RICHARD ENGEL (HOST): Being lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender in Russia is not technically illegal, but police officers have long used any excuse to crack down. In 2013, they got a new weapon. Under the guise of protecting children, Russia passed the so-called “gay propaganda” law, which made it illegal to promote non-traditional relationships. The wording was vague. The effect was not. The law unleashed a wave of abuse according to the Center for Independent Social Research. Hate crimes against LGBT people nearly doubled immediately after it was passed.
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The law was a step back into the dark ages, but what's even more disturbing to some is that an American went to Moscow to support it.
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ENGEL: You testified in front of the Russian parliament, the Duma.
BRIAN BROWN (WORLD CONGRESS OF FAMILIES PRESIDENT): It was a subcommittee, and I was asked to speak, and I willingly did. And I would do so again.
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ENGEL: Brian Brown is president of the World Congress of Families.
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ENGEL: Why would an organization of American Christian conservatives be in Russia helping Russian lawmakers craft legislation for their country?
BROWN: There's absolutely nothing wrong with it, and Russia is not in any way unique here. I've been to over 40 countries, and I have no qualms about going to these places.
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ENGEL: But Brown's organization does have a unique connection to Russia. It was conceived in Moscow in 1995 by an American, Allan Carlson, and a Russian, Anatoly Antonov, who we recently met up with.
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ANATOLY ANTONOV (WORLD CONGRESS OF FAMILIES CO-FOUNDER): We came from different countries, different political systems. I was from the communist Soviet Union, and he was from anti-communist America.
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ENGEL: What this secular Russian and the American evangelical Christian shared was a belief that homosexuals are a threat to society.
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ANTONOV: Homosexuality is a physiological deviation. It will never become the behavioral norm.
BROWN: Of course we don't support same-sex marriage. That's a part of who we are.
