Six U.S. Organizations Voice Support of Russia's Antigay Law

Six American organizations have signed a statement supporting Russia's "gay propaganda law," which criminalizes support of LGBT people and causes in any venue that might be accessible to minors.

The organizations join an international coalition of over 100 conservative groups that have lauded the legislation, claiming in the letter that it "protects innocence and moral formation of children by prohibiting propaganda of 'non-traditional sexual relationships' among them."

The U.S. groups include World Congress of Families, the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, Mission: America, GrasstopsUSA, Population Research Institute, and His Servants, a Christian organization. Larry Jacobs, managing director of the World Congress of Families, claimed the law is instrumental in protecting the health of children.

"All the law does is to prohibit advocacy aimed at involving minors in a lifestyle that would imperil their physical and moral health," Jacobs said in a press release. "Even the U.S. Centers for Disease Control has shown that sexually transmitted diseases, drug use and suicide rates are significantly higher among what it discreetly calls a 'sexual minority.' CDC data also demonstrates that there is much greater health risks among teenagers who practice homosexuality than those who do not engage in homosexual behavior."

The organizations claim their support is in response to activism by LGBT groups, which are leveraging the high profile of the G-20 summit in St. Petersburg to stage an international day of protest today.

Dave Stalling, an activist and former marine, reprimanded the actions of antigay groups in an op-ed published in The Advocate.

"How do these so-called Christians sleep at night?" he questioned. "Are they oblivious to or in denial about or perhaps actually satisfied with the discrimination, intolerance, hate, violence, and suffering to which their words and actions contribute?"