Russian backlash over transvestite Eurovision winner intensifies

Russian Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky has said it is not within his jurisdiction to ban this year’s Eurovision song contest winner, the Austrian transvestite Conchita Wurst, from performing in Russia. His remarks came in response to a plea from Vitaly Milonov, the politician who initiated the “gay propaganda” law in St Petersburg, to prohibit Wurst from travelling to Russia. A spokesperson from the Ministry of Culture said the department was unable to ban “visits from bearded men or women to Russia”.

Milonov said of Wurst: “This creature of indeterminate gender is an insult to the majority of the Russian population, and any other country in fact. To allow him to enter our country is more than criminal negligence.”

President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party added to the public outcry, with Olga Batalina, the first deputy head of the Duma’s Committee on Family, Women and Children, attributing Wurst’s victory to the “propaganda of non-traditional and gay culture”. She added: “To win at the Eurovision today, it’s not enough to have talent and a good voice. We must also abandon our nature, identity and traditions.”

A number of posts from cultural and political figures on social media have supported Russia’s official stance, with popular Russian rapper Timati among them. Attributing Wurst’s victory to a “mental illness of contemporary society”, he added: “I wouldn’t like one fine day to have to explain to my child why two guys are kissing or a woman is walking around with a dyed beard and that it’s supposed to be normal.” Nationalist politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky also echoed Batalina’s concern, telling state television channel Rossiya-1: “There’s no limit to our outrage. It’s the end of Europe. It has turned wild. They don’t have men and women anymore. They have ‘it’.” Russia gave Wurst five points for his performance, one more point than it awarded Ukraine.

Russia did not make it though the Eurovision contest unscathed. Public displeasure over Russia’s recent political activities were laid bare during the contest over the weekend, with any mention of the country and the Russian Tolmachevy Sisters’ performance met with boos from the audience.

Speaking out against the public backlash, Filipp Kirkorov, a pop singer and producer of Russia’s Eurovision entry this year, has said that Russians should reconsider their homophobic feelings. He said: “Maybe this is a kind of protest against some of our views in Russia. Maybe we should have a think. Maybe we shouldn’t have such a categorical attitude to people of different sexual orientations.”