Have you heard about the Russian TV channel that is offering to pay for one way plane tickets for LGBT+ people to go and live in America for ever?
Er… if you’re waiting for the witty punchline, you’ll be waiting a while as apparently this is no joke.
As we all know many gay and trans people are living in fear for their lives IN Russia because laws there and in some neighbouring countries encourage hostility towards the community.
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In Chechnya it has been reported that a concentration camp has been set up that houses over 100 gay men who have been taken away from their homes by force, tortured and killed.
The country’s leader has denied these camps exist because there is no such thing as homosexuality in his country.
However, families of gay men have revealed they have been urged by the authorities to out their gay kids and send them away to be dealt with.
Now this religious channel has stepped up to add more fuel to the fire.
Tsargrad TV, which has a history of using homophobic slurs and other offensive terms when discussing LGBT people, announced this week that they would be happy to pay for one-way tickets to America for gay people.
“Just recently California – the most liberal state in the USA, by the way – proposed to facilitate the granting of green cards to Russian perverts,” TV host Andrei Afanasyev said.
“The staff of Tsargrad TV support this initiative.
“Moreover, we are ready to pay for a one-way ticket to anyone who plans to emigrate in complete earnest, and can provide a medical certificate proving that they are sodomites or have other forms of perversion.
“We really want you to move there, where you can openly submit to your sins.”
Afanasyev assured that viewers of the channel, which apparently reaches about a quarter of the Russian population and is viewed as the Russian equivalent of Fox News, is serious in its offer and not trying to criticise gay people and just wanting “to do good”!
Already some desperate folks keen to live a happy life elsewhere have shown interest in the offer.
“It looks like my winning ticket to get out of this frigging country,” one hopeful said. “What should I submit?”
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However, a Russian sex expert told lifestyle website Afisha Daily that people wouldn’t be able to get a ‘medical certificate’ as proof because being gay isn’t actually a disease.
At least someone in Russia is talking sense.