Tag Archives: Sochi Olympics

International Olympic Committee Announces Future Host Cities Must Agree To LGBT Discrimination Protections

 

The 2016 Summer Olympic Games will be held in Rio De Janeiro, where robust LGBT protections already exist but the International Olympic Committee today announced that future Olympics host cities must sign a contract with an added clause vowing to protect LGBT participants and attendees from discrimination.

“This is a significant step in ensuring the protection of both citizens and athletes around the world and sends a clear message to future host cities that human rights violations, including those against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people, will not be tolerated,” said Andre Banks, co-founder and executive director of All Out, the global movement for love and equality. “This is a particularly important moment for the world’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender citizens who face discrimination and persecution not only in Russia but in countries all over the world. We will continue working to make sure this change is powerfully enforced – these new rules must prevent a replay of Sochi.”

According to IOC Sports Director, Christopher Dubi, the new clause will include “the prohibition of any form of discrimination, using the wording of Fundamental Principle 6 of the Olympic Charter.” This clause will ensure that future host cities must abide by international human rights standards in order to host the games, including the protection of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender citizens and athletes. “By adopting a non-discrimination clause into its host city contracts, the IOC is showcasing its own realization that we must protect the rights of every athlete to live free and openly,” said Hudson Taylor, Executive Director of Athlete Ally. “The Principle 6 campaign sought to shed light on the responsibility of host countries to uphold the olympic values, and this action validates all of the hard work by organizations and individuals across the world who’ve engaged in the fight for LGBT equality.”

A useless public relations stunt after the horrible fact of Sochi to save face a little too little and a little too late.  The IOC is only requiring that countries that host the Olympics agree to not discriminate against ATHLETES and SPECTATORS.  It says nothing about anti-gay laws excluding a country from hosting the Olympics. Saudi Arabia could do this, as could Iran or Uganda or any other country with anti-gay laws.

HRC Spins Like A Whirling Dervish, Makes Mountain Out Of Their Sochi Olympics Molehill

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Gay Inc

“Even before the Olympics began, HRC has been holding corporate America’s feet to the fire on their support for Putin’s Olympics. We’ve tracked the coverage that NBC—the network group broadcasting the Olympics—has dedicated to LGBT issues during the Olympic Games. We’ve vigorously called on Olympic sponsors to speak up and condemn Russia’s anti-LGBT laws, and we’ve celebrated those, like AT&T, which have lifted their voices. – From an email blast and money beg sent out by the Human Rights Campaign today.

Of course HRC is not mentioning that they haven’t severed ties with either Coke or Visa who are BOTH corporate sponsors of the Sochi Olympics games and on two separate occasions they were caught serving Coke products at HRC events.

Hollow words and if anyone in the LGBT community believes them. Then they have empty heads.

 

HRC Says Fuck You To REAL LGBT Activists, Serves Coke At It’s Sochi Opening Ceremony Party In DC

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The below picture and tweet was sent out by Washington Blade staff writer who attended the Human Rights Campaign’s Sochi Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony viewing party in Washington, DC.

HRC Coke

 

Bet they bought that Coke with their HRC Visa Corporate credit card.

HRC is a fucking disgrace.

International Olympic Committee Backs Russia On Arrest and Beatings Of LGBT Protesters

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Nazi IOCReports have upped the number of LGBT protesters arrested in Russia yesterday at well past 60 with many reporting being harassed and beaten by Police.  And guess what?  The International Committee appears to be just fine and dandy it.

“We understand that the protesters were quickly released,” Emmanuelle Moreau, the IOC’s head of media relations, said in an email to BuzzFeed. “As in many countries in the world, in Russia, you need permission before staging a protest. We understand this was the reason that they were temporarily detained.

Unfortunately in Russia you can’t get permission to stage an LGBT protest because LGBT protests are outlawed.

Raise your hand if you are really surprised.

Watch Rachel Maddow’s report on the arrests here.

Russian Court "Liquidates" LGBT Rights Group Over "Traditional Values."

Man Attempts to Hijack Turkish Plane And Divert To Sochi Right Before Opening Ceremony

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Russia anti-gay

A Ukrainian man tried to hijack a Turkey-bound flight to Sochi, Russia, as the Winter Olympics were kicking off Friday, but the pilot tricked him and landed in Istanbul instead, where he was arrested after a four-hour stand-off on a plane full of passengers, an official said.

The hijacking drama came as the Winter Olympics opened in the Russian city, with thousands of athletes from around the world amid serious warnings of terrorist attempts.

Turkish F-16s fighter was scrambled as soon as the pilot on the Pegasus Airlines flight from Kharkiv, Ukraine, with 110 passengers aboard signaled there was a hijacking attempt. It escorted the plane safely to its original destination at Sabiha Gokcen airport in Istanbul.

Officials credited the pilot and crew for convincing the 45-year-old-man, who claimed he had a bomb, that they were following his wishes.

“Through a very successful implementation by our pilot and crew, the plane was landed in Istanbul instead of Sochi,” Istanbul governor Huseyin Avni Mutlu told reporters at the airport. “He thought it was going to Sochi but after a while he realized that (the plane) was in Istanbul.”

