LGBTQ news and entertainment
Today, Blondie shared this rejection of an offer to perform during the Olympics at Sochi.
Blondie refused the offer based on Human Rights violations, specifically the mistreatment of Human Beings that are gay.
Bravo Blondie!!!
One of six openly gay athletes at this Olympics, snowboarder Cheryl Maas of the Netherlands delivered the first protest of the games after failing to qualify for the slope style event.
As she walked away from the event, she turns to the camera and holds up her glove, which was covered with a rainbow and unicorn, two distinct icons associated with the LGBT community.
Watch at the 2:00 mark.
Well, it took ten minutes for the first Sochi Olympics fail to occur.
New York Magazine rates the Opening Ceremony “a B-minus, as only 80 percent of the Olympic rings bothered to show up. Welcome to Russia!”
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| Budweiser pulls out of Sochi due to fear of terror attack |
Budweiser has decided to pull its employees from the Sochi Winter Olympics.
In addition, there will be no “Club Bud” party for this year’s Olympians either, like the Bud bashes at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver and at the 2006 Olympics in Turin.
According to TMZ, “it’s all because the company is not comfortable with the situation in Russia.”
“A rep for Anheuser-Busch confirms to TMZ Sports … there will be no Club Bud in Sochi.”
TMZ adds, “we’ve seen an email from a Budweiser rep which says the company does not want its U.S.-based representatives in Sochi … and the message is clear — the terrorist threat is simply looming too large.”
On the subject of terror attacks, a new CNN poll finds 57 percent of Americans think a terror attack at the Sochi Olympics is “likely.” In 1996 at the Atlanta Olympic Games only 51% thought such an attack was likely.
The Human Rights Campaign has announced it will issue reports of NBC’s coverage of the Sochi Olympics and how much time is spent covering the anti-LGBT activity in Russia during the games.
Via press release:
Over the course of the seventeen-day event, it is expected that the station, which has exclusive rights to air the events, will air about 1,500 hours of Olympics-related coverage; HRC plans to report daily on the time spent discussing Russia’s social and legal homophobia at HRC.org/Russia.
Shortly after Russia enacted its controversial anti-gay laws in the summer of 2013, HRC President Chad Griffin wrote to NBCUniversal, asking the station to take advantage of the opportunity to expose the situation created by Russia’s homophobic laws.
In January 2014, the Olympics executive producer of NBC, Jim Bell, told press, “We’re not there to poke a sharp stick in anybody’s eye, but we’re not going to shy away from reporting anything either.” HRC also reported that other networks have announced their intent to air segments about the current plight of the Russian LGBT community.
While some competition gets underway today, the opening ceremonies will take place tomorrow, Friday, February 5.
Billie Jean King, one of three openly gay athletes invited as the US delegation to the Sochi Olympics, will not be attending the Opening Ceremonies due to her mother’s health, the AP reports.
Said King in a statement: “It is important for me to be with my mother and my brother at this difficult time. I want to thank President Obama for including me in this historic mission and I look forward to supporting our athletes as they compete in Sochi.”
It’s unclear if King will be able to attend the Olympics at all.
Getting ready for the upcoming Sochi Olympics, Conan translates the names of Olympic sports from Russian to English.
Kinda sorta…