Vladimir Putin, in a homophobic move most saw coming, signed Russia’s anti-LGBT propaganda law law in June 2013. The intent of the legislation was in its full title: “the purpose of protecting children.”

In his 2014 documentary “Hunted: The War Against Gays in Russia,” director Ben Steele documents the actual impact of this law: a rise in hate crimes committed against gay Russian citizens. Groups of vigilantes spend hours attempting to lure gay men to a location and videotaping the humiliations they inflict on their victims — with certain horrors specific to Russia. The unspeakable treatment of victims by these vigilantes is thorough. While itself traumatic, the humiliation they inflict on victims is filmed and posted online. This practice is common in Russia because many employers will fire employees once they discover they are gay. Vigilantees know Russian employers are not likely to sympathize with their gay employees because they themselves are probably homophobic.

The fact that the Russian government was not just allowing these attacks but encouraging them by guaranteeing the safety of their perpetrators was terrifying. The Russian police force is particularly complicit in these hate crimes, rarely investigating the origins of these videos or attempting to dismantle the vast vigilante networks. The personal mistreatment of LGBT people by Russian police is so known that one attacker threatened to send his victim to the police. The Putin administration’s active role in the oppression and widespread mistreatment of gay people seemed to warrant some international action.

Many countries did speak out against the law, but primarily because of the potential impact it would have on their athletes participating in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. After the closing ceremonies, however, countries shifted their focus back home and away from the true victims of the law: Russian LGBT people.

Whatever issues Americans still have with the LGBT rights movement, I think most agree that LGBT people do not deserve to be hunted. I also think we would all support some action from our government in telling Vladimir Putin that he cannot treat anybody that way, regardless of sexual orientation.

Though few developed countries have histories of LGBT acceptance, Russia’s is among the most terrible. The worst view of homosexuality, that it is somehow linked to increased instances of pedophilia, is widely held. Pedophilia and homosexuality are not related, and many Americans now understand that connecting them attaches perversion and criminality to homosexuality.

Dealing with Russia is by no means simple. They threaten invasion in all directions and allow the mistreatment of their citizens nationwide. But this is a specific issue that would allow world leaders to demand a specific response from Vladimir Putin, and I am frankly surprised they have yet to.

It’s time the U.S. government, and governments worldwide, start advocating for this as a human rights issue and stop ignoring it because our figure skaters were allowed to participate in a competition.

Joseph Madden is a Weinberg freshman. He can be contacted at [email protected]. If you would like to respond publicly to this column, send a Letter to the Editor to [email protected]. The views expressed in this piece do not necessarily reflect the views of all staff members of The Daily Northwestern.