dismissal from the teaching position being discrimination of sexual orientation, one would assume that the court would be on the professor’s side, but this was not the case. The Russian court rejected the teacher’s complaint and the teacher is facing the consequences of being different from the dominant culture.  

Analysis:

This article is an interesting representation about how socialization can negatively impact an individual and the group they are a part of. It seems that people tend to be more accepting of homosexual relationships and acts based off how the laws are constructed and enforced. In this article particularly, Human rights groups have blamed a Russian law against “gay propaganda” or the increasing rate of homophobia Russia and I would have to agree. If a country is against a certain behavior, in this case homosexual behavior, they construct societies that reflect their beliefs. Laws and the addition of laws show where the country is heading to. Russia started off not approving of homosexuals and their practices and by enforcing more laws that prohibit the development and expansion of homosexuality, there are going to be more homosexuals “in the closet” as well as develop a society that discriminates homosexuality.

Karen Bent
April 24th 2015
1:52PM


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