June 25th, 2013
Courtesy of Galley Friend B.F., we have this LA Times op-ed on Russia’s demographic crunch, by Patricia Herlihy.
She goes over Russia’s new super-conservative, family-values program, which has been instituted to help make more babies: Divorce and abortion are being actively discouraged. Same-sex marriage? Forget it. Even same-sex sex is being looked at unfavorably:
The state also is ramping up an anti-homosexuality campaign, with plans to commission artwork promoting “traditional moral and spiritual family values,” declared Sergei Ivanov, the Kremlin’s chief of staff. And last week, the Duma passed a bill banning “propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations” by a vote of 436 to 0.
So the country which gave us this is now to the right of Pat Robertson. Awesome.
Anyway, Herlihy goes on to make the perfectly sensible argument that if Russia is going really move the demographic needle, it needs to address its massive public health failures, especially concerning alcohol. She’s spot on. It’s a great piece. Right up until the last graph, which closes thusly:
And if, to put forth another long-shot idea, same-sex couples were allowed to wed, some of those Russian orphans that Americans are forbidden to adopt, who lie languishing in orphanages, might find loving, nurturing families.
I would bet the milk money that this kicker was foisted on Herlihy by an editor at the LAT. Because The Most Important Subject in the World will solve everything; even demographic failure.
Dave S. June 25, 2013 at 5:08 pm
That is quite a leap from “long-shot”, “some” and “might” to “solve everything.” More to the point, do you disagree with the premise?
Herlihy is an emerita professor at Brown. I’ll buy in to the stereotype and suggest no foisting was necessary. In any case, it hardly stands out from the rest of the op-ed. You make it sound like there is a record scratch between the rest of the op-ed and the close.