Russia at it again

[stickygirl]

I despair. Russia is run by crooks for thugs to do whatever the fuck they want

http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2013/07/26/russia-gay-teenagers-tortured-and-made-to-come-out-on-video-by-militant-anti-paedophilia-group/

 

[oggbashan]

There is a campaign among UK's gay community to boycott all genuinely Russian Vodka. As non-Gays are also joining the boycott, at least one of the Russian Vodka producers is getting worried, issuing a statement that they support the Gay community - in the UK.

I would boycott Russian Vodka too, but I don't drink vodka.

 

[Safe_Bet]

I despair. Russia is run by crooks for thugs to do whatever the fuck they want

http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2013/07/26/russia-gay-teenagers-tortured-and-made-to-come-out-on-video-by-militant-anti-paedophilia-group/

I don't despair. I hate. BOY do I hate right now!

 

[mkav21]

I despair. Russia is run by crooks for thugs to do whatever the fuck they want

http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2013/07/26/russia-gay-teenagers-tortured-and-made-to-come-out-on-video-by-militant-anti-paedophilia-group/

That's seriously fucked up! And I HATE that they're smiling.
Is there anything that can be done?

 

[Wolfman1982]

Well, if you check the main page of reddit, and its sub reddit that called LGBT reddit You can see an article which shows. That even Russian politicians (actually a lawmaker) goes into some serious messed up homophobic business.

http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/...est-gay-athletes-tourists-olympic-games300713

 

[Etoile]

/r/lgbt is kind of a hellhole due to wild mods. /r/ainbow is much friendlier.

I'm kinda thinking that lawmaker is full of shit, though. Olympic athletes do not have diplomatic immunity, but they are considered official representatives of their nations, and it would cause a very big stir if they were arrested during the Games. Spectators have no such protections, but the athletes do, and I think the IOC would implement sanctions against Russia if they were to arrest athletes.

 

[Wolfman1982]

/r/lgbt is kind of a hellhole due to wild mods. /r/ainbow is much friendlier.

I have known about /r/ainbow, since rmuser did a foul up. When she used a custom title that said "literally Hitler". Yes I am fully aware of one of the videos I have in my signature (Gender ambiguity: Do's and don't's ) is of rmuser, but other than that, then rmuser can do what ever rmuser does.

I'm kinda thinking that lawmaker is full of shit, though. Olympic athletes do not have diplomatic immunity, but they are considered official representatives of their nations, and it would cause a very big stir if they were arrested during the Games. Spectators have no such protections, but the athletes do, and I think the IOC would implement sanctions against Russia if they were to arrest athletes.

We can only wait and see, what will happen in that area.

 

[oggbashan]

The boycott of Russian Vodka is diversifying.

Mr Joseph is one of over 63,000 people backing an online petition urging sponsors of next year's Winter Olympics to condemn anti-gay laws.

Targeted at major sponsors, including Coca-Cola, Panasonic, Visa, Samsung and Procter & Gamble, the petition says: "State sponsored homophobia should not be endorsed by your company. Tell Putin you do not support imprisoning and endangering the freedoms of gay athletes, fans, family, friends, and citizens!"

Meanwhile, more than 1,300 people have signed up on Facebook for a gay rights protest outside London's Russian embassy on August 10.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/russian-vodka-boycott-gay-clubs-join-protest-222041214.html#NF6NsvA

 

[stickygirl]

Thanks for that Oggi. I've signed a couple of petitions including one at change.org though, confusingly, there is more than one
As a side note when I visited Moscow last summer, my host insisted I travel in boy mode until I'd at least cleared the airport. I don't dress very femme anyway so I just skipped make up and walked slouchy. I'm only just applying for my updated passport. I wouldn't travel there now

 

[BiBunny]

I'm all for boycotting Russian vodka. Not Stoli, though, 'cause it ain't Russian! It's actually made in Latvia. (Not that I drink vodka anymore, but just FYI.)

The Terrible, Bad, No-Good Plan To Boycott Stoli Vodka

 

[Safe_Bet]

Mr Joseph is one of over 63,000 people backing an online petition urging sponsors of next year's Winter Olympics to condemn anti-gay laws.

Targeted at major sponsors, including Coca-Cola, Panasonic, Visa, Samsung and Procter & Gamble, the petition says: "State sponsored homophobia should not be endorsed by your company. Tell Putin you do not support imprisoning and endangering the freedoms of gay athletes, fans, family, friends, and citizens!"

Meanwhile, more than 1,300 people have signed up on Facebook for a gay rights protest outside London's Russian embassy on August 10.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/russian-vodka-boycott-gay-clubs-join-protest-222041214.html#NF6NsvA

Yeah, THAT had a big effect...

*

MOSCOW (AP)
Russia will enforce a new law cracking down on gay rights activism when it hosts international athletes and fans during the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, the country's sports minister said Thursday, appearing to contradict assurances to the contrary from the International Olympic Committee.
http://msn.foxsports.com/olympics/story/russia-will-enforce-antigay-law-during-sochi-olympics-080113

 

[dianebutterfly]

How awful!

