Russia: Openly

B-b-but I keep reading in the media and from that leading expert on Russia, Stephen Fry, all gay men there are sent to death camps.

I think the posh interns the gay media loves to not pay for writing drivel go back to "uni" next week.

Tweet Of The Day: Liam Gallagher

Russian hooligans skintight shorts bumbags batty boy muscles ha ha I'd be more worried bout getting me arse pinched LG X

— Liam Gallagher (@liamgallagher) June 15, 2016

Update: Astonishingly both Gay Star News and Pink News tried to make a connection between this childish tweet and the Orlando massacre!

And here's the politically inane Patrick Strudwick on LGBT Buzzfeed earlier; 'Days after the Orlando massacre, Attitude magazine is publishing a historic interview and photo shoot with the future king...'

Eh?

Do we have to bring the Orlando massacre into everything now?

Gay Star News.

Propaganda: The Danger Of Demonisation

Does any intelligent person look at a New York Times article about Russia or Vladimir Putin these days and expect to read an objective, balanced account? Or will it be laced with a predictable blend of contempt and ridicule? And is it any different at The Washington Post, NPR, MSNBC, CNN or almost any mainstream U.S. news outlet?

And it’s not just Russia. The same trend holds true for Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Nicaragua and other countries and movements that have fallen onto the U.S. government’s “enemies list.” We saw the same pattern with Saddam Hussein and Iraq before the 2003 U.S. invasion; with Muammar Gaddafi and Libya before the U.S.-orchestrated bombing campaign in 2011; and with President Viktor Yanukovych and Ukraine before the U.S.-backed coup in 2014.

That is not to say that these countries and leaders don’t deserve criticism; they do. But the proper role of the press corps – at least as I was taught during my early years at The Associated Press – was to treat all evidence objectively and all sides fairly. Just because you might not like someone doesn’t mean your feelings should show through or the facts should be forced through a prism of bias.

In those “old days,” that sort of behavior was deemed unprofessional and you would expect a senior editor to come down hard on you. Now, however, it seems that you’d only get punished if you quoted some dissident or allowed such a person onto an op-ed page or a talk show, someone who didn’t share Official Washington’s “group think” about the “enemy.” Deviation from “group think” has become the real disqualifier.

Yet, this conformity should be shocking and unacceptable in a country that prides itself on freedom of thought and speech. Indeed, much of the criticism of “enemy” states is that they supposedly practice various forms of censorship and permit only regime-friendly propaganda to reach the public.

But when was the last time you heard anyone in the U.S. mainstream say anything positive or even nuanced about Russian President Putin. He can only be portrayed as some shirtless buffoon or the devil incarnate. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton got widespread praise in 2014 when she likened him to Hitler...

Robert Parry, consortiumnews.com

Thankfully the gay media doesn't do this sort of thing.

If you just go 'LIKE HITLER!', you've already lost the debate.

Eurovision: Oh Those Russians!

Textbook hysterical over-reaction from Pink News.

Been a while since the gay/GBH media has had a chance to return to its favourite licence to write bollocks, Russia.

The sad thing is, I'm not sure Nick Duffy believes a word of this.

Or maybe, like most gay journalists, he's happy to be a handmaiden of power?

Eniarku tub enoyna!

See also: The Eurovision dilemma: What if Russia wins, Gay Star News, If Russia wins, will Eurovision's gay fans boo or cheer, Telegraph.Could Russia actually win the song contest despite its anti-gay law, Independent. Snore!

PS See the hilarious comments section after this gem.

Good to know Pink News readers know more about what Russia's actually like than, erm... a Russian!

See also: Gay clubbing and stoic activism in Russia’s homophobic heartland, Guardian report from the industrial city of Samara, where gay life goes quietly on.

There's an interesting interview with a gay Russian Eurovision fan on GT online, 'Boycotting my country will only make things worse'.

USA: This Is Fascism

The Week.

A truly backwards, barbarian nation.

Doubtless Saint Peter Tatchell and Stephen Fry will be calling for a boycott and protesting outside the American embassy.

All together now; 'THIS IS HOW HITLER STARTED!'

Stop buying Coca Cola!

Joe My God.

Owen Jones Watch: Love & Hate

A generous double-helping of our Owen over on Guardian online today.

