Olympics: Beast

On Thursday morning, the Daily Beast published an exceedingly gross and bizarre article by a straight, married male writer who lured in gay Olympians through hookup apps for no particular purpose. The entire piece is an astoundingly creepy exercise in Grindr-baiting, which involves a journalist accessing Grindr in an unlikely setting and … seeing what happens. But the Daily Beast piece, penned by Nico Hines, is a uniquely disgusting and irresponsible entry into the tired genre. Hines entices his (often closeted) subjects under false pretenses; effectively outs several closeted athletes who live in repressive countries; then writes about the whole thing in a tone of mocking yet lurid condescension. By 10:30 a.m. ET, the Daily Beast had, in response to criticism, edited out the most identifying details about closeted athletes—but that’s too little, too late. (Update, 9:15 p.m.: On Thursday evening, the Daily Beast took down the piece entirely. Later, it also published an apology.)...

Slate.

No, you got just three replies in a city of 6 and a half milllion, maybe cause you is fugly.

Olympics: Topless

Telegraph.

Fine by me.

Tweet Of The Day: Olympics

Congrats to Tom Daley (and his synchro partner Dan Goodfellow, who seems to be getting cropped out of the story): pic.twitter.com/DEizCZT14s

— The Media Blog (@TheMediaTweets) August 8, 2016

Here is an actual photo of them celebrating.

Telegraph.

And how the Telegraph put it on the front page of their second section...

 

Photo editors cut less hot and famous diver out of front page picture, then feature him extensively in the supplement shock.

Olympics Special: Rio

Fagburn will be bringing you regular updates on the mens' diving and gymnastics.

Tom Daley: Not The Face!

If you’ve ever wished you could stand next to Tom Daley on the Olympic diving platform then now you can. Sort of.

If you’re browsing the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park on Google Street View you might stumble on the fact the inside of the newly-reopened Aquatics Centre has been mapped.

Not only that but Mr Daley is perched atop the 10m board in his trademark Speedos ready to jump off. As with all the people caught by the Street View cameras his face is blurred out, but it doesn’t exactly conceal his identity...

To take a look for yourself at Tom and the rest of the Olympic Aquatics Centre click here.

London24.

And here's our Tom unblurry!

PS Fagburn wasn't sure what to make of this story on Popbitch.
But how good to be reminded he's now free enough to go to the London Lesbian And Gay Film Festival without people gossiping.

Sochi: Powerless

After repeated requests for "assurances" that Russia's newly enacted ban on so-called homosexual propaganda won't affect the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, the International Olympic Committee today announced that it is "completely satisfied" with vague promises from Russian diplomats that LGBT athletes and spectators will be safe during the Winter Games. 

"The Olympic Charter states that all segregation is completely prohibited, whether it be on the grounds of race, religion, color, or other, on the Olympic territory," said Jean-Claude Killy, chairman of the IOC Coordination Commission, at a press conference in Sochi today, according to the Associated Press. 

"That will be the case, we are convinced," continued Killy in French, according to a translation from the AP. "Another thing I must add: The IOC doesn't really have the right to discuss the laws in the country where the Olympic Games are organized. As long as the Olympic Charter is respected, we are satisfied, and that is the case."

The Advocate et al.

Erm, but this only applies to the Olympic games and sport, the Olympic Charter already bans all protests.

“No kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas.” Section 50:3.

You may recall Tommie Smith and John Carlos being expelled from the Mexico 68 Olympics for giving black power salutes.
Would someone like to make a list of countries that don’t have any discriminatory laws, and would thus be suitable hosts in the future?
I can't imagine it would take very long.

Update - quoted in Pink News, Friday...

On Friday, Sergei Nikitin, Amnesty International’s Moscow Office director, said: “Russia’s law banning propaganda of ‘non-traditional sexual relations’ among minors is clearly discriminatory and in this it violates international law and runs counter to the Olympic Charter. Moreover, the introduction of the law creates an atmosphere in Russia that has already encouraged brutal crimes against people only because of their real or perceived sexual orientation.”
He added: “The fact that the IOC has satisfied itself with Russian officials’ assurances of non-discrimination is not enough. It disregards the fact that Russian law effectively prohibits people from public expression of ‘non-traditional’ sexual orientation.”