 

[oggbashan]

There was a campaign to boycott the 1980 Moscow Olympics because of Russia's war in Afghanistan. That is ironic now.

From Wiki:
Led by the United States, 65 countries boycotted the games because of the Soviet war in Afghanistan, though some athletes from some of the boycotting countries participated in the games, under the Olympic Flag. This prompted the Soviet-led boycott of the 1984 Summer Olympics.

Even though social media has improved dramatically since 1980, I can't see a boycott being effective. It didn't work in 1980. It didn't work for the Munich Games of 1936.

For Olympic competitors the real problem is that for most of them they will be at their best level of performance for one Olympic Games only. If they boycott an Olympic Games, their chance to demonstrate their ability could be gone for life.

 

[Wolfman1982]

Back in 1995 Denmark began a "boycott" of French wine, because of their nuclear test beneath an island. And well around here French wine, has not recuperated from that action. Heck people even poured out French wine (on TV). Thanks to that stupid nuclear test that they made. So in theory boycotting Russian made vodka could actually work.

 

[Safe_Bet]

Back in 1995 Denmark began a "boycott" of French wine, because of their nuclear test beneath an island. And well around here French wine, has not recuperated from that action. Heck people even poured out French wine (on TV). Thanks to that stupid nuclear test that they made. So in theory boycotting Russian made vodka could actually work.

Oh, okay! Then that certainly applies to the REST of the known world!

 

[Wolfman1982]

Oh, okay! Then that certainly applies to the REST of the known world!

I only said: In theory. Cause 5.6 million people is not a lot on global scale. Since one metropolis in any other country will probably have around that number of people in it.

 

[seamus221]

That sounds a lot like what's going on in DC these days!
Russia its very heterosexual friendly and respects family choices!
Way to go Russia!

 

[stickygirl]

That sounds a lot like what's going on in DC these days!
Russia its very heterosexual friendly and respects family choices!
Way to go Russia!

I too am heterosexual friendly and respect family choices, but I respect individual choices as well, including choices over sexuality and gender. If you don't agree with that then you support interfering in other people's personal affairs, lives and loves and that makes you a less of a man. However if you're posting in GLBT with those views simply to provoke and anger then you'll just fail: we get shit like that everyday for real so don't waste your time here. I assume you're just bored

 

[Wolfman1982]

Personally I think it is horrible with all that homophobia going on, I personally do not get it.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Russia its very heterosexual friendly and respects family choices!

Bullshit. Most gay folk have heterosexual parents. By my understanding, if those parents choose to stand up and say "my kid is gay and that's OK" in Russia, they can be jailed for "homosexual propaganda".

It's only "heterosexual friendly" for people who think heterosexuality is the only acceptable option. Most all of my straight friends would be violating Russian law if they discussed their views on homosexuality.

It only "respects family choices" if you think "family" is something that only happens to straight people - hell, even Oscar Wilde had two kids! - and "choices" means "as long as you choose homophobia".

 

[Etoile]

However if you're posting in GLBT with those views simply to provoke and anger then you'll just fail: we get shit like that everyday for real so don't waste your time here. I assume you're just bored

Yeah, Trolly McTrollersons there.

 

[Wolfman1982]

An Open Letter to David Cameron and the IOC

http://www.stephenfry.com/2013/08/07/an-open-letter-to-david-cameron-and-the-ioc/

By Stephen Fry

August 7th, 2013

Dear Prime Minister, M Rogge, Lord Coe and Members of the International Olympic Committee,

I write in the earnest hope that all those with a love of sport and the Olympic spirit will consider the stain on the Five Rings that occurred when the 1936 Berlin Olympics proceeded under the exultant aegis of a tyrant who had passed into law, two years earlier, an act which singled out for special persecution a minority whose only crime was the accident of their birth. In his case he banned Jews from academic tenure or public office, he made sure that the police turned a blind eye to any beatings, thefts or humiliations afflicted on them, he burned and banned books written by them. He claimed they “polluted” the purity and tradition of what it was to be German, that they were a threat to the state, to the children and the future of the Reich. He blamed them simultaneously for the mutually exclusive crimes of Communism and for the controlling of international capital and banks. He blamed them for ruining the culture with their liberalism and difference. The Olympic movement at that time paid precisely no attention to this evil and proceeded with the notorious Berlin Olympiad, which provided a stage for a gleeful Führer and only increased his status at home and abroad. It gave him confidence. All historians are agreed on that. What he did with that confidence we all know.

Putin is eerily repeating this insane crime, only this time against LGBT Russians. Beatings, murders and humiliations are ignored by the police. Any defence or sane discussion of homosexuality is against the law. Any statement, for example, that Tchaikovsky was gay and that his art and life reflects this sexuality and are an inspiration to other gay artists would be punishable by imprisonment. It is simply not enough to say that gay Olympians may or may not be safe in their village. The IOC absolutely must take a firm stance on behalf of the shared humanity it is supposed to represent against the barbaric, fascist law that Putin has pushed through the Duma. Let us not forget that Olympic events used not only to be athletic, they used to include cultural competitions. Let us realise that in fact, sport is cultural. It does not exist in a bubble outside society or politics. The idea that sport and politics don’t connect is worse than disingenuous, worse than stupid. It is wickedly, wilfully wrong. Everyone knows politics interconnects with everything for “politics” is simply the Greek for “to do with the people”.

