Your AM Russian gay Olympic implosion update

The morning news roundup about Russia’s crackdown on its gay and trans citizens, and the global backlash against the Sochi Olympics.

FIFA soccer body asks Russia to clarify anti-gay law.

The International Olympic Committee would prefer that gays remain closeted during the Olympics, or they may kick you out.

MSNBC: “Since Putin’s re-election in 2012, over 5,000 people have been arrested in more than 200 protests over anti-gay laws, according to figures from Amnesty International.”

You can always count on the self-loathing Log Cabin Republicans, who have been entirely absent from this entire controversy, to now say something idiotic after the rest of us just spent two weeks blowing the entire issue up in the media worldwide:

“People can dump out as many gallons of vodka in the streets as they want, but when it comes to achieving realistic change in Russia, we are at a time of strategizing right now,” said Gregory T. Angelo, executive director of the Log Cabin Republicans, a GOP-focused LGBT advocacy group. “Right now this is up to the State Department and the IOC. The State Department needs to present to the American public its plan to protect LGBT athletes, but the onus really needs to be on the IOC.

The vodka protest won’t work? Already has, Gregory.  Or don’t they have newspapers over at the self-hating closet-club?

Canadian gold medalist says he’d sit out Olympics if that’s what the team decided.

Sister Cities are cutting ties with Russia.

US distance runner breaks Russian law by speaking out against anti-gay legislation in Moscow:

US middle distance runner Nick Symmonds dedicated his 800-meter silver medal at the world athletics championships Tuesday to his gay and lesbian friends back home, becoming the first athlete to openly criticize Russia’s controversial anti-gay law on the country’s soil.

“As much as I can speak out about it, I believe that all humans deserve equality as however God made them,” he told R-Sport after running a 1:43.55 at Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium. “Whether you’re gay, straight, black, white, we all deserve the same rights. If there’s anything I can do to champion the cause and further it, I will, shy of getting arrested.”

Voice of America on the anti-Russian backlash that’s been created by Russia’s gay-bashing.

Eight horrific stories of being gay in Russia.

Former US Olympian Johnny Weir is starting to make better statements about standing up to Russia’s anti-gay law.

Strike that. Johnny Weir is still an idiot:

“But people in the United States right now are focused so much on attacking Russia and they’re kind of losing the point of attacking this law as opposed to attacking Russia as a nation. For me as an athlete and somebody who has trained and lived and performed and loved Russia for so long, it’s heart breaking that my community is being so suppressed inside a country I love so much that I could be suppressed in a country I love so much and that this Olympics, this thing that we train every single day for, bleed, blood, sweat and tears, It could end in disaster for people like me that could be arrested simply for wearing the wrong costume.”

He almost gets it right, then has to screw it up.  Yes, Johnny, we’re the ones losing the point, when you’ve been providing cover for these people for months with your false equivalencies.  I’m sorry, I meant you’re providing cover for these laws – it’s not about the Russian people, who overwhelmingly support these laws and hate our/your guts.

Russia steps up raids against migrants, puts them in camps.  But remember what Johnny Weir said, it’s just that one law, they’re really nice people otherwise.

TIME: Pressure builds on NBC for its Olympic coverage:

In other words, gay athletes and fans can be seen at the Olympics, just not heard. The law puts behavioral restrictions on a targeted group of people. It discriminates.

 John Aravosis
@aravosis | Facebook | Google+. Editor of AMERICAblog, joint JD/MSFS from Georgetown, worked in the US Senate, World Bank, Children's Defense Fund, and as a stringer for the Economist. A frequent TV pundit, he has been on The O'Reilly Factor, Hardball, World News Tonight, Nightline & Reliable Sources. Full bio and article archive.

Weekly: Recap top stories, occasional action alerts.

Daily: Get each day's posts in one email.

Read more »

Oodles of Russian Olympic news today – it’s out of control, here’s a summary

I’m staggered by the amount of “news” there is this morning about the Russian Olympics, and the backlash the Russian government is feeling over its crackdown on its gay and trans citizens, and it’s ongoing threats to arrest Olympic athletes, guests and media during the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

I figured it might be useful to simply list, and link, to the more important stories.  There are a ton.

