While the liberal media accuse Christians who support traditional marriage of attacking gays, the networks are turning a blind eye to reports from Chechnya of real persecution: gay “concentration camps.”
Since the beginning of April, multiple gay news outlets, the Huffington Post, The New York Times, The Guardian and The Washington Post have followed the story of the “barbaric treatment of gay men in the traditionally conservative Muslim society” of Chechnya. But, surprisingly, the three broadcast networks have kept silent on what some what some outlets call “gay concentration camps.”
Novaya Gazeta, a Russian opposition newspaper, reported April 1 that Chechen authorities had rounded up more than 100 gay men and those suspected of same-sex activity. According to translations by American news outlets, they were subjected to beatings, tortured by electricity and housed in tiny jail cells. Some were even executed.
The networks aren’t holding them accountable either. ABC, CBS and NBC have failed to report the story during their morning and evening news shows. ABC’s silence is especially surprising given that the network’s The View briefly mentioned the news via co-host Sara Haines on April 5.
Even watchdog group Human Rights Watch and the U.S. State Department have condemned the violence, the latter urging “Russian federal authorities to speak out against such practices.”
According to Huffington Post contributor Michael Lucas, an LGBT leader’s attempt to hold gay pride parades in predominantly Muslim areas sparked the recent wave of extremism. Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov is a committed Muslim, Putin’s “fervent ally” and a wielder of violence. Under Kadyrov’s influence, Chechnya has “undergone a striking Islamization,” Wall Street Journal Greater Middle East Columnist Yaroslav Trofimov reported.
Chechen government officials have denied the captures, claiming that gay men are nonexistent. While American activists lament the fact that the 2020 U.S. census will not include questions about LGBT status, Chechen gay men know the real meaning of “erasure.”
“You cannot arrest or repress people who just don’t exist in the republic,” a Kadyrov spokesman, Alvi Karimov, told news agency Interfax. “If such people existed in Chechnya, law enforcement would not have to worry about them, as their own relatives would have sent them to where they could never return,” Karimov said.
Sunni Islam is the predominant religion in Chechnya, and “honor” killings are rampant there. In other words, if the government does not imprison or murder gay men, they may be released to face murder at the hands of their family members.
The networks have remained quiet on this, despite the horrific nature of these atrocities. Journalists have chosen the exact opposite strategy for Christians criticized by LGBT activists.
Liberal media outlets and networks have worked to target Christian bakers and florists in America who, because of their strongly held religious convictions, decline to serve gay weddings. Even reality TV stars Chip and Joanna Gaines, whose pastor delivered a sermon promoting traditional marriage, were subject to media abuse for the mere possibility of being against same-sex unions.
Perceived American violations of LGBT rights pale in comparison to the grievous human rights violations committed against gay people in Russia. It smacks of hypocrisy when the media cover the former and fail to address the latter.
Methodology: MRC Culture searched transcripts from the morning and evening news shows from ABC, CBS and NBC with the term “Chechnya,” from April 1 to the morning of April 11.
