Broad, K. L., Sara L. Crawley, and Lara Foley.

"Doing 'Real Family Values': The Interpretive

Practice of Families in the GLBT Movement." The Sociological Quarterly. University of
California Press, 2004. Web. 23 Feb. 2015.
The article Doing Real Family Values began with a general summary of the GLBT movement
becoming more active in the United States. More political activist are pushing for a universal bill
to allow same-sex marriage in all 50 states. This cannot happen by the will of congress due to the
massive controversy surrounding the idea. The source then begins to explain the efforts of
PFLAG (Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) in the gay community.
In essence they are an activist group that shows the connection between religious belief
and how those beliefs translate into gay hate. PFLAG describes the ideological battle of the
religious and the LGBTQ as GLBT Equality Rights versus the Religious Right ideology of
Family Values. The Religious Right refers to the hyper-fundamentalist right-wing Christians
on the American political spectrum. The Religious Right have many ways to justify how Family
Values are being degraded and threated.
They begin with television; portrayals of single mothers on TV are viewed as heretical
because of their opinions on marriage. Marriage is to be between one man and one woman, but
when TV displays young women as independent while raising kids, it violates their ideology.
Their ideology continues along the sanctity of marriage by attacking the government for
allowing divorce, despite it being a holy union with your spouse and god. The Religious Right
also bashes the government because it allows sodomy and same-sex marriage to be legal on the
federal level. This threatens their idea of Family Values, since it lets marriage stray away from
being solely about baby-making.
This is where PFLAG steps in by educating people on the rights people ought to have. In
many of their pamphlets and handouts, PFLAG describes a better idea of Real Family Values
with titles such as: We Celebrate Real Family Values, The Family Voice of a Fair America,
Were Here! Were Family! And Were Fabulous! and finally Hate is not a Family Value..
These pamphlets and handouts were used in their 2012 campaign to incorporate the idea of
Same-Sex marriage in the American Value System.
PFLAG makes the effort to say that they are neither based on religious traditions nor on
faith based practices. Which brings my eye onto the Religious Right; what makes their faithbased ideology so superior? Do they believe that since 1/3rd of the world population is Christian,
they can impose their religious agenda on the minority in America?
Cohn, Nate. "Alabama, Where Same-Sex Marriage Remains Deeply Unpopular." The New York
Times. The New York Times, 09 Feb. 2015. Web. 24 Feb. 2015.
Alaska to California, to New Jersey and Maine, to South Carolina to Wyoming, and even
Washington D.C. have now all allowed Same-Sex Marriage into their state boundaries. Allowing
minorities like this to have basic freedoms to unregulated marriage has always been a struggle to
states. In the not too distant past we can see the black minority fighting for much more than

marriage equality, and yet it is the same states that refuse to pass referendum for same-sex
couples as it was for blacks to gain a status of equity.
According to the article, LGBTQ equality is being passed in many of the states. Currently
37 of the 50 states, through popular vote/constitutional amendment/court ruling, allow for
marriage licenses to be distributed to gay couples. While to other states are becoming more
progressive with same-sex marriage, states like Alabama have been highly resistant to progress.
This can be attribute to the high amount of Evangelical Christians in those states opposing such
reform.
The author, Nate Cohn, makes the claim in his article that the states that have passed
supportive LGBTQ bills have a population that is well-educated and live in metropolitan cities.
Those states that have passed antagonizing bills have a less well-educated populace that typically
live in more rural areas. This might make sense to outside observer, but the article makes the
point about North Carolina. North Carolina has a combination of both rural and metropolitan
cities, and in 2012, they held an election on a ban on same-sex marriage. The results were highly
polarized. About an even split down the middle on the bill. I find this incredibly weird; never
have I seen a state so polarized on controversial topics like this. Most southern states are anti-gay
all the way.
Surveys conducted by Pew Research show that same-sex marriage is still a sticky issue
for many evangelical Christians. The survey claims that in 2004 only 11% of the evangelical
Christians supported LGBTQ peoples right to marry. Ten years later, only 21% support our right
to marry. The country on the other hand, show a 54% of all Americans saying Yes to legalizing
same-sex marriage. These statistics show that states with more evangelical Christians will be
more resistant to change in the near future. And while the rest of the country moves on southern
states will let same-sex marriage bans live on for decades.
Gliha, Lori J. "Fearful of Attacks, More LGBT Russians Seeking US Asylum | Al Jazeera
America." More LGBT Russians Seeking US Asylum. Al Jazeera America, 30 Jan. 2015.
Web. 24 Feb. 2015.
This article begins with an interview on America Tonight with Kazakov, a 26 year old gay man
who fled Russia before the passing on the 2013 Anti-Propaganda law. A law which forbade the
LGBTQ community from expressing themselves in public: no kissing, holding hands, or any
other signs of affection. These acts were considered as propaganda by gay people to impose
their views on the rest of the Russian people, especially little kids who were highly
impressionable.
Being gay in Russia is associated with having a mental illness. There is no life [in
Russia] for being gay. Kazakov explains. He goes more in depth by explaining the harsh
treatment he got by other Russian people. They were waiting outside of the club they knew it
was a gay club they asked if we were ashamed to be gay? And then they pounced on me and
repeatedly hit me until they ran off. Kazakov continues to talk about his experience with the
local authorities. The authorities didnt file a criminal record on the case after they found out I
was gaythey said that I should leave the country to go find some help with his issue.

This was the story of Kazakov, until he took the counsel of the local authorities and fled
Russia in hopes of asylum in the United States, were he currently stands as a beacon against
human rights violations.
The article continues with the fact that the local authorities do not collect information on
anti-LGBTQ violence. Thus Russian media cannot really elaborate on the state of their country,
when they have no solid proof to go on.
Austin Ruse, the president of the Center for Family and Human Rights, says that we saw
a huge top-down effort by Russia to disenfranchise the LGBTQ community and condoning
violence against the LGBTQ people