This is all utter, utter BALLS - every sentence here can be answered with "No, it doesn't."
Give me (Olympian) strength.

Russia: Putin Speaks

"I've wound up some silly queens in England."
"Hahaha!"

• Some predictable balls in The Independent by leading poshgay Philip Hensher; "Apartheid, Hitler blah blah wibble!"
They've also got one of their boring polls. Whoop!

Naturally the Telegraph also supports a boycott, as "The Russian state encourages hatred of gay people" - a bit like the Telegraph, then.

The Daily Mail has now run at least four (4) articles against an Olympics boycott - here's your actual Gay Uncle Tom, Andrew Pierce.
This may - just possibly - have something to do with Stephen Fry being hated by the Daily Mail.

Here's quite a funny demolition of Fry's nonsense by Adrian Hilton - of course Fry has compared him to someone who appeased Hitler.
Godwin's Law returns to eat its own vomit.

The Observer runs an in-no-way hysterical article asking if the evil Russians will steal gay people's babies (Err... in a word, no).

GScene reports on a press release from Queer Nation - a group that no longer exists except in one gay man's delusional brain.

Gay Star News writes about the protest outside the Russian embassy that I understand no-one from GSN bothered to attend. Uh-huh...

Stupidity reaches new heights as 350,000 click on another completely pointless allout.org online petition. (Ever wondered why these crooks need your email address?)

Some people in Israel protest human rights abuses in another country - no hypocrisy there!

America - The Beautiful...

Maybe this has got so stupid all you can do is take the piss out of it?

Oh fuck it, I'm so bored with this hysterical apolitical crap - so here's a picture of Justin Bieber's bumbum.

Remember: Russia is the only country that treats gay people badly, and that violates human rights. Apart from those other countries Oceania doesn't like at the moment.

And finally, here's Scott Long writing eloquently as usual on The Truth Behind The Gay Torture Images From Russia.

PS Most hilarious and meaningless Russian boycott of the day... The American Kennel Club! Take that Putin!

Winter Olympics: Ban Sport!

Russian lawmaker Vitaly Milonov has suggested that every gay athlete and spectator who comes to Russia for the 2014 Games will be arrested. (The International Olympic Committee says that won’t happen.) And while it is not totally clear what the “gay propaganda” law specifically means, Global Post has a useful summary:

Reports of arrest for kissing or hold hands, wearing or using rainbows, or pro-gay activism have helped to clarify the definition of “propaganda” as “any statement, oral or otherwise, that is pro-gay.”
It is now illegal to even admit homosexuality in public. It is also illegal to equate the value of homosexual relationships with that of heterosexual relationships, and punishment does not apply solely to Russians. [Highly debatable interpretation - Fagburn].
Foreigners can be arrested and detained for up to 15 days, fined and deported.

So, basically, anything remotely gay, and you’re in prison. With that in mind, I suggest, to Milonov and the rest of Russia, that every sport be banned from the 2014 Winter Games.
Alpine skiing? The competitors wear rainbow-colored spandex, which is often associated with “gay” in popular culture.
Biathlon? Men. Holding guns. Discharging them into the air. Textbook phallic symbolism.
Bobsled? Four men in spandex, stuffed inside a penis-shaped capsule. You could also argue that women doing the same—being inside of the penis capsule, which is an anti-traditional-sex position—is just as evocative of disruption.
Cross-country skiing? See alpine skiing.