 

International Olympic Committee may do Russia’s dirty work for it, sanctioning athletes that promote “gay propaganda.”
A second senior International Olympic Committee member expresses concern with Russia’s anti-gay crackdown.
US Senator Schumer: Putin is a bully, nations should wave rainbow flags during Olympic opening ceremony.
Two German cabinet ministers accuse Putin of leading Russia into a “flawless dictatorship.”
Irish concern grows over Russian clampdown.

Canada to favor refugee claims from gay Russian.
France’s Sports Minister is “worried” about Russian anti-gay law.
Limbaugh, right-wing hate groups, defend Russia.
Belgian’s stage kiss-in in front of Russian consulate.
California state senators want freeze on state retirement fund investment in Russia.
NYT: Gays in Russia find no haven
Representative of America’s lead anti-”gay marriage” group praises Russian anti-gay law.

Russian member of parliament calls British actor, and human rights advocate, Stephen Fry “a sick person,” mocks Fry’s admission that he attempted suicide last year. (I had initially embedded the BBC’s interview, but as the BBC apparently thinks the year is still 1998, and videos should auto-play on landing on a page, I’ve removed it. You can still find it via the link.)

 John Aravosis
@aravosis | Facebook | Google+. Editor of AMERICAblog, joint JD/MSFS from Georgetown, worked in the US Senate, World Bank, Children's Defense Fund, and as a stringer for the Economist. A frequent TV pundit, he has been on The O'Reilly Factor, Hardball, World News Tonight, Nightline & Reliable Sources. Full bio and article archive.

Weekly: Recap top stories, occasional action alerts.

Daily: Get each day's posts in one email.

Read more »

Russian embassy sidewalk in Stockholm painted rainbow by activists

I saw, flying around Twitter last night, a claim that activists in Sweden had painted the sidewalk in front of the Russian Embassy in Stockholm in the colors of the rainbow, to protest Russia’s draconian crackdown on its gay and trans citizens.

I checked in with my resident Swedes, and it’s confirmed real, it’s been in the Swedish press for a few days.

Below is the photo of the embassy being passed around Twitter. Some are crediting Claes Betsholtz for the photo – his Facebook account does show that he posted this photo via mobile on Saturday, so looks like it might in fact be his.

It’s really nice to see how involved so many people from all over the world have gotten in this issue in only the past two weeks since the vodka boycott was announced.  In many ways, this entire issue has moved far beyond a vodka boycott.  Focus has shifted, significantly, towards the safety of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, something that neither the International Olympic Committee (IOC) nor Russia itself can guarantee with any confidence.

(Having said that, there’s really no excuse for Stolichnaya vodka, and its parent corp SPI Group, to refuse to include trans people in its non-discrimination policy – but it is refusing. Keep in mind that Stoli and SPI didn’t even include gays in their non-discrimination policy until a week or so ago when Mike Signorile asked the company CEO about it.  We also learned during the Signorile interview that Stoli and SPI don’t appear to grant gay partner benefits, or trans health benefits either.  When you don’t offer benefits, and don’t even include us in your non-discrimination policy, you’re hardly a paragon of LGBT corporate virtue.  That’s to say that Stoli is not even close to off the hook here.)

As I wrote last week, boycotts aren’t about the thing itself.  They’re about a larger goal, and the boycott is simply a means towards that ends.

In this case, the goal of the campaign is not to destroy Russian vodka makers, or even necessarily harm them (meaning, I’m agnostic on whether they suffer financial pain from the boycott).  The point of the action was to galvanize world attention, both media and grassroots, on the deplorable situation in Russia after the issue had languished for years.  It’s now no longer languishing, with actions popping up in country after country, the media practically tripping over its to find new angles to the story, with governments around the world now weighing in, including President Obama himself, and with the IOC showing what appears to be legitimate concern about the threat that increasing Russian human rights abuses pose to the viability of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.