An absolute ban on the Russian Winter Olympics of 2014 on Sochi is simply essential. Stage them elsewhere in Utah, Lillyhammer, anywhere you like. At all costs Putin cannot be seen to have the approval of the civilised world.

He is making scapegoats of gay people, just as Hitler did Jews. He cannot be allowed to get away with it. I know whereof I speak. I have visited Russia, stood up to the political deputy who introduced the first of these laws, in his city of St Petersburg. I looked into the face of the man and, on camera, tried to reason with him, counter him, make him understand what he was doing. All I saw reflected back at me was what Hannah Arendt called, so memorably, “the banality of evil.” A stupid man, but like so many tyrants, one with an instinct of how to exploit a disaffected people by finding scapegoats. Putin may not be quite as oafish and stupid as Deputy Milonov but his instincts are the same. He may claim that the “values” of Russia are not the “values” of the West, but this is absolutely in opposition to Peter the Great’s philosophy, and against the hopes of millions of Russians, those not in the grip of that toxic mix of shaven headed thuggery and bigoted religion, those who are agonised by the rolling back of democracy and the formation of a new autocracy in the motherland that has suffered so much (and whose music, literature and drama, incidentally I love so passionately).

I am gay. I am a Jew. My mother lost over a dozen of her family to Hitler’s anti-Semitism. Every time in Russia (and it is constantly) a gay teenager is forced into suicide, a lesbian “correctively” raped, gay men and women beaten to death by neo-Nazi thugs while the Russian police stand idly by, the world is diminished and I for one, weep anew at seeing history repeat itself.

“All that is needed for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing,” so wrote Edmund Burke. Are you, the men and women of the IOC going to be those “good” who allow evil to triumph?

The Summer Olympics of 2012 were one of the most glorious moments of my life and the life of my country. For there to be a Russian Winter Olympics would stain the movement forever and wipe away any of that glory. The Five Rings would finally be forever smeared, besmirched and ruined in the eyes of the civilised world.

I am begging you to resist the pressures of pragmatism, of money, of the oily cowardice of diplomats and to stand up resolutely and proudly for humanity the world over, as your movement is pledged to do. Wave your Olympic flag with pride as we gay men and women wave our Rainbow flag with pride. Be brave enough to live up to the oaths and protocols of your movement, which I remind you of verbatim below.

Rule 4 Cooperate with the competent public or private organisations and authorities in the endeavour to place sport at the service of humanity and thereby to promote peace

Rule 6: Act against any form of discrimination affecting the Olympic Movement

Rule 15 Encourage and support initiatives blending sport with culture and education

I especially appeal to you, Prime Minister, a man for whom I have the utmost respect. As the leader of a party I have for almost all of my life opposed and instinctively disliked, you showed a determined, passionate and clearly honest commitment to LGBT rights and helped push gay marriage through both houses of our parliament in the teeth of vehement opposition from so many of your own side. For that I will always admire you, whatever other differences may lie between us. In the end I believe you know when a thing is wrong or right. Please act on that instinct now.

Yours in desperate hope for humanity

Stephen Fry

Stephen Fry rocks big time, and I really enjoy him as the host of his show QI.

 

[stickygirl]

Shout it from the rooftops worldwide. Thank God for people like Stephen

 

[Wolfman1982]

Shout it from the rooftops worldwide. Thank God for people like Stephen

Yeah, I totally agree with you

 

[Safe_Bet]

Okay HERE is my take on it:

As much as I might LIKE to see an Olympic boycott happen it won't.

Lets be realistic - MY government is a bunch of immoral, unethical civil/woman's/LGBT/human rights abusing war criminals **ahem**, so Obama ain't about to do shit other than wag his finger (while spying on everybody).

The other governments (UK, France, Germany, China, Italy, etc.) give about as much of a rat's ass about human rights as Obama does.

EVERY LAST ONE OF THESE BASTARDS is wholly owned by the 1%-er oligarchy. It's not to the 1%-ers financial advantage to have boycotts... so.... governments just don't do them (and their freakin handpuppets like Obama mouth inane phrases that "man 'splain" why" it is to our benefit.


So... seeing as how we ARE going to the Olympics, I say, GO IN FUCKING STYLE!

I'm talking about:

...rainbow colored uniforms...

...with LGBT flag capes...

...EVERY competitor states openly that they are LGBTIQA (even if they aren't!)...

...Every male Olympic medalist throws a "kiss and a wink" at Putin!...

...Every female Olympic medalist throws a "kiss and a wink" at Putin's wife...

...Every FAN should not watch the coverage (with the exception of the awards presentations)...


(and did you not the above colors my brothas & sisthas???)



What the hell are they going to do? Arrest EVERY member of EVERY Olympic delegation? Kick down our doors and MAKE us watch NBC???


Seeing as how this is going to happen ANYWAYS it should be shown to be the mockery that it truly is!