There’s lots going on around russia’s so-called “gay propaganda” law as the Winter Olympics prepare to open.
First off, AT&T has become the first sponsor to speak out against the law.
Pink News reports:
US Olympic Committee sponsor AT&T has spoken out to condemn Russia’s anti-gay “propaganda” law as the country prepares to host the Winter Olympic Games. In a blog post, the telecommunications giant said that it condemns the “violence, discrimination and harassment targeted against LGBT individuals everywhere.” Although AT&T is not an international sponsor like McDonald’s or Coca-Cola, it has backed the US team for over 30 years.
Next, the UK’s Shadow Foreign Minister, Kerry McCarthy, s urging the government to challenge Russia over the law.
Pink News reports:
Labour has repeatedly called on the Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary to challenge President Putin, to leave him in no doubt that Russia’s rejection of LGBT rights is in violation of international law, of the Olympic ideal, and of basic human decency. The responsibility now falls to Maria Miller, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, who will be leading the UK’s Winter Olympics delegation. David Cameron has failed to follow President Obama’s lead, who has made a point of including prominent gay sports stars in the USA’s official delegation, but Maria Miller is also the Minister for Equalities who sponsored the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act through Parliament. So, when the Secretary of State for Sport attends the Opening Ceremony and meets with Russian dignitaries, representing everyone in the UK and everything the UK stands for, she must be a proud and vociferous advocate for equalities.
The UN is also spacing out against the law.
Edge Boston reports:
A U.N. committee on children’s rights urged Russia on Wednesday to repeal its law banning pro-gay “propaganda” that could be accessible to minors, arguing that the legislation encourages discrimination and even violence. The United Nations’ Committee on the Rights of the Child noted that the stated intent of the law is to protect children but said it “encourages stigmatization of and discrimination against” gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people, including children.
Gay Web Source reports on a protest planned for London (and other cities) tonight against the law:
With just a day away from the Sochi Winter Olympics opening, gay rights protesters will be taking to the streets of cities around the world to protest the treatment of LGBT people in Russia. A mounting disquiet has been bubbling away as the world’s spotlight is now cast upon Russia’s dreadful treatment of LGBT people, as an event that threatens to permanently damage the Olympics’ brand starts tomorrow.
But Russia is pressing ahead with its newly virulent anti-gay tendencies, as the Kremlin will play host to an anti gay convention in September:
In September the virulently anti-gay World Congress of Families will hold its convention at the Kremlin. Via press release: World Congress of Families VIII with the theme “Every Child A Gift: Large Families, the Future of Humanity” will be held in Moscow, September 10-12, 2014 to gather all people of goodwill who affirm the natural family as the fundamental institution for a prosperous society. Over 5,000 delegates and leaders are expected to attend. The opening session of WCF VIII will be in the Congress Hall of the Kremlin Palace. A special WCF parliamentary session will also be held in the Russian Duma and a special scientific forum at St Petersburg State University. The closing ceremony will be held at Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral — the tallest Orthodox Cathedral in the world.
This is the same group US House Speaker John Boehner provided meeting space for after they were kicked out of a US Senate meeting room by Senator Mark Kirk last November.
The games begin tomorrow – will there be protests, and if so, will the protesters be arrested?
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