All that in two weeks, after two years of not so much other than the occasional news story.

That per se is the definition of a successful boycott.

The crosswalk outside of Stockholm’s Russian Embassy has been painted Rainbow in protest of Russia’s anti-gay laws. pic.twitter.com/7UPn3V6k0S

— Adam Bouska (@bouska) August 11, 2013

 John Aravosis
@aravosis | Facebook | Google+. Editor of AMERICAblog, joint JD/MSFS from Georgetown, worked in the US Senate, World Bank, Children's Defense Fund, and as a stringer for the Economist. A frequent TV pundit, he has been on The O'Reilly Factor, Hardball, World News Tonight, Nightline & Reliable Sources. Full bio and article archive.

Weekly: Recap top stories, occasional action alerts.

Daily: Get each day's posts in one email.

Read more »

Senior Russian sports official: No one wants gay naked Nazis at the Olympics

It’s like shooting fish in a barrel. I’m almost feeling sorry for the Russian government at this point.  It simply can’t help itself.

The latest numbskull to shoot himself in the foot is Russia’s World Cup Chief, Alexey Sorokin.

In an interview with World Football Insider, Sorokin, while defending Russia’s draconian new anti-gay law, compared gays to Nazis, and then went on about how no one wants naked gay people running around the Olympics.  Sorokin also invoked the too-smart-by-half lie about the anti-gay law that I talked about yesterday.

Russian World Cup head, and FIFA rep, Alexey Sorokin.

First off, Sorokin tried to claim that the law doesn’t ban gay people, it just bans “gay propaganda.”  Of course, what do the Russians consider gay propaganda?  A gay Olympic athlete showing up at an official Olympic event with his husband.

Then Sorokin went off on some weird tangent about how no one wants a “World Cup where naked people are running around displaying their homosexuality.” I don’t know about you, but I think I might enjoy that.  Though I’m not entirely sure what this has to do with gay people.

And then came the Nazi comparison.

“The Olympics and World Cup are not a stage for various views… not for Nazis, not for any other ways of life.”

Of course, the irony is that the Russian authorities have no problem with Nazis, so long as they’re kidnapping gay teenagers and torturing them.

Finally, Sorokin pulled the “we’re not going to arrest anyone, unless of course we arrest them” argument that the Russians have been making for a while now.

Sorokin said Russia had given assurances from high-level government officials that the law would not affect athletes or fans “unless someone intends to be actively involved in the propaganda of this”.

“They have nothing more to fear. They have guarantees and assurances that they will not be affected. The minister of sport [Vitaly Mutko] has given a full and detailed explanation.

Mutko was our other Russian foot-in-mouth friend, who was the first to spill the beans that the Russians planned to jail Olympic athletes, guests and media.  Then yesterday, the Russian Interior Ministry confirmed what Mutko had been saying all along, that the Russians would jail any Olympic athletes, fans, or media who violate its terrifyingly-vague anti-gay “propaganda” law.

Back to Sorokin.  Did you catch what he did there?  Sorokin claims that athletes and fans to Russian sporting events like the World Cup and the Sochi Olympic won’t be affected by the new anti-gay propaganda law, unless of course, Sorokin add, foreign athletes and fans violate the anti-gay propaganda law, in which case the Russians will throw their sorry asses in a gulag.

Glad Sorokin could clarify this for us.  I’m sure the 2018 World Cup in Russia is going to be a blast with Sorokin running it.

Speaking of Nazis…

 John Aravosis
@aravosis | Facebook | Google+. Editor of AMERICAblog, joint JD/MSFS from Georgetown, worked in the US Senate, World Bank, Children's Defense Fund, and as a stringer for the Economist. A frequent TV pundit, he has been on The O'Reilly Factor, Hardball, World News Tonight, Nightline & Reliable Sources. Full bio and article archive.

Weekly: Recap top stories, occasional action alerts.

Daily: Get each day's posts in one email.

Read more »