Figure skating? “I can say that the best figure-skating in the world is the Soviet school of figure skating,” said Milonov. I have no response.
Ice hockey? Wood-en sticks are used to slap a hard and cold object past a desexualized being covered in padding and shielded by a mask.
Luge? Men in spandex, laying backwards, in direct contrast with the traditional male posture of dominance. Women, erect and sliding through a giant tube, subverting the basic male-to-female sex act.
Nordic combined? One gay sport plus another gay sport equals a really gay sport.
Short track speed skating? Often results in members of the same sex piled on top of each other while wearing extremely tight clothing, and is therefore not too dissimilar from a public orgy.
Ski jumping? Both male and female posit themselves as human phallic symbols, hurtling through the air. That evocation of equality is gay.
Speed skating? Hooded spandex outfits obscure any suggestion of gender across all competitions, thus creating a space for any/all close readings of sexuality, which would not be the case in a climate where “gay” is considered illegal.
In short, ban the 2014 Winter Olympics from Russia.

Via Index On Censorship.

Ban more stuff!

PS Russian gay campaigners have said not to boycott the 2014 Winter Olympics. Still, what do we care what LGBT Russians say about err, things that affect gay people in Russia?

---

Tom Daley: Bronze God

I promise, promise, promise this is the last photo I'll post of Tom Daley.
At least til tea-time.

Olympics: Not Tom Daley

This is Luke Campbell - he has won a GOLD in the boxing!
While you were perving over the diving. 
Well done, Luke.

Tom Daley: Gaily?

SBNation - whatever that is.

I think the reason people think Tom is gay is cause he's a screaming queen.
Just sayin'.

PS Think I may have posted rather too much about Tom Daley recently, but I am in love LUV. And Tom's won an Olympic medal and you haven't. So NERR.

Tom Daley: On The BBC

Err...
Is this real?
Hope so. 
Thanks to Andrew.

Tom Daley: Olympian

Cried myself silly all the way through this - still am.
So proud of you Tom.

x

Olympics: Men's 10m Platform Final

Slightly bizarre photo sent by Tom Daley via Twitter.
7pm.
Come on, Tom!
#gotom

Olympics: It's An Odd Boy Who Doesn't Like Sport

Thanks to Gaz.

Olympics: Consolation Prize

Oh well...
Well done, Tom and Pete anyway.
See you on Friday August 10th - Men's 10m Platform preliminaries.
We fight on - we fight to win!

Update: A reader, Mike, tells me he's just heard Stella McCartney being interviewed on the tellybox about designing Team GB's Olympics kit, and it seemed to suggest she'd deliberately tried to make Tom's trunks as "brief" as possible - if so, thank you ma'am. x

PS The screengrab below went viral after the final - not sure why.

Olympics: Excitement Mounts

Apart from the diving and male gymnastics obvs.

Tom Daley: Stage Diver

Tommy made new advert!
Why's she talking in that funny deep voice, though?

Update: This is why the Daily Mail is EVIL!

Matthew Mitcham: The Colour Of His Hair

"I certainly don't see [being gay] as a burden, I never did, especially with how much attention the LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered] cause has been getting lately with marriage equality … and with how few openly gay sports stars there are around at the moment. ''I don't mind attention being put on it.
''Ideally I would like one day for sexuality to be as unimportant and uninteresting as hair colour, or eye colour or even just gender in general. One day it will get to that.
''But until it is easy for sports people to come out without fear of persecution or fear of lost sponsorship income and stuff like that, or fear of being comfortable in the team environment, I don't mind attention being brought to my sexuality in the hope that it might make other people feel more comfortable … in being comfortable enough about who they are in their sporting environment.''

Matthew Mitcham interviewed by the Sydney Morning Herald. 
I wonder if any other divers in this year's Olympics is gay?
Can't think of one.

Daily Mail Cartoon Fun Time: Spot The Comedy Gay!

The horror! The horror!
Cartoon accompanying Richard Littlejohn column ranting away incoherently about the Olympics being hijacked by the politically correct brigade - yes, again.
"Stephen Frost, the committee’s Head of Diversity and Inclusion... was recruited by the Olympics organisers on the basis of his extensive experience as a member of the gay rights pressure group Stonewall..."
See?!! First you make the buggers legal, next thing you know they've got jobs!