Homophobia & Intimacy

Russia’s gay rights question has been the most prominent topic in the press this weekend.  In this piece, a BBC reporter offers some insights into the contradictions of Russia’s widespread and popular homophobia, and the intimate experience of sharing a sauna with two fellow (outspokenly anti-gay) hunters.

I can’t help reflecting on the utterly unselfconscious contradiction between Georgy and Yuri’s open celebration of masculinity and manifest enjoyment of male intimacy, and their virulent homophobia.