Well, this is interesting. All manner of religiously-based organizations are sending love, lots of love, to Russia.

These are same people who used to be rabidly anti-communist, anti-Soviet Union. But now that Putin is fining gays and otherwise agreeing with their anti-gay attitudes, it's all a love fest for Russia.

Ezra Taft Benson is suffering from additional cognitive dissonance as he rolls over in his grave.

Excerpts from news coverage:

"… The latest step drawing praise from social conservatives is a bill signed into law Sunday by President Vladimir Putin that would impose hefty fines for holding gay pride rallies or providing information about the gay community to minors.

… The Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute said it “admires” Russia’s latest anti-gay moves; Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality lauded Russia for rejecting “America’s reckless and decadent promotion of gender confusion”; and the Illinois-based World Congress of Families has scheduled its 2014 conference for the Kremlin.

Stefano Gennarini, another U.S. activist at the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, was asked about Russia’s proposed fine on gay couples showing public displays of affection. He responded that “$155 is hardly unmanageable for homosexuals who want to kiss in public.” …

And then, of course, there’s evangelical activist Scott Lively.

If Lively’s name sounds familiar, it’s probably because of his work in Uganda, where he brags he is known as the “father” of the anti-gay movements. When Uganda took up a “Kill the Gays” bill, proponents said it arose out of an anti-gay conference that Lively headlined in 2009. Earlier this year, the Washington Post reported that Lively has spent the last decade working “systematically to strip away human rights protections from LGBT people” around the world, becoming “a kind of persecution consultant, strategizing with influential leaders and cohorts in other countries about ways to further silence and remove LGBT people from basic protections of the law.”

And wouldn’t you know it, Lively conducted a 50-city speaking tour of Russia in 2007, where he recommended the very measures Russia is now pursuing. From the AP report:

“Russia could become a model pro-family society,” he wrote. “If this were to occur, I believe people from the West would begin to emigrate to Russia in the same way that Russians used to emigrate to the United States and Europe.” [...]"

The New York Times, The Maddow Blog, The Guardian (UK), CBS News, the Huffington Post, and many others are covering this news. I don't see coverage from Utah news yet.

Whoops, I meant ETB, not "EZT" in the subject line of the OP.

The reference was meant to be Ezra Taft Benson -- thinking about all the anti-commie history that Steve Benson supplied regarding Prophet/Seer/Revelator grandpa Ezra.

The Russian government hates gays for a different reason that US christians. The Russian government doesnt want "gayism" to spread because homosexual couples dont reproduce. Russia fears a crisis because not enough of its citizens are reproducing. That is also why they are literally paying women to give birth to first, second, and third babies.