Queer Nation NY: Desperately Seeking Attention

The furor in the West over Russia’s new law placing restrictions on the discussion of homosexuality continues to dog the conductor Valery Gergiev, who is one of Russia’s most important cultural exports these days. Mr. Gergiev, a prominent supporter of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, who signed the law, drew protests Thursday night at Carnegie Hall, just as he did last month at the opening night of the Metropolitan Opera.

Shortly after Mr. Gergiev walked onto the stage at Carnegie Hall to begin leading the celebrated Mariinsky Orchestra in a program of three Stravinsky ballets, the concert was briefly delayed by several members of Queer Nation, a protest group that has been vocally pushing for gay rights in Russia.

“Gergiev, your silence is killing Russian gays!” several protesters shouted, as Mr. Gergiev, in tails, kept his back to the audience. Some members of the audience booed the protesters; others applauded. One woman yelled, “This is an artistic event!”

The protesters were removed from the auditorium, and the concert proceeded...

New York Times blog.

On their website Queer Nation NY, describe themselves as "a direct action group dedicated to ending discrimination, violence and repression against the LGBT community."

It's notable that this new group - Fagburn is unaware of any connection between them and the radical Queer Nation groups of the early 90s - have only been concerned with what's happening to LGBT people in Russia, and not in New York.

Which  is odd - but is now standard for a new breed of gay campaigners whose main function is patriotic service to US imperial hegemony. 

Queer Nation NY's idea of "protest" begins and ends with urging consumer boycotts; first they came for the Stoli, now corporate sponsors of the Sochi Olympics; naughty McDonalds, Coca-Cola etc, you must play nice!

Their "direct actions" have consisted of two protests, at an opera at the New York Met and a ballet at Carnegie Hall. 

Talk about taking the revolution home!

Oh, and they took part in that inspirational action of pouring Coke down the drain at Times Square.
So brave...

Judging by their website, Queer Nation NY, judge their successes by the amount of media coverage they get for their self-publicity stunts.

"We're here! we're queer! And we want our photo in the papers!"

'The point of the action is nothing more than the action.

Queer Nation seem to think our only power can be as consumers, or by campaigning as a continuum of celebrity culture.

If you ever wonder why the gay "movement" seems currently halted, here's one perfect example.

• Are Protests And Boycotts Enough? asks Viktor Kerney on the Bilerico Project...

"Yes, you can gain attention, but where do we go from that? How do we utilize that attention to create long-term results? I'm sorry, colleagues, but we can't be okay with step one, we have to think ahead and provide step two, three, and four and so on. We should never be okay with just gaining attention; we have to do more and better than that.

"Our overall focus should be on creating change. Just gaining attention for the sake of doing so isn't really cutting it. And we shouldn't be so quick to claim that tactic as a winning strategy. Again, it's just the first step in on-going battle for justice and equality."

It is often argued that at the least these boycotts and protests raise awareness about what's happening in Russia.
Sadly, all too often, they only compound ignorance about what's really happening there.

Fagburn: A Few Brief Words To Those Among My Fellow Gay Men Who Think Boycotting Barilla Pasta Is As Heroic And Important A Struggle As That Of The 25 Million Russians Who Died To Defeat Nazi Germany And Help End The Systematic Extermination Of The Entire Jewish Population Of Europe

An actual meme masquerading as political critique today

Power laughs while it kicks your ass,
while they distracted you into thinking some stupid pasta boycott
about having some token fag in some stupid fucking TV ad
really meant something meaningful,
when it meant nothing but your acceptance
of their attempts to depoliticise your culture.

Shut up and eat up the nicer pasta, boys!

Wipe your chin, tuck your shirt in,
Go home.

They've won.

The Guardian: Another Good Week For Gay Hysteria

WARNING: I WOULDN'T BOTHER READING THIS, IF I WERE YOU. IT'S FAGBURN BEING BORING ABOUT A RATHER BORING ARTICLE! BUT THAT'S KINDA THE POINT... *

Today the Guardian returns to the Russia/Pasta anti-gay Axis of Evil.
Thank you for fearlessly bringing these two subjects to our attention while so many others have been so silent.
In an online article Nancy Goldstein declares; It's Another Bad Week To Be Gay.
Why's that then, Nancy?
"There's been an unusually high volume of international bigotry and bad news to put up with this week."
Unusually high?
Cripes!
What's happened?
You probably haven't heard anything about this