My current favourite TV show is House of Cards. Frank is now president and his wife, Claire, is US Ambassador to the UN. They go to Moscow, in part to try to get a US gay rights activist out of a Russian jail. The Russian president, based on Putin, confides that he knows his anti-gay laws are unjust. He says he has two gay cabinet ministers and a gay nephew. But to stay in power he has to pass the laws that the common people – ignorant and clinging to tradition – want.

He is acting just like Stephen Harper, the Canadian Prime Minister is acting about the niqab (the full Muslim black drape which covers everything but the eyes). A court has ruled that it is OK for people to wear the niqab while taking the public oath of citizenship, after having confirmed their identity by removing the headgear in private with a female official. He is appealing the decision. Why? Because he needs the votes of unsophisticated rural voters in Quebec and he is pandering to their xenophobia.