I have no desire, no urge, no fiber among all the fibers of my being (and there’s a lot) to burn anyone alive (I will admit, in my darker moments, to thinking violent thoughts.  Who doesn’t? It’s human.  But my thoughts stop there. I don’t wish harm on anyone, and I have no desire to bring harm to others).  Sadly, there are humans who not only wish violence on others, they want to be the ones who perpetrate those acts of violence. Russian actor, screenwriter, and director Ivan Okhlobystin is one such person. 

Last year, in front of a packed audience, Okhlobystin stated “I myself, would shove all live gays into a furnace”.

A popular Russian actor who starred in a TV sitcom similar to “Scrubs” told a packed audience that he would be happy to burn all living gay people alive, by himself. “I myself would shove all live gays into [a] furnace,” Ivan Okhlobystin (image, above) told his audience in Novosibirsk, Russia’s third-largest city. “This is Sodom and Gomorrah, I as a beliver in God can not treat this indifferently, this is a live threat to my kids!” “I do not want my kids to think that faggots are normal,” Okhlobystin, who is 47 and a member of the Russian Orthodox Church and a former Russian Orthodox priest, said, according to Queer Russia. “This is lavender fascism. If a person can not choose someone of an opposite sex for procreation – this is an overt sign of mental abnormality, so they should be denied voting rights.” Attendees, according to Russian news site NEWS.NG.ru paid up to 2500 rubles — about $76 U.S. dollars — to hear the actor, director, writer, and one-time presidential candidate speak in what was billed as “Spiritual Discussions.”

(I wonder how he would react if he had a child who was LGBT. Would he throw them into a furnace? I’m sure he thinks he could never have an LGBT child, so its probably not even crossed his mind.)

There is so much to unpack here. From Okhlobystin’s belief that homosexuality is somehow harmful to children, to the belief that fighting for LGBT equality is fascism, it is clear he has no respect for human rights, nor a grasp of human sexuality. Homosexuality is not a mental abnormality (and even if it were an abnormality, that still wouldn’t be grounds to deny LGBT people the right to vote). It is a healthy, natural expression of human sexuality, which is far more expansive than Okhlobystin understands. His point about ‘choosing someone of the opposite sex for procreation’ is just bizarre. It reduces human relationships, so often founded on love, mutual respect, and a desire to spend life together…down to fucking for babies. A lot of people want to have children. A lot of people don’t want to have children. But even among both groups, there are people who enter into romantic relationships because they enjoy being a specific person. They want to build a relationship with that person.  And every adult should be free to pursue any consensual relationship they choose.  That is one of the most basic of human rights, and Okhlobystin would deny LGBT people that right. Simply because he believes his god is repulsed by two women kissing. His virulent homophobia is right at home with the culture of bigotry cultivated by Russian President Putin.

Not content to remain ignorant about human sexuality, it appears Okhlobystin wants to showcase his ignorance about basic human biology and epidemiology (admittedly, this isn’t something a lay person would necessarily know about, but it’s not too difficult to click the ON button on a computer and Google your way to some basic knowledge):

Okhlobystin, who served as a Russian Orthodox priest before being suspended from the Church at his own request in 2010, is notorious for his vocal intolerance of Russia’s LGBT community and his provocative statements on other topics.

Last week he suggested that some victims of the Ebola virus were turning into zombies, explaining that he had heard of many cases in which those who died from the virus were mysteriously resurrected several days later. In case there was any doubt, the actor added that he “was not joking” and that he had purchased a crossbow, “just in case.”

I wonder if he’s familiar with the term ‘credulous’?