NOBODY on DU is pro-Putin...nobody here ever has been.

[Bluenorthwest]

87. You should try speaking for yourself and only yourself. My other advice is this: do not

assume that support for LGBT rights 'goes without saying'. It does not go without saying, not everyone here is supportive and there are others who might claim to be but who would gladly excuse anti gay horrors if it advanced some agenda they saw as 'really important'. If you spoke for yourself, it would be more convincing. If you did not claim all the important things that need to be said 'go without saying' you'd be more convincing.
Your post says 'It goes without saying, but....' So you won't even actually say it. You type around it. And it leads directly to a 'but'. Exempting that support.
I have had people on DU call me a 'red baiter' and say that I 'hate the entire Russian people' because I criticized the anti gay laws. So do not fucking tell me everybody or everyone. Speak for your own damn self, and actually speak. None of this 'goes without saying but' bullshit.
And also, stop preaching at LGBT people that you, as a Straight person, know how we should be advocating for ourselves. Your advocacy is unspoken, goes without saying, so it is exactly the same as no advocacy at all.
If those anti gay laws were targeting a racial group, you would not so casually dismiss them. 'Of course apartheid is terrible, but is South Africa really BAD? Does the US, a former slave nation, have moral authority to criticize them?'
Imagine.