Stop Judging Our Laws, Look at Yourselves First Before the Mirror – Putin Tells U.S. on Anti-Gay Laws

Three weeks before the opening of the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russian President Vladimir Putin has pounced on critics, particularly American critics opposed to his country's anti-gay laws. He specifically told them to look at themselves in the mirror first before throwing tantrums and verbal shenanigans against Russia.

Appearing before George Stephanopoulos, host of ABC's 'This Week,' Mr Putin said that the American critics of the Russian homosexuality laws seemed to have forgotten how their own country treats members of the LGBT community.

"I'd like to ask our colleagues, my colleagues and friends, that as they try to criticize us, they would do well to set their own house in order first," he said. "I did say, after all, and this is public knowledge, that in some of the states in the U.S., homosexuality remains a felony."

In a separate interview with foreign journalists, the Russian president even claimed the Russian people admires openly gay entertainer Elton John.

"Elton John is an outstanding person [and an] outstanding musician", Mr Putin said. "Millions of our people sincerely love him despite his orientation."

As expected, American opponents of Russia's anti-gay laws won't just remain silent at Mr Putin challenged their country's gay laws.

"Putin's statement is misleading. We rate it False," a column ran by Tampa Bay Times said.

The column, written by PunditFact, admitted that there are several US states that have anti-sodomy laws such as in Texas, Kansas and Oklahoma. Criminal sodomy laws are even applied in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Idaho, Louisiana, Michigan, North Carolina, South Carolina and Utah, it noted.

However, such laws have been overturned and ruled as unconstitutional based on a 2003 Supreme Court ruling that said the Texas law as applied on the Lawrence vs Texas case was an unconstitutional privacy invasion under the country's equal protection clause.

That ruling effectively "invalidated these laws."

And if should the Texas law be enforced, the penalty for violating it is a Class C misdemeanor, "on par with a speeding ticket if it could really be enforced," Dale Carpenter, a University of Minnesota constitutional law professor, said.

View here Mr Putin's interview:

Video Source: YouTube/ ABC News