Derek Huffman – a Texas Man in the Severe Twisting of Irony Who fled the US to “protect” his three daughters from what he called “LGBT propaganda.”– He was scam, misused and sent to the forefront of Ukraine by the very government he once idolised.
Huffman moved to Russia in early 2025 with his wife, Diana and young children. Insisting on a more “traditional” lifestyle, he launched the Pro Kremlin YouTube channel Huffman Time, where he praised Russia as a heaven from modern American life and celebrated the hardline stance on gender and sexuality. One of his most audacious claims was that Russia is a safe and moral country.
His fantasy collapsed as quickly as it was built. His story was a moral, One of the hottest things Last week, topics from Ukrainian media outlets.
In May, Huffman signed a contract with the Russian army. This has been reported under the impression that he works in a non-combat role as a welder using propaganda skills. With no military experience, he was relieved to agree with the family and nearby sources of stories that he would not watch combat. Russian authorities sold him as a propaganda asset. The Americans who “see the light” chose Putin’s Russia over what he called the “degenerate” West. I insistedchildren are “indoctrinated with strangeness and porn.”
next I’m lying.
Within weeks, Huffman was deployed to the forefront in languages that he did not understand after receiving military training in Russian. His wife later said the Russian government Forced He “donates” 10,000 rubles for his equipment. Or did she ask violently about his own death?
It is almost impossible to fight in a foreign war without knowing the language and reality of the nation you are serving now. However, unlike immigrants who need to learn Russian and history, Huffman was allowed to settle in the so-called “American village,” a community in the Russian region created by American-born Kremlin propagandist Tim Kirby. Kirby, who promoted the occupation of Crimea and amplified anti-LGBTQ conspiracy theory, claim Americans move to Russia and escape from “oriented” and “LGBT ideology.” However, he speaks little about the real life of Americans living in their new, authoritarian homelands.
The problem isn’t just about individuals like Huffman who are exploited and abandoned.
The real problem lies in the big lie that Russian propagandists are spreading among Americans. It targets anti-LGBTQ audiences in particular. These stories present Russia as a traditional Christian hub –Despite the facts 52% of Russian Orthodox followers, members of the country’s dominant faith, had never even opened the Bible. In reality, most Christian Russians struggle with basic knowledge about their religion, and can convey it as someone who lives in Russia and has believed that there are three gods in Christianity, or who met an adult who doesn’t know who Moses or Noah is.
That’s not necessarily bad, but it does prove how thoroughly Russian propagandists are lying.
These lies are not merely dangerous for Americans moving to Russia. They are dangerous to American democracy itself.
Influential pro-Russian anti-LGBTQ figures like Steve Bannon, former chief strategist of Donald Trump, are openly praise Vladimir Putin about his homophobic policies. Tucker Carlson, former host of Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” also regularly It was drawn LGBTQ people as threats to children. These men do not need to send you to the Russian trench to risk your life. They do it at home, on national television, by normalizing authoritarianism and moral panic.
And it’s all connected. The Huffman story, the creation of an “American Village” and the broader acceptance of Russian-style anti-LGBTQ laws in US political discourse are all part of the same project. A project that appears to be acceptable to Americans, and even desirable, Russian imperialism and authoritarianism.
The project is rooted in neotraditionalist ideology. The framework has been promoted Not by Steve Bannon, but by Russian far-right thinker Alexander Duguin, we believe in rejecting liberal democracy and returning to a rigid, patriarchal, “spiritally pure” civilization. Putin coincided with this worldview, making anti-LGBTQ law one of its centralities. Essentially, they rejected hatred of national identity and understanding of international human rights. In Russia, if you’re different, it’s literally not safe to be on the streets, and people are not equal under the law.
Meanwhile, the Russian state support Despite falsely claiming that far-right movements across Europe and America are “non-polarized” Ukraine. The hypocrisy is phenomenal. The Russian courts will paint the US neo-Nazi and Christian extremists on Ukrainians who defend freedom and family like the Nazis.
That doesn’t mean we’re dealing with plots, but there’s definitely a dangerous cultural tendency out there, and the Magazine makes it even stronger.
And it works for one thing: western naiveness. Too many Americans are disillusioned with their own country’s problems fall into a “moral” anti-Russian myth. But what they find instead is a brutal dictatorship that uses them as pawns.
LGBTQ demonization and anti-Quer moral panic aren’t just about LGBTQ life. This propaganda machine needs to be condemned. It’s spreading in the house not only for life that ruins overseas, but also for corruption.
Source: Washington Blade: LGBTQ News, Politics, LGBTQ Rights, Gay News – www.washingtonblade.com
