Homophobic Russian politician wants to protect children from Peppa Pig and South Park

A Russian politician known to have made homophobic comments and hold anti-LGBT views has now taken aim at Peppa Pig and South Park.

The bizarre namedrop of the two animated shows came during a speech given by Russian MP Alexander Khinshtein. In it, he claimed the LGBT culture is a tool of “hybrid war”.

A clip of the speech, including an English translation, was posted on Twitter by BBC Monitoring’s Francis Scarr.

Khinshtein claimed that Russia must protect its “traditional values”, children and society against LGBT people.

Referencing LGBT “propaganda”, he called out the queer book and film Call Me By Your Name, starring actors Timothee Chalamet and Armie Hammer and pointed out that the film has 20 fan groups on the Russian social media platform VKontakte.

He then referred to the cartoon comedy South Park and suggested the school’s chef is a paedophile.

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Next in his sights was the children’s show Peppa Pig. Khinshtein appeared to know the show very well as he picked out a particular scene in which a young polar bear character draws a portrait of her family and says she lives with her two mums.

It’s not the first time that Khinshtein has expressed anti-LGBT views. In July, he was one of many Russian lawmakers to propose that they extend their “gay propaganda” law to all adults.

The “gay propaganda” law was passed in 2013 and has been used to stop gay pride marches and detain gay rights activists. The law also bans the promotion of so-called “non-traditional” sexual relationships to minors.

According to Reuters, Khinshtein wrote on his Telegram channel: “We propose to generally extend the ban on such propaganda regardless of the age of the audience (offline, in the media, on the internet, social networks and online cinemas).”

indy100 has contacted The State Duma for comment.

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