Among the protesters rallying against gay rights this weekend: Russian-speaking evangelicals.
"It's important — a big issue," said Aleksey Borisov, 24, a construction worker who drove all the way from Eastern Washington with several other members of Light of the Gospel, a Slavic Baptist church in Spokane, to participate.The rally was a visible demonstration of the increasingly active role that members of Russian-speaking conservative evangelical churches are playing in marriage and gay-rights issues, including the battle over Referendum 71.
"They've been very helpful," said Larry Stickney, one of the leaders in the campaign to reject R-71. "They're helping us get a lot of literature out — door-to-door or at shopping malls, churches. They're fearless."
- Donny Gallegos
Every time I read about the ease with which "fearless" Russian-speaking evangelicals can be mobilized against gay equality, I think about a hate crime that took place in Seattle in 2004—another election year in which legal recognition of gay relationships was a big, churning issue.
The victim: Micah Painter. The assailants: three young Russian-speaking evangelicals. The explanation offered by one of their friends: "Being gay is against our religion."
