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LGBT-Friendly Coloring Books for Russians

Categories: Eastern & Central Europe, Russia, Citizen Media, Education, LGBTQ+, Youth, Olympics, RuNet Echo

Activists from the LGBT equality T-shirt company FCKH8.com [1] are planning to send 10,000 copies of a pro-gay coloring book titled “Misha and His Two Mothers” to families with children in Moscow and Sochi, prior to the 2014 Winter Olympics. The book's core message, captured by the catchphrase “Gay Is Okay!” (Гей – окей!), is to let children know that being gay is not criminal. Writing in the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda, Angelina Galanina condemned [2] [ru] the coloring book as “propaganda.” RuNet reactions have ranged from the vitriolic [3] to the measured [4] [ru]. LiveJournal user kolyaka [4] [ru] quipped: 

Так примерно во времена железного занавеса к нам проникала запретная литература, тлетворная музыка и даже библии в СССР забрасывали. Как относиться к подобной раскраске? Не знаю.

This is roughly how banned literature, dangerous music, and even the Bible reached us in the days of the Iron Curtain and flooded the USSR. What to make of such a coloring book? I don't know.

fckh8.com's new Russian-English coloring book. T-shirt reads, “Gay is okay!”