Firstly, OJ thinks President Putin of Russia is not very nice,

BUT WHY IS NO-ONE ELSE ON THE LEFT SPEAKING OUT?!! *

Next up, a video where you can watch Dr Owen Jones drool all over put on his comedy concerned face as he talks to young Olly Alexander about mental health.

Enjoy!

Update: Gay Twitter reacts...

Can't stop watching this. Owen's death grip vs Olly's awkward shoulder pat. #owly  https://t.co/Y9B3rUkxo9

— Paul Lang (@rudemrlang) January 26, 2016

Tweet Of The Day: Gay Mafia

Both #BBC and #ITV are run by gay mafia. Why are we allowing this shit? #justasking

— Alexander Nekrassov (@StirringTrouble) January 25, 2016

A laughable response to the equally laughable Panorama documentary that Putin is secretly MADE OF GOLD!

Alexander Litvinenko: Kremlin Paedophile

Here's the article where the rather bizarre Alexander Litvinenko accused Vladimir Putin of being a paedophile.

Obviously anything this man has said should be taken seriously.

NB Polonium had never been used as a poison before, and was not initially found in his body, but apparently turned up some time later, as if by magic, so yeah, obvs killed by those evil Russian Pitinistas. (Though it seems not unlikely the mafia did).

Update: At last! Someone's tracked down the 5 year-old boy Putin kissed in 2006!

Russia: Homosexuality Not To Be Banned Shock

Pink News.

LOL!

I think it's only the lunatic hegemonic hysterics on the gay press that thought this had any hope of becoming law.

Update: Oh and the silly posh interns that write for The Independent, obvs.

Marc Almond: In Search Of Vadim Kozin

Marc Almond travels to Moscow in search of the marvelous Russian tenor Vadim Kozin, tango-singer and superstar. The darling of the Soviet Union, Kozin melted hearts by the tens of millions in the 1940s, playing to packed concert halls and rallying Red Army troops in World War 2. 

Kozin made dozens of hit records and lived the high-life of a celebrity in the most rarified circles around Stalin. But he vanished one day in 1944 when the secret police arrested him and sent him to the GULAG for homosexuality. * His records were pulled from the shops, his voice from the radio. The public thought him dead, but Kozin would spend the next 50 years in Siberia, still singing and performing in the strange looking-glass world of internal exile.

BBC World Service. 

The producer, Monica Whitlock, writes about Vadim here.

* Possibly not really for homosexuality. He was released in 1950.

Russia: Smiley Face

Russia has ruled that gay emojis are allowed to stay on iPhones, dropping the lawsuit against Apple.

Moscow’s City Court has thrown [out?] a lawsuit which claimed emojis showing smiling same-sex couples was a violation of the law that prohibits ‘gay propaganda’...

Pink News.

Hmm, I'm trying to think of a gay news media site daft enough to have first reported this as if there was any chance it could or would have happened... anyone?

PS It would be wrong to single out Pink News here. As per, all gay media went for the default 'Print any old bollocks about Russia' option.

TV Review: Rudolf Nureyev - Dance To Freedom

Я всегда полагал, что Радолф Нереиев будет предателем его советской родины, но я наслаждался этой программой очень.
It - о том, как в 1961, он перешел на сторону Запада.
, Но эта телевизионная игра показывает, что доброжелательные российские власти позволяют ему идти!
Nureyev сыгран знаменитой балериной Артем Овчаренко - он красив, волшебными глазами.
Это было большой и неотразимой драмой, хотя в конец каждый заключает, что Nureyev был эгоистичным влагалищем!

Наблюдают это на BBC iPlayer.

PS Here's a Guardian article about Nureyev's 'defection' and the programme.

Russia: Oh! Carol

Arthouse is releasing the movie in Russia and admitted doing so would be a "huge challenge" due to federal laws that "victimize the Russian LGBT community."

Hollywood Reporter.

Small print: 'Carol is rated R in the U.S., but in Russia the film will certainly be assigned an 18+ age rating due to these laws.' 

FASCISTS!!!

Update: This story went global/viral, all with much the same silly headline, which was then contradicted in the text.

