Russia to ban adoptions to gays worldwide

Firstly, what is the state of the Russian orphanages where the children that are to be adopted are coming from? To be honest I've not had much of an idea up until now. It is appalling and grotesque that a country like Russia could do that to their own children. Perhaps some perspective:

The book follows the life of a young Russian boy born prematurely with some disabilities, and, as a result, is diagnosed as retarded. He is bounced back and forth between the orphanage, an insane asylum and a hospital. Each place is worse than the one before it, and you start to pray that this child will simply die, just to escape the inhumane vile treatment he receives. 

He is confined to one room for his entire first seven years and told to keep silent whenever he tries to speak on his own. He spends most of the day in a high-sided iron crib, lying in his own excrement, screaming himself to sleep. He never learned to walk because his muscles were unable to develop from lying in a crib all day. Instead, he would slither on the floor like a snake when no one was watching, because if he got caught out of his seat at mealtimes, he would be punished. I wouldn't give my pet dog the slop he was fed at mealtime. If the caregivers cited in this book ran a facility like that in America, they would have gone to jail for the cruel treatment they bestowed on these helpless children. more

Book is here:http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Baby-House-Nightmare-Orphanage/dp/0312576978 

And look at this video, but just a note first that some of the images are extremely disturbing. As a parent myself I cried watching it.



And now we have this, from "Alexei Levchenko, a spokesman for Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets"

Russia will ban foreign same-sex couples from adopting Russian children, an official said on Saturday, underscoring a growing rift with the West over gay rights under President Vladimir Putin.

Putin said in April that a French law allowing same-sex marriage went against traditional Russian values and signaled Moscow would take steps to ensure gay couples from abroad did not adopt Russian orphans.

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Rights campaigners say Russian orphanages are rife with criminal violations, including sexual abuse. But Olga Batalina, a lawmaker with the ruling United Russia party, said last week that adoption by same-sex families should not be an option. more

And this from "Russia, Behind the Headlines"

"Work will now be done to explain individual aspects, individual legal standards. There will be a reaction [to last month's French law allowing homosexual marriages and child adoptions by same-sex couples], we must create good, reliable guarantees that this will not extend to our children. It absolutely runs against the rules, the traditions of the people of Russia," Olga Golodets told reporters. more

So, Russian orphans are having their lives destroyed before they've even got a chance, but the sanctimonious leadership of the country is worried about same sex couples adopting them, citing that same sex couples are immoral as far as Russia is concerned.

It's hard to comment about all that now. A bit lost for words. Maybe as the old line goes used against us: "Think of the children".