LGBTQ news and entertainment
A sneak peek at Queer Nation short film, “The Road to Sochi: The Olympic backstory sponsors won’t show you.”
(via Towleroad)
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| Thomas Roberts on the Miss Universe Pageant Red Carpet with husband Patrick Abner |
Speaking on the red carpet of the Miss Universe Pageant in Russia before his hosting duties, MSNBC News anchor Thomas Roberts addressed the anti-gay laws and legislation taking place in Russia:
“I know the law is very vague and still hard to interpret for many people,” Roberts stated. “But it is discrimination and that’s definitive. And I don’t think that the LGBT population in Russia or anywhere should be marginalized to that degree. We are not asking for special protection. We’re just asking for equal respect.”
Thomas Roberts sat down with the Advocate to talk about his recently announced assignment to head to Russia to host the Miss Universe Pageant.
Some folks have been critical of Roberts taking on the task, saying he should instead boycott the event in solidarity with our Russian LGBT community now under siege by anti-gay laws being passed.
In response to the criticism, Robert wrote a thoughtful op-ed piece for MSNBC, and is now discussing why he made the decision to not boycott and host the pageant so that Russia and the world could see a successful, gainfully employed, confident gay man on the world stage.
Here’s just a bit of his exchange with Advocate:
What was the response of Russian LGBT activists that you reached out to?
I was told: don’t boycott. I was told that this is too big of an opportunity, and that voices like theirs need representation. So, what they want is, while they don’t feel safe, they want influential people to come in, and speak out. Not only can I speak out ahead of time, before going, but I also have a great capacity to cover and storytell. So, that’s why this assignment was so attractive to me.
Read the entire interview by visiting the Advocate here.
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| Russian lawmaker Vitaly Milonov |
This guy is a piece of work.
Anti-gay Russian lawmaker Vitaly Milonov (pictured), who co-sponsored the “non-traditional relationships” propaganda bill, has recommended an amendment banning same-sex couples from having biological children through surrogacy:
“At present, Russian law has a loophole through which members of sexual minorities are allowed to inform children about homosexuality,” his office said earlier this week. “By and large, thanks to surrogacy, homosexuals have the ability to inform a child about their lifestyle, values, and views on gender roles and relations.”
He continued: “It is necessary to amend the Russian law banning the promotion of homosexuality and pedophilia among minors, officially registering a ban on the use of surrogacy for gay men and people with blurred sexual preferences.”
Additionally, Milonov supports proposed legislation which would deny custody to people “guilty” of being gay on the same grounds as alcoholism, drug use, a history of violence, insanity, and child abuse.
But remember, President Putin would have you know that gays and lesbians are TOTALLY NOT the target of discrimination in Russia.
More at Queerty
Russian officials have decided that, due to same-sex marriage in Sweden, they will no longer allow ANY adoptions by any couples in Sweden to take place:
“It’s terrible. We have 13 children in Russian orphanages today who have been offered to parents in Sweden who they have actually met,” said Jonas Friberg at the Adoptioncentrum agency in Sweden to Sveriges Television (SVT).
Russian politician Vitaly Milonov meanwhile called homosexuals “perverts” in an interview with SVT broadcast on Thursday, arguing that children would be better off staying in Russian orphanages.
“The perverts? No, it is unacceptable. Homosexuals are ‘perverts’ and should absolutely not be allowed to adopt children,” he said. “Children who grow up in that kind of environment are destroyed psychologically.”
On some strange, other-worldly plane, a group of people think President Putin is making the world a better place for someone.
Yesterday in Russia, based on his work in getting Syria to give up its chemical weapons stockpile, Members of the International Academy of Spiritual Unity and Cooperation of Peoples of the World nominated President Vladimir Putin for the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize.
While the Russian president has played a large role in what may solve chemical weapons use in Syria, Putin is hardly an “angel” in terms of humanity and peace.
From the Advocate:
As the New York Times reports, however, Putin has been involved in other nefarious acts, including waging war against Chechen people, approving an attack against Georgia over a border dispute, and continuing to allegedly sell weapons to the Syrian government.
He also has approved multiple antigay laws across Russia this year, garnering international attention. The laws condemn so-called LGBT propaganda, and bar foreign and Russian same-sex couples from adopting Russian children.
In an interview with the Chicago Tribune, four-time Olympian Bode Miller spoke out against Russia’s anti-gay laws on Monday at the U.S. Olympic media summit:
“I think it is absolutely embarrassing there are countries and people who are that intolerant or that ignorant.
“It’s not the first time. We have been dealing with human rights issues since there were humans.
“My main emotion when I hear and deal with situations like that is embarrassment. As a human being, I think it is embarrassing…
“There are politics in sport and athletics. They always are intertwined, even though people try to keep them separate. Asking an athlete to go somewhere and compete and be a representative of that philosophy and all the different crap that kind of goes along with it and then telling them they can’t tell them they express their views or they can’t say what they believe is pretty hypocritical and unfair.”
And he’s not only right on the LGBT issues. There is the fact that he’s pretty easy on the eyes:
This happened last night in NYC at Marquee.
The poster of the video writes:
I love how the host says, “We are very lucky to live in a country where we can speak freely” – as we are being dragged out and roughed up by security. And of course, gays in Russia have no such rights.
He follows is with this ridiculous statement: “And one of the things we are celebrating tonight is the passion that is the Stoli brand, and that is passion.” Say what?
Our signs read: DUMP STOLI – STOLI IS RUSSIAN – RUSSIA KILLS GAYS
A Russian group’s video making the rounds on the Internet uses bad science and homophobic lies against LGBT people, saying, for instance, that they adopt children so they can abuse the children sexually.
Americablog’s John Aravosis found the repulsive anti-gay clip and posted it to YouTube. He writes:
A newly-discovered anti-gay video making the rounds in Russia claims that gays adopt children so that they’ll have a readily available source of kids to rape.
Even more troubling, the video bases its adoption-child-rape assertion on a debunked faux-scientific “study” from Mark Regnerus, a religious right researcher whose “gay parenting” study was roundly rebuked for only including two kids who actually grew up with gay parents. Yes, a whopping review of 2 children makes a scientific “study” of gay parenting.
The “study” was also called “bullsh*t” by an auditor after it was published. Of course, what’s more, even the very anti-gay Regnerus “study” does not conclude that 1/3 of gay parents rape their own kids, which this new video claims.
His study widely denounced, even Regnerus has said his study has been misunderstood, and this week he specifically objected to a Russian legislator for citing it as justification for a proposed law to remove children from gay parents’ households.
Thanks to John Aravosis for bringing this hideous propaganda to light. This is truly sick stuff. Watch the video below if you have the stomach for it.
Mega superstar Elton John has announced he will honor a concert date in Russia later this year in spite of recent anti-gay “propaganda” laws:
The 66-year-old gay singer told The Guardian that the show must go on in Moscow this December, in order to support his LGBT fans who might be suffering “in an isolated situation.”
“I’ve got to go,” John said. “And I’ve got to think about what I’m going to say very carefully. There’s two avenues of thought: Do you stop everyone going, ban all the artists coming in from Russia? But then you’re really leaving the men and women who are gay and suffering under the antigay laws in an isolated situation. As a gay man, I can’t leave those people on their own without going over there and supporting them. I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I’ve got to go.”