Bad Stuff Round-Up: Feel The Fury

'Don’t let your sexuality define you” is a phrase that I’m sure most of us are absolutely sick to death of hearing, despite the fact that in my experience heterosexual people have been the first to ‘define’ me in this way. What this basically means is “I know you’re gay, but you don’t have to be into all those gay things.” This creates a culture where gay people are routinely made to feel lucky or grateful for being accepted, when in fact this should be the norm and not the exception. Just as gay celebrities have to be more talented, your average gay person has to be funnier, smarter and more outgoing to compensate for the fact that they sleep with men...'

Textbook hysterical knicker-wetting gay winky wanky woo from Independent Voices.

Sake, a school magazine would have rejected this 'I is so oppressed!' drivel.

PS Did Tyson Fury getting nominated for BBC Sports Personality Of The Year warrant two (2) stories on IV? You guys must be rilly angry!

Russian Maxim: Respect

In an article headlined “Gays We Respect,” the Russian edition of men’s magazine Maxim has “forgiven” a list of famous actors, authors and musicians for their sexual orientation.

“We, men, do not consider men who love men to be men. This is the rule,” the introduction to the post reads. “But there are exceptions. There are gays who have earned our respect and the right to remain real men in our eyes.”

These “exceptions” include actors Ian McKellen and Neil Patrick Harris, who the magazine has “forgiven” for their sexual orientation due to their onscreen roles.
 
“We weren’t sure about including Neil Patrick Harris in the list — after all, he declared himself a ‘happy gay’ in 2006. But his performance as Barney Stinson in the series How I Met Your Mother hasn’t left us indifferent,” the article reads. “It’s impossible not to respect someone who elevated the hunt for girls into a true art, who systematized all the tricks and techniques and created the ‘Bro Code.’ Even if he was just acting the role. But how he acted!”

As the lead singer of Queen, Freddie Mercury “brought us so much joy, we are ready to forgive him anything,” the magazine continues.

Rob Halford of Judas Priest is evidence that “if you’re cool enough, it doesn’t matter what your orientation is.” British comedian Stephen Fry is presented as “the living embodiment of the idea that one can be openly gay and a sensible person at the same time.” ...

An editor at Maxim’s Russian edition told BuzzFeed News Nov. 26 “our position is clearly formulated in the introduction to the article.” Alexander Malenkov, the editor-in-chief of the Russian edition of Maxim, told the Russian News Service Nov. 30, “This is a joke article. It says so in it.” ...

BuzzFeed LGBT.

The piece does seem to be a piss-take - and presumably meant to mock Russian homophobia and machismo - but satire is always lost on simpletons.

Though, admittedly it might have lost something in the (Google) translation.

Still... Russia BOO!

Update: Not seen one gay media account of this that didn't regurgitate it as clearly another example of TEH EVIL RUSSIAN HOMOPHOBIA!!!

But where would be without the Pavlovian LGBT media seeing homophobia where there is none?

Hey! Remember when Putin called Elton John and that was absolutely 100% straight-up true?

Syria: Sodomy In Action

The Advocate.

As with Iran a decade ago, and Russia a year ago, you can now tell when the right is getting ready for war, as they suddenly highlight homophobia in a designated country.

Altogether now; 'They throw gay men off buildings!' 

Update: David Cameron's call to arms in the Commons on Thursday...

“In the Middle East, they are seeking to establish their vision of a caliphate across Iraq and Syria, forcing people in those areas to yield to their rule or face torture or death. They have beheaded aid workers, organised systematic rape, enslaved Yazidi women and thrown gay people off buildings. All these atrocities belong to the dark ages.”

Andrew Percy, Conservative MP for Brigg & Goole writing in the Telegraph.

Google 'Syria gay/s buildings' for endless examples of this 'Bombing for gay rights' mantra.

Gay Star News: Pornography As Propaganda?
Only carpet bombing can stop this!

Tweet Of The Week: Take That Putin!

.@JaymiUJWorld has a special message for President Putin in his latest GT column. Via https://t.co/KTWRgsA0xw pic.twitter.com/EHIZchabBe

— Gay Times Magazine (@GayTimesMag) November 21, 2015

LOL!

Russia: The Alexeyev Letter

Click to enlarge!

The US embassy in Moscow has given a Russian newspaper a grammar lesson over a fake letter that purports to show that the US pays gay rights activists to smear Russian officials.

The embassy marked more than two dozen mistakes in a copy of the alleged letter that it posted on its Twitter account. “Dear Izvestia, next time you use fake letters, send them to us – we will be happy to help correct the mistakes,” it wrote at the bottom.