The hijacker was arrested after a stand-off during which a negotiator convinced him to first allow women and children to be evacuated and later agreed to let all other passengers off the plane as well.

“Our security units sneaked through various entrances during the evacuation of the passengers and with a quick and effective intervention the hijacker was subdued,” Mutlu said. No bomb was found, he said.

The man’s motive was unclear, but Mutlu said he had “requests concerning his own country” and wanted to relay a “message concerning sporting activities in Sochi.”

“We were receiving through various channels information that there could be initiatives to sabotage the spirit of peace arising in Sochi, but we are saddened that such an event took place in our city,”

Habib Soluk, the Turkish Transport Ministry undersecretary, told NTV earlier that the man rose from his seat, shouted that there was bomb on board and tried to enter the locked cockpit. The pilot signaled that there was a hijack attempt and the airport was placed on high alert.

Air traffic at Sabiha Gokcen was halted throughout the incident but had returned to normal after the man’s arrest.

The plane landed at about 6 p.m. Turkish time, just as the opening ceremony for the Olympics was about to begin. The executive creative director of the Olympics opening ceremony told reporters afterward he heard of the threat but didn’t alter the show’s plans in any way.

Both Russia and Turkey are downplaying the event.

15 LGBT Activists Arrested In Moscow and St. Petersburg During Sochi Opening Ceremonies

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Sochi Olympics blood

Russian media reports that 10 more LGBT activists have been arrested in Moscow: Elena Kostyuchenko, Anna Annenkov, Lynn Reid, Knicks Nemeni, Olga Mazurova, Gleb Warrior, Tarja Polyakova, Daria Starshinina and two Swedish nationals. The group were arrested by police at Red Square today as they waved rainbow flags and sang the Russian national anthem. The protest was timed to coincide with the opening ceremonies at Sochi.

Meanwhile in St. Petersburg, 5 Russia LGBT activists were arrested while preparing to hang a banner with the exact wording of Principle 6 of the Olympic Charter from the city’s Belinskiy Bridge. That principle states, “Discrimination is incompatible with the Olympic Movement.” Principle 6 has become a rallying cry for athletes who oppose LGBT discrimination and we should expect to see the ubiquitous number 6 on rebel athletes throughout the games. One of those taken into custody was Anastasia Smirnova, a leading figure in the country’s LGBT movement. Smirnova has received international attention in recent months by continuously linking the oppression of the LGBT community with the Olympic games. Human Rights Watch highlighted Smirnova’s work last year and quoted her saying, “Ours is a campaign for equality. It is a campaign that promotes the idea of human dignity for LGBT people in Russia—but it is not a campaign against the country.”

According an LGBT activist who witnessed the arrests that their demonstration was over before it started, with police speeding in and surrounding the four immediately. Eyewitness, who asked to remain anonymous out of safety concerns stated:  “Either the phones are being listened to or maybe there are cameras all over the city; only a few people knew about this action.”

The charges as of now are unclear. They are in custody for reasons that are still being speculated upon, but are probably being held for “participating in an illegal action”, essentially demonstrating without permission, or being in violation of Russia’s so-called “anti-gay propaganda” laws.

Heroes every one of them.

Chris Kluwe To Sochi Olympic Athletes: If You Say Nothing In Russia The World Will Remember

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Chris KluweHOT

Phenomenal LGBT Straight ally Chris Kluwe is calling on Olympic athletes to speak up on the human rights abuses administered by the Russian government against its LGBT citizens.

Said Kluwe in the article he wrote for the Guardian:

“What is the true price of fame? The price of fame is what you risk when you have the platform. As an athlete, a role model for society, people listen to you. As an athlete, when you make a statement, that statement is heard, no matter what that statement is. Speak up for LBGTQ rights, for human rights, for empathy? The world will pay attention, and take notice. Stay silent, keep your head down, count the money and endorsements? The world will pay attention, and take notice. Either way, you’re the one who has to live with what you did or didn’t do. I hope that athletes speak out at Sochi on LBGTQ issues, even knowing the possible risks that await them.

“I know that it could cost them their livelihoods, their careers, everything they’ve worked towards. I know that it can lead to recriminations, harsh words from a public who just wants their entertainment, no matter how much blood it’s packaged in. I know that it’s one of the hardest steps a person can take, and that there is no guarantee of a reward at the end, other than knowing you did the right thing at the right time with nothing to show for it but angry tweets and emails tempered by the messages of support and affection from those in whose lives you made a difference, those currently being abused by the oppressive and ignorant.” 

In the opening of the piece, Kluwe never for a loss of words slammed Sochi’s corporate sponsors suggesting certain replacement marketing slogans: “Today’s refreshing anti-gay beating brought to you by Coca-Cola!”

You gotta love this man.

Human Rights Watch Releases Disturbing Video Of LGBT Russians Beaten By Anti-Gay Vigilantes

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WARNING

Human Rights Watch has released a disturbing video detailing many of the violent criminal exploits of Russian citizens and anti-gay vigilante groups who’s hate has become empowered by Russia’s recent passage of anti-gay laws.

