No, people – mostly the decent, evolved ones – are up in arms over Vladimir Putin’s anti-“homosexual propaganda” legislation, which already has tinted Sochi an inhospitable hue not found on the rainbow. Fear is setting in around the upcoming winter games, which promise to be, well...kinda contentious.
I understand that the gay issue, for whatever reason, hasn’t been as pressing as the black issue once was. It just hasn’t. Talking to people about how the plight of the gays is on equal footing with that of the blacks once upon a time, I have come to learn that a lot of ’em just don’t see it quite that way all the way (even though both issues live in the neighborhood of basic human rights).
Which is why Sochi is becoming more and more significant a topic with each passing day.
Stances are being taken. As well they should.
Out figure skater Johnny Weir already has gone on record to say he is going to Sochi and he is prepared to get arrested if it comes to it. “If [that’s what it takes] for people to pay attention and for people to lobby against this law then [so be it],” he told CBS News this week.
And now, self-described gay ally Nick Symmonds has dedicated the silver medal he won distance-running the men’s 800 meters, in Moscow, to his LGBT friends back in America.
“I respect Russians’ ability to govern their people,” Symmonds told Russian media after the race.“[But] I disagree with their laws. I do have respect for this nation. I disagree with their rules.
“All humans deserve equality as however God made them.”
We may not be able to change the new Russian law in time for Sochi to be the inclusive celebration it ought to be. But we certainly can let Putin know, any chance we get, that he’s just whack.
Photo: Outsports.com.
Update: On a related note, word is spreading that Russian news anchor Anton Kraskovsky was promptly fired from his job at KontrTV last January, after bravely coming out on the air.
Kraskovsky knew it would happen, but he went ahead with his announcement anyway, for he had been covering gay discrimination in Russian for just too long now.
“I have made a lot of money in television and I understood that I’d lose everything,” he recently told CNN of his life-altering decision. “But I also understood that I couldn’t do anything else. I did it because I wanted them to hear it in the Kremlin.”
Right on, Anton!
Update: On a related note, word is spreading that Russian news anchor Anton Kraskovsky was promptly fired from his job at KontrTV last January, after bravely coming out on the air.
Kraskovsky knew it would happen, but he went ahead with his announcement anyway, for he had been covering gay discrimination in Russian for just too long now.
“I have made a lot of money in television and I understood that I’d lose everything,” he recently told CNN of his life-altering decision. “But I also understood that I couldn’t do anything else. I did it because I wanted them to hear it in the Kremlin.”
Right on, Anton!
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