The post was in response to an article in Izvestia on Wednesday that said activists were accusing the Russian officials of homosexuality to “earn grants” from the US State Department.

The article focused on prominent activist Nikolai Alexeyev, who told Ekho Moskvy radio station in May 2013 that Vladimir Putin’s aide Vyacheslav Volodin, the head of a state-owned bank and a director at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport were gay.

As proof of the US-backed “campaign to discredit” these officials, Izvestia quoted what the newspaper said was hacked correspondence between Alexeyev and the US State Department. Although it failed to provide a direct link, several quotes come from a letter posted on the CyberGuerilla website earlier this year.

In the letter, dated 11 May 2015, a rights envoy supposedly thanked Alexeyev for helping to organise a rally against Russian aggression in Ukraine, which drew “negative responses from Russian officials … a clear sign of excellent training and qualification of the protesters”.

“LGBT organisations will get increased financing at the expense of other opposition democratic organisations considering their low efficiency in developing civic society in Russia,” the alleged letter said...

The Guardian.

Might one suggest that as this letter was said to have been sent to Nikolai Alexeyev it might have just possibly been the creation of this increasingly nutty fantasist and master of the counter-productive publicity stunt?

The Interpreter Russia Update today notes...

Alekseyev himself is controversial figure in his own terms and is widely-traveled and publicized; when he appeared on Ekho Moskvy, some listeners texted that he himself was a provocateur within the gay movement.

From his first attempt at a gay demonstration in 2005, other gays denounced him as "a provocation of officials," since they believed he cooperated with the presidential administration to make the gay movement radical and visible, and then attract a police crackdown and angry public opinion.

These types of accusations are common in social movements in Russia where groups are split about tactics given the reality of state oppression and where it is easy to believe someone is a secret police informer given Soviet history. An American blogger accused Alekseyev of collaborating with the Kremlin when he claimed that a new anti-gay law would not be enforced, when it fact it was to charge a solo picketer. 

As Ekho Moskvy host Timur Olevsky commented during the talk show:

The co-organizer of the gay parade in Moscow, Nikolai Bayev, an acquaintance of Alekseyev, Nikolai Alekseyev believes that he is too rigid, and that this harms the cause of the gay community, however even so, he says that only coming out, only publicly emerging from the shadows, that is designating the right to be yourself, can help the LGBT movement in Russia.
 
Alekseyev has been arrested numerous times both for his attempt to stage the gay parades and campaign for same-sex marriages in Russia, where they are outlawed. He has also launched winning cases before the European Court of Human Rights on gay rights.

But he also became controversial in the West in August 2013 when he made a series of antisemitic comments on Twitter and Facebook about Advocate editor Matthew Breen and the magazine OUT. As a result, the organization Human Rights First, which had been active on promoting non-discrimination and tolerance of racial minorities and LGBYT withdrew from a planned conference call with Alekseyev. Alekseyev's social media outbursts at the time then culminated in slamming Peter Tatchell's "Love Russia, Hate Homophobia" campaign [Who could have predicted the two biggest egos in LGBT campaigning would fall out? FB]. Finally, he issued a death threat to Michael Lucas, a Jewish American with Russian and Israeli roots. Alekseyev then claimed to quit LGBT activism after the scandals...

See also, Is Nikolai Alexeyev The Russian LGBT Community’s Greatest Asset, Biggest Liability — Or Both? Max Seddon, Buzzfeed.

Thanks to Paul Canning (who thinks everything I write about Russia is the mad ranting of the last gay Stalinist). x

PS Fagburn's favourite entirely believable stories about the eminently sane Nikolai are his two (2) claims to have been kidnapped!

BrewDog No Label: Tastes Like Pinkwashing

A company has created what it claims is the world’s first “transgender” beer – using hops that have changed sex from male to female.

Scottish brewing company Brewdog launched the new product, No Label – which it claims “captures the spirit of Soho itself”.

Brewdog explained: “No Label is the world’s first ‘non-binary, transgender beer’ designed to reflect the diversity of the area and champion inclusivity.

“This 4.6% ABV Kölsch has been brewed with hops that have changed sex from female to male flowers prior to harvest.

