DISINFO: US embassy promotes sex between minors
SUMMARY
Gay flags appeared on the buildings of American diplomatic missions in many countries, such as Russia, Israel, Latvia, Poland, South Korea, Switzerland, Germany and Italy. Russia responded to this provocative US move by saying that any manifestations of propagating unconventional sexual relations between minors in Russia are unacceptable.
RESPONSE
This disinformation message is consistent with recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives about Western moral decay, as well as imposing on countries values that destroy the moral foundations of traditional societies. The narrative about “threatened values” is adapted to a wide range of topics and typically used to discredit liberal Western attitudes about the rights of women, ethnic and religious minorities and LGBTQ groups, among others. According to this narrative, the “effeminate West” is rotting under the onslaught of decadence, feminism, homosexuality and “political correctness”, while Russia defends traditional family values. The rainbow flag is a symbol of sexual diversity among consenting adults; it has no particular reference to age, and does not in any way advocate for sex with or between minors. In order to defame them, the LGBTQ community has been wrongly associated with pedophilia in the past. GLAAD, an organization that works for acceptance of the LGBTQ community through media, told Reuters: "There is a long-standing, homophobic and transphobic tactic of inaccurately comparing LGBTQ people to pedophiles and being LGBTQ to pedophilia. It’s debased and vile. It pains me to have to clarify that no, the LGBTQ community does not embrace pedophilia".