As the host to the 2014 Winter Olympic Games, which begin on February 7, 2014, in Sochi, Russia should act in accordance with the principle of nondiscrimination, a core provision of the Olympic Charter. As a member of the Council of Europe, and party to multiple human rights treaties, it should meet its obligations to provide equal respect and protection for LGBT people.

The Russian authorities have the power to protect the rights of LGBT people, but instead they are ignoring their responsibility to do so,” said Tanya Cooper, Russia researcher at Human Rights Watch. “By turning a blind eye to hateful homophobic rhetoric and violence, Russian authorities are sending a dangerous message as the world is about to arrive on its doorstep for the Olympics that there is nothing wrong with attacks on gay people.”

Absolutely horrible.

WARNING:  The video below contains graphic images and may be upsetting.  It should also be seen by every American Olympic athlete who is going to Sochi thinking that their medals and competing in the Olympics is more important than human lives.

 

Coca Cola (Coke) Defends The Arrest Of Gay Russian Man Holding a Rainbow Flag In Protest

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Russia Sochi olympic protest

Late last week we reported on young Russian LGBT activist Pavel Lebedev was detained and arrested for holding a rainbow flag during the Olympic Torch Relay. What you may or may not have noticed was that on the official Olympic security guard’s uniform were the Olympic rings and the Coca-Cola logo.

Yesterday the Coca-Cola company released an email statement and responded to the incident and their logo being associated with it in perhaps the worst way possible: by defending the arrest and fining of Lebedev. The statement said, in part:

As a Presenting Partner of the Sochi 2014 Olympic Torch Relay, our logo appears on all of the uniforms for the staff assigned by the Sochi Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (SOCOG) to support the Torch Relay.

SOCOG reported that a spectator was prevented from breaching the security perimeter around the Torchbearer. The spectator was detained briefly by local police and was fined.

Coke then had the nerve to include in the letter:

As one of the world’s most inclusive brands, we value and celebrate diversity. We have long been a strong supporter of the LGBT community and have advocated for inclusion and diversity through both our policies and practices. We do not condone human rights abuses, intolerance or discrimination of any kind anywhere in the world.

Young Pavel Lebedev is a Russian civil rights hero.

Coke is so NOT IT.

Swedish Vodka and Pepsi please.

NOTE:  Of course The Coca-Cola Company has received a 100 percent rating from the Human RightsCampaign (HRC) four years in a row for its workplace policies for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) associates.   Coke is a major sponsor of America LGBT nonprofits including the Human Rights Campaign.

Putin Defends Russia’s Anti-Gay Laws In ABC Interview, ABC Leaves Out Outrageous Remarks

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Poopoohead Putin

During a rather soft interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday’s This Week, ABC News host George Stephanopoulos asked Putin about the country’s anti-gay laws. Not about the countless arrests and hassasment that has happned in Russia.  Stephanopoulos asked Putin whether gay people will be prosecuted under the propaganda law if they wear a rainbow pin at Sochi.

Said Putin:

Acts of protest and acts of propaganda are somewhat different things. They are close, but if we were to look at them from the legal perspective, then protesting a law does not amount to propaganda of sexuality or sexual abuse of children. That’s one. Two is that I’d like to ask our colleagues, my colleagues and friends, that as they try to criticize us, they would do well to set their own house in order first. I did say, after all, and this is public knowledge, that in some of the states in the U.S., homosexuality remains a felony.

Stephanopolous replied that “the Supreme Court has struck those laws down.”

Added Putin:

How are they in a position to criticize us for what is a much softer, liberal approach to these issues than in their own country? I know that this isn’t something that can be easily done. This is so because there are a lot of folks in the U.S. who share the view that the legislation in their state or in their nation is appropriate, well grounded, and is in sync with the sentiment of the vast majority of the population…The Russian people have their own cultural code, their own traditions. We don’t interfere. Don’t stick our noses in their life. And we ask that our traditions and culture are treated with the same respect.  Russia does not criminally prosecute people for being gay, unlike in over one-third of the world’s nations. Seventy of the world’s nations consider homosexual behavior a crime. Seven out of the 70 use capital punishment for homosexuality. What does it mean? Does it mean we need to cancel any major international sports events in those countries? Probably not.

But according to a source to Back2Stonewall.com from a source that has read the Russian transcripts from this press conference there’s a lot more propaganda from Putin than ABC was willing to talk about including the fact that even after being corrected about about homosexuality being criminalized in “several US states — Texas, for example,” Putin kept repeating this over and over.

Putin also doesn’t recognize the usual designation of the law as “Mizulina’s law” and claims that it’s a law “against propaganda of pedophilia and homosexualism.”Pedophilia is NOT MENTIONED in the law. And “homosexualism” was only deleted in order to make out that the law is not anti-gay. Instead it’s against “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations.”

Another outrageous claim from Putin in the Russian transcripts is that he claims that in several countries in Europe there is a valid movement WITHIN THE GOVERNMENTS to legalize pedophilia. He repeats this again and again too, and it’s a major feature of Russian anti-European propaganda adding that also in Germany 38,000 children were taken away from straight parents and given to gay couples.

This is only the tip of Putin’s propaganda iceberg.