“We have used these to emphasise that, just like humans, beer can be whatever the hell it wants to be, and proud of it.” ...

“The beer draws parallels with individuals who identify themselves in a similar ‘non-binary’ way, as neither exclusively male nor female – a community of people that is still largely under-acknowledged by society...

Profits from the beer will be donated to queer event collective Queerest of the Queer, in turn to support trans communities.

Pink News.

It really is baffling that Queerest of the Queer would not only be involved with this, but open their post on it by decrying pinkwashing.

— How Upsetting (@How_Upsetting) November 5, 2015

Queerest of the Queer aren't the people you call when you want to pink wash - we don't give you easy credits on your corporate social responsibility - we're a collection of politically minded queers into performance and creating queer spaces.

So when BrewDog responded to our challenge to talk about their fundraising video and how they could seriously re-engage with and make amends to the LGBTQ+ community they weren't taking the easy track.

We met and started to talk about levels of oppression and how Cis, White, Rich, Gay men are not the only voice, even if they are a loud voice. There are other lived experiences. We had long animated discussions, including how charitable money doesn't often end up going to the grass roots organisations that help LGBTQ+ youth, especially when they are supporting the homeless and refugees.

Then we got talking about the history of brewing, the role of women in early brewing that was slowly erased, and the work Brew Dog are doing, and should continue to do, to bring more diversity into brewing.

This led us to talking about the closure of queer spaces, with the closure of the Black Cap, Madame JoJo’s and the George and Dragon to mention but a few.

  

So we ended up where we are today, with No Label - a beer with our name on it. A beer without anybody’s name on it. A beer, as it were, without a name.

All money from this venture is gong to charities - because one of the goals of Queerest of the Queer was that we give as much of any profit we can to charity. We didn’t make a profit from the festival in September- and this allowed us to do more than we could have done even if we had a capacity crowd.

Money is going to the Albert Kennedy Trust, Micro Rainbow who support LGBT asylum seekers, and we are working with Mosaic Youth and other youth charities to run a LGBTQ+ youth ball in the new year.

We haven’t put a label on what this relationship with BrewDog is – it would be counter-intuitive...

Facebook post - please read the comments.

Pink News.

Last September, BrewDog released a crowdfunding video that showed founders James Watt and Martin Dickie sending up how desperate they were for money by dressing in bad drag and trying to sell their bodies in a brothel window, under the hashtag #dontmakeusdothis.

This was greeted with a (slightly OTT) online petition and a call for a boycott until the 'transphobic' online ad was withdrawn.

BrewDog beer company claims to be "beer for punks". They claim to be ethical. Yet in their new crowdsourcing video they mock homeless people, trans women and sex workers. They say, "don't make us do this" whilst performing as offensive caricatures of people, many of whom already suffer discrimination every day. They are mocking the lives and experiences of people who real punks would be defending and helping.

Worse, this is a fundraising video - they're using these images in an exploitative manner to make money.

In February 2014, BrewDog came up with this wanky PR stunt to jump on the hysterical Sochi bandwagon; ‘Hello My Name is Vladimir’ has been launched as the world’s first protest beer, aimed to mock and criticise Russia’s anti-gay “propaganda” laws.

Take that Putin!

Full disclosure: Fagburn completely missed this one, I ignore a lot of these tedious pink PR exercises as I don't like giving them the oxygen of publicity.

I had no idea how farcical this one was - thanks to @How_Upsetting for joining the dots. x

See also Why Drinking 'Transgender Beer' Won't Help The LGBT Community, Anthony Lorenzo, Vice.

PS Should point out that Fagburn does not think the BrewDog dudes are devils, and probably had good intentions.

Look at this for an example of classic bourgeois LGBTIQWXYZ victimhood!

Sorry?

Where was the 'HARM DONE'! by their crappy ad?

Sake.

Gareth Williams: Questions To Which The Answer Is No

More utter nonsense in the Daily Mail.

PS 'The first screenplay by acclaimed thriller writer Tom Rob Smith, London Spy stars [Ben] Whishaw as Danny, an openly gay drifter who falls in love with the enigmatic Alex, a closeted investment banker (or so he claims). It would be wrong of me to give too much away, suffice to say that the story would seem to be inspired in part by the real-life case of Gareth Williams, the M16 agent whose corpse was found locked in a holdall in 2010...' The Independent.