in employment against LGBT people and that the Federal Government currently offers no protections to cover them. Very bad situation. But this does not mean that one excuses the other, nor mitigates the particular injustices of each situation. Anyone who expects to point out the anti gay nature of some law in Alabama as an excuse for an anti gay law elsewhere will be sorely disappointed. The same pro equality activists who speak out against the Russian laws speak out against those State laws, adding Russia to the list was heartbreaking, even the most conservative American States are moving slowly toward equality, these Russian laws are newly made and that is particularly pitiful, to be swimming so hard against the tide of history when other bastions of bigotry are evolving toward better days.
The laws in those States are not really similar to Russian laws as they pertain to bigoted school policy, not to everyday life, arts and culture. But even if they did, two wrongs never ever make a right.
I think some straight people fail to comprehend the international nature of the LGBT community and insist upon imposing oddly nationalistic frames to the entire thing.