You may not be aware of this, but Oliver Stone seems to be pretty friendly with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Not only did the filmmaker feature Putin in a recent series titled “The Putin Interviews,” but Stone recently had the chance to interview the Russian leader yet again. But it’s not so much the relationship with Putin that seems to be drawing the ire of fans around the world. Instead, during the interview, folks have said that Stone seemed to agree with a Russian law that many believe to be anti-LGBTQ.
“As you know, I’ve been a rebel all my life. Still am,” said Stone in the interview. “And I have to tell you, I’m shocked by some of the behaviors and the thinking of the new generation. It takes so much for granted.”
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He continued, “And so much of the argument, so much of the thinking, so much of the newspaper, television commentaries about gender, people identify themselves, and social media, this and that, I’m male, I’m female, I’m transgender, I’m cisgender. It goes on forever, and there is a big fight about who is who. It seems like we miss the bigger point.
Putin then responded by saying that American youth “live too well.”
The filmmaker brings up Russia’s controversial stance on LGBTQ people, where the country has outlawed “propaganda” that is aimed at minors.
“We have a law banning [LGBTQ] propaganda among minors,” said Putin.
Stone replied, “Yes, that’s the one I’m talking about. It seems like maybe that’s a sensible law.”
As you might expect, this comment drew a bit of heat for the filmmaker, as some fans called his words offensive to the LGBTQ community. This caused Stone to go to his Facebook page to refute those claims, saying that he’s not anti-gay and in fact, people should watch his film “Alexander” if they want to know how he supports LGBTQ folks.
He wrote:
“As to gay/LGBTQ beliefs in Russia, again much misunderstood. Mr. Putin made himself clear in ‘The Putin Interviews’ — he’s not anti-gay/LGBTQ. Nor am I. Have another look at ’Alexander,’ for which we took a beating in 2004. Beyond the Hephaestion story in the sexuality department, I prominently featured Alexander’s love for the Persian eunuch Bagoas, certainly an example of a third sex and emblematic of Alexander’s world vision, which I much admired. Do not bring American expectations to Russian life any more than you expect Iran, Korea, Venezuela, or China to follow our political or social demands.”
We’ll have to wait and see how fans react to this comment. It would appear that Stone doesn’t feel that his comments were offensive at all, but more talking about the culture of Russia and how he doesn’t see a problem with it.
https://www.facebook.com/TheOliverStone/posts/2601081436582806?__tn__=-R
