Every time I see one of those staged photos of Putin, shirtless out in the wilderness, I think to myself, "Man, is that guy ever in denial."
Yeah, maxie, like the antigay protesters in France. They are protesting marriage equality, which has already passed. They are all young males. They have adopted as their symbol the pink scarf. They protest in tight crotch outlining shorts, no shirts, and pink scarves. One of them disrupted the French Open wearing a pink unitard and angel wings. Had someone shown up at Parade like that everyone would say cool costume. They have posed (in tight crotch outlining shorts and no shirts) with their legs wrapped around each others. As gay blogger John Aravoisis says, they are the gayest antigay protesters in history.
http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/russian-lawmaker-we-will-arrest-gay-athletes-tourists-olympic-games300713
Looks like we can kiss off these games. The gay gang is going to turn the games into a minor side show for their own agenda. Oh well there is alway sailing, men in tights or tutus don't do that one.
I think I misspoke. Lets me change what I said to what I mean. It is absolutely not ok for any nation to to do any of the sexist homophobic, racist and assholeic things you mentioned, or many others. However, we as a people can't fight every battle every time. We pick and choose, regardless of the righteousness, some battles to take on and some to gloss over. One of he main criteria is, do their unjust laws harm Americans. So, with regards to the anti-LGBT laws in Russia, if that impacts us directly (some of our athletes can't compete without risk of incarceration) we have to boycott. But if no risk exists for athletes, it's still a major deal, but we aren't forced to boycott. That doesnt mean athletes who win shouldn't use their platform to talk about the injustices, or that you and I shouldn't drink Gray Goose instead of Stolichnaya Vodka. Thank you for calling me out, I may still not go a far as you would appreciate, but at least I was able to clarify. If we had an all out ban on anything coming from every nation that treated a portion of its population like shit, there are very few nations whose goods we could still buy. Oh, and by the way, I think we would also have to ban ourselves. My point is, this is the real world. Try and make some gains in some places and call it a day. We can't build our society around perfection.
Here is a Russky for you to battle with and you need not go so far. http://www.russianorthodoxchurch.ws/01newstucture/pagesen/articles/samesex.html
Looks like a monastery in West Virginia, one in Alberta, and another plus a convent in New York state. The only other North American Russian Orthodox monastery is on Vashon Island in the Puget Sound. http://www.vashonmonks.com/
GOD, I did not mean to imply that, for example, you thought the Nazi laws were OK as long as they just applied to German Jews. I was just pointing out what looked to me like the final logic of your position. Thank you for your clarification. I agree we need to pick our battles; no one has time or energy enough to fight every injustice, although at least we can be aware of them. It just so happens that to me this is a battle I choose to fight. I don't know if a vodka boycott will have real economic impact; probably not, but what it is doing is raising awareness of the issue. So it is "working" in that sense. Several Dutch journalists were jailed and then expelled from Russia when they tried to interview a gay activist for their home newspaper.
It is reported that in Russia gangs of thugs are finding gay males, primarily teen boys, on social media sites, setting up what the young men think are social meetings, then beating, torturing them, drenching them in urine and posting videos of the attacks. Although the attackers' faces are clearly visible in the videos, they are operataing with impunity from (and possible in cahoots with) the Putin government. Sounds like a groovy place to watch a sporting event, doesn't it?
For some reason, I just don't really hear much about this. Now that I know and have looked, there is a ton of articles on the topic, but for some reason I missed most the first time around. I hope boycotting vodka or just posting on forums like this are able to spread the news and get more people involved. I don't know what result that will have, but over time I suspect only positives will come from increased awareness. Those who follow it closely, please keep posting and help me and other stay current.
Russian laws are enacted by their government, which does not in any way support the Russian Orthodox Church or any other church, nor does it acknowledge the existence of any super-being other than Putin.
Wow, they they are saying they will arrest gay athletes and tourists. Wow,wow, wow. This is bad. We cannot go to the Olympics under these circumstances. The Olympics should be moved. http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/...est-gay-athletes-tourists-olympic-games300713
This guy believes none of his country's athletes are gay. This is exactly why it is important for famous people to come out. It's hard in Russia but the gay athletes need to stand up and be counted and say we are gay and we are Russian. It's hard to legislate against gays when they are people you know and respect.
