Recently I have been writing about how gay rights has been taking great leaps forward in recent months. Unfortunately one country has been leaping in the opposite direction: Russia. Although homosexual acts are technically still legal, Putin and the Russian government have made any sort of expression of it illegal. The new law bans "propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations". Waving a gay pride. Illegal! Saying that homosexuality is normal. Illegal! Being openly homosexual. Illegal! The law applies to tourists as well, if you are caught performing any of the outlawed activities, you will be held for 14 days and then deported. This would mean that former Icelandic PM, Jóhanna Sigurðadóttir, could no longer visit Russia if she became PM again.
It is clear that this law is barbaric and it is symbolic of how the hope for Russia, following the collapse of Communism, has faded away. The law has faced, deservedly, harsh criticism from around the world and much of the world wants to act. The target the world found: the 2014 Winter Olympic Games. The games were awarded to the Russian city of Sochi in 2007 and since then the games have been marred in corruption scandals. In recent days there has been an increasingly vocal call for the Olympics to be moved from Sochi to somewhere else, anywhere else.
I fully support these efforts to move the 2014 Winter Olympics to somewhere else. The IOC recognises the rights of LGBT people and so cannot stand idly by whilst this barbarism continues in Russia. Stephen Fry has compared the Sochi Olympics to the 1936 Berlin Olympics when the IOC ignored Hitler's rampant anti-Semitism and allowed the games to go ahead. Putin's homophobic laws don't just criminalise and marginalise gays, they empower thugs and militias to beat up and kill gays. I urge Prime Minister David Cameron, the British Olympic Committee and the IOC to try and move the games to another venue. There are plenty of suitable locations worldwide, the Alps, Japan, Korea, Scandinavia, the US & Canada could all host the games easily, so they would not struggle to find a replacement city.
The barbarism must stop. Sign a change.org petition here to move the games. Also sign here to ask the sponsors of the Olympic games to act.http://www.change.org/petitions/stand-against-russia-s-brutal-crackdown-on-gay-rights-urge-winter-olympics-2014-sponsors-to-condemn-anti-gay-laws
It is clear that this law is barbaric and it is symbolic of how the hope for Russia, following the collapse of Communism, has faded away. The law has faced, deservedly, harsh criticism from around the world and much of the world wants to act. The target the world found: the 2014 Winter Olympic Games. The games were awarded to the Russian city of Sochi in 2007 and since then the games have been marred in corruption scandals. In recent days there has been an increasingly vocal call for the Olympics to be moved from Sochi to somewhere else, anywhere else.
I fully support these efforts to move the 2014 Winter Olympics to somewhere else. The IOC recognises the rights of LGBT people and so cannot stand idly by whilst this barbarism continues in Russia. Stephen Fry has compared the Sochi Olympics to the 1936 Berlin Olympics when the IOC ignored Hitler's rampant anti-Semitism and allowed the games to go ahead. Putin's homophobic laws don't just criminalise and marginalise gays, they empower thugs and militias to beat up and kill gays. I urge Prime Minister David Cameron, the British Olympic Committee and the IOC to try and move the games to another venue. There are plenty of suitable locations worldwide, the Alps, Japan, Korea, Scandinavia, the US & Canada could all host the games easily, so they would not struggle to find a replacement city.
The barbarism must stop. Sign a change.org petition here to move the games. Also sign here to ask the sponsors of the Olympic games to act.http://www.change.org/petitions/stand-against-russia-s-brutal-crackdown-on-gay-rights-urge-winter-olympics-2014-sponsors-to-condemn-anti-gay-laws
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