Homophobia, as a Policy, Gets Personal

Intolerance of gays and lesbians worldwide seems to be digging in, as the public and private lives of homosexuals come under fire from Oregon to Russia and South-Central Asia. In Portland, two teenage girls who hugged and kissed on a bus were forced off the vehicle after a passenger complained to the driver. The city transit agency says it’s against policy to eject young people from a bus; the girls’ parents may file their own complaint about the incident. In Russia, Orthodox Christian groups plan on holding prayer meetings and patrols in a popular meeting venue for Moscow gays and lesbians. This follows assaults on a gay rights demonstration in the Russian capital in which police let the perpetrators go and arrested the protestors instead.