Snowden could further save the day, if he were gay.

I thought of a clever status update on facebook,  "I'm glad Snowden is safe now that he has Asylum in Russia, I hope he's not gay," based on the latest news of abuses and hate toward gay people and asylum for Edward Snowden in Russia.  But, before I posted it, I started thinking about Vladimir Putin's actions as of late and decided if Edward Snowden were to come out as gay or say anything that sounded gay-friendly (or if the NSA found some record of him talking on the phone or writing in an email about some homosexual thoughts, feelings, or actions he may have had, he-he) than this would be quite a dilema for Putin and a possible good thing for humanity and relations. I'm not encouraging Snowden necessarily to do it, as he has already sacrificed his career and family life and possibly his own life, to create an escape route out of this corporate consumer fortress constructed by US defense industries.  I don't know if he would have it in him to try and save humanity from the current Russian "straight" jacket.  But if Snowden did decide to take on the gay rights cause in Russia, I don't know if Putin would actually extradite him. I'm starting to think Putin's real motives aren't quite what they seem.

The two top headlines in the news about Putin right now are his approval of a law that forbids saying anything positive about being gay and giving Edward Snowden temporary political asylum.  Meanwhile, in the US, two of the biggest headlines about President Obama are that he has expressed very strong support for gay rights and his fierce condemning of Edward Snowden's whistle blowing.   Putin's exact opposite stances makes me wonder if he really is homophobic and if he really does believe that Snowden deserves asylum or if he's just doing it cause he wants to snub Obama.  

Could it be that Putin's main priority is really to do things to spite the US?  If so, what would he do if Snowden came out as gay or bi-sexual or even just said something in support of gay rigths or something good about being gay?  If he lets Snowden keep his Asylum status in this case, he's supporting a gay rights' stance and if he terminates the asylum status he's saying he doesn't approve of Snowden's whistle blowing.  Either way he'd be agreeing with the US and might have to retract that middle finger sticking up into the Star Spangled Ether.   He would be forced to answer the question, are you ok with Snowden even though he's gay?  His answer would force the issue of gay rights in Russia and force him to either come out as a full-fledged homophope that doesn't care about saving Snowden and the fact that the US wants to set another example of what happens when you undermine their tyranny (ie Bradley Manning, Juian Assange), or break his own law in support of a gay person and US law in order to defend the right of dissent exercised to save the people from their government.  For political reasons, if not humane reasons or both, I like to think he would choose the latter. This would create a situation where Russia would right their wrong on homosexuality in addition to bolstering the current possibile results of Snowden's actions of a full disclosure of the sinisterness of the weapon's industry in the US that could create a sort of rehab for US addiction to war.  If Snowden did this, both countries would have to bury any hatchets starting to rise and they'd end up be on the side of compassion and understanding and be able to work together in the name of human rights and a peaceful future.  I wonder if Snowden or Glen Greenwald has thought of this.  

Foot note - update/correction: This was written before Chelsea Manning publicly came out and changed her name from Bradley.