Russian Man Tortured To Death In Homophobic Hate Crime

A tragic case of homophobic violence has surfaced in Russia this past week, and many gay rights activists are pointing their fingers at the government as much as they are at anyone else.

It is reported that this past Friday in Volgograd, a 23-year-old man was drinking with two of his friends when he revealed to them that he was homosexual.  Those men, a 22-year-old and a 27-year-old, proceeded to mercilessly torture the man, eventually killing him.

The man received lacerations to his genitalia and was also sodomized by several beer bottles. Eventually he was abandoned and left unconscious on the ground, but his attackers soon returned because they feared he would awake and call the cops. The men then bashed his skull in with a stone multiple times, killing him and leaving the body almost unrecognizable.

"This monstrous incident in Volgograd demonstrates the fruits of the homophobic policy that is being conducted in this country, including the initiative to ban homosexual propaganda," said LGBTQI activist, Nikolai Alexeye.

Alexeye is referring to third-term President Putin's recent policy of conservative values that many believe has instilled a climate of homophobia in the nation. A law was recently passed that made the spread of "homosexual propaganda" illegal, further alienating homosexuals from the general populace.

"Slapping a taboo on many aspects of human sexuality is a great way to build a dysfunctional society impregnated with hatred and is used both by Putin and Muslim extremists," outspoken anti-Kremlin observer Yulia Latynina wrote in opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta.

Some have even gone so far as to claim that the government is principally to blame for this horrific hate crime.

"I am wondering whether those State Duma deputies who... are now adopting a law against homosexual propaganda realize that these beer bottles have essentially been planted by them?" film critic Alexander Timofeevsky said on Facebook.