As many as 1,500 “ideological immigrants,” including 127 Americans, have applied for temporary residence in Russia in the last year.
Two years ago, Derek and DeAnna Huffman were desperate to leave Humble, a suburb of Houston. Their three daughters, they believed, were being brainwashed by public school and mainstream media to support LGBTQ rights. American culture in general no longer offered white people the same opportunities as other races, they said.
The couple yearned to live in a place that shared their “Christian values” and where they “weren’t going to be discriminated against” as white, politically-conservative Christians.
So in March, the Huffmans became the first family to move to a community planned for fellow English-speakers some 30 miles west of Moscow, a project they had been following online run by long-term American expat and former Kremlin-sponsored RT host Tim Kirby. The family is among a small but growing number of Americans who have moved to Russia because the United States, in their opinion, has become too “woke."
It’s funny how often I see a headline like this, then think to myself “now, now, let’s be reasonable and give them the benefit of the doubt because crazy situations happen every day…”
aside: You see, growing up in white conservative christian america, my brain has this old deep conditioning to see people who are different looking or who have different priorities in life than me and think of how stupid/worthless that makes them. I have those neural pathways pretty safely contained, but it’s important to do maintenance.
Anyways, I often think to myself oh hey they aren’t just mind numbingly stupid and surely there’s something else going on. Then I read the details and it’s like every sentence pushes my face closer to my silly optimistic assumptions bellowing “search your feelings, you know it to be true” like some really heavy-handed metaphor about feeling the call of the dark side.
Nah, I guess I do know how stupid they are. But their stupidity isn’t gonna frustrate me into being like them again.
Deep take. Thanks for sharing.
Congratulations, you guys got the illiberal society you dreamed of. Enjoy.
Poor kids, though.
So?
lmfao what is this. i want to know what harm LGBTQ people cause day to day that they were scared and had to leave.
It caused so much trauma that they had to flee their country!
You, maybe or maybe not doing something that you may not talk about, hurt them so badly they gave up their family, life, work, friends, everything to get away from what you might do even if you don’t talk about it.
Welcome to fascism, the next stages get bumpy.
the man who did this, and for his wife to just be ok with it, means they both have batshit insane views of the LGBTQ community. its like when i see the people complain about drag storytime and think they are pedophiles. im sorry but i don’t see the connection. a man, dressed up as a women becuase he feels more comfortable dressing as a women, is somehow a pedophile. i think i missed the nexus event where pedophilia and drag became the same thing, but you know, i dont watch enough fox news or turning point media to get the “truth”
The amount of idiocy demonstrated by the adults in that article is fucking mind-boggling.
One family moved to Russia with only $50K to their name, for their family of 5, and didn’t research the public education requirements for their sons ahead of time.
It tracks that people this fucking stupid would have this level of hate for “non-traditional” relationships.
No way Russia is so uncivilized they don’t speak English, right?
I guess that was their thought process, if there was any at all
Hey, straight up: good fucking riddance. We’ve got enough problems with malignantly idiotic conservatives and racists and fascists. I won’t shed a single tear if they want to move to a (more) authoritarian country.
Spoiler alert: he lives:(
Love that for them!
Aren’t these the kind of people who’d get mad at immigrants in the US if they don’t speak English? Why don’t they learn proper Russian and integrate?
Because it wasn’t ever actually about that, of course.
Cause Jesus spoke English, duh.
/s
Derek Huffman said he joined the Russian army to expedite the family’s applications for Russian citizenship, as well as to show support for their new homeland.
Service guarantees citizenship!
He is doing his part!
He’s losing his parts!
This all sounds like Starship Troopers propaganda lol
Other way around, actually.
Sorry Ukraine - didn’t mean to let our trash blow into your yard.
Please kill him swiftly before he has the chance to do any tangible damage to your nation. May his corpse nourish a few sunflowers.
This belongs to leopardsatemyface, no?
More like “I ate my own face.”
Leopards weren’t that interested in my face, so I moved to a country with hungrier leopards.
For people who didn’t read the whole article, you really should. It touches on the fact that Derek Huffman ended up sent to the front lines in the war against Ukraine, and for a while there were rumors he’d died there.
It also talks about another family that did the same thing and immediately got swindled out of everything, with Russia’s famously corrupt law enforcement doing nothing to help them against the swindler.
I feel horrible for the kids, they get forced to follow their parents mind-boggling stupidity.
Derek and DeAnna on the other hand are adults who thought out, planned, and followed through with their idiocy.
Politics aside; how could you possibly think moving your family to a country that’s actively at war with its immediate neighbor, and struggling to find bodies to throw on the front lines, is even remotely a good idea.
It touches on the fact that Derek Huffman ended up sent to the front lines in the war against Ukraine, and for a while there were rumors he’d died there.
I would genuinely be more surprised to hear they were left to live peacefully.
Imagine leaving Texas because you think it’s too liberal.
Humble is about 45 minutes from the center of Houston. It’s definitely becoming a victim of urban sprawl.
Texas in general is a shithole though that only cares about personal freedom when it’s convenient for business owners.
So funny Christians feel persecuted and like they don’t have personal freedom. They want the Bible in the classroom, 10 commandments on the wall, drag queens to stop performances, and folks with brown skin deported but heaven forbid someone teaches their children they are free to love whomever they want or be whoever they want.
Texas in general is a shithole though that only cares about personal freedom when it’s convenient for business owners.
Is there another version of IRL conservatism?
Yeah, the one where your forced to move to Russia because you don’t have the capital be be an individualist where you spawned
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/09/16/how-religious-is-your-state/
Religious profile of Mississippi
1st most religious state overall
61% (1st) say religion is very important in their lives
54% (1st) say they attend religious services at least monthly
62% (1st) say they pray daily
74% (1st) say they believe in God or a universal spirit with absolute certainty
50% in Mississippi are highly religious, based on an overall scale of religiousness
There was a much easier and better choice than Russia if they wanted to up their “more Christian environment” game.
Meanwhile, only 13% of Russians go to church, mosque, etc. regularly. Religion is not their reason to go there.
Yeah, but the people in the article said the real reason explicitly: LGBT is illegal there.
In the US we still have a lot of first amendment rights and we (all) still have the protection of Lawrence v Texas.
Too many black people in Mississippi. Even if they are religious. Highest amount of African Americans percentage wise in the US.
But that’s the wrong kind of religious.
But Orthodox Christian is fine??
Gather ye by the cursed lake and wasteland.
Plus with Romney, I’m not positive on the whiteness of Mormons.
Illinois being more religious than ohio kinda surprises me
I feel like that’s because Chicago is all people hear of. The rest of Illinois is most definitely not that.
Meanwhile Ohio has the 3CS (Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus) and smaller cities like Akron, Toledo, Dayton, Youngstown, Athens, etc.
Is this the same shit stain who got recruited and then got blown up?
Unfortunately he is still alive. They talk about that misinformation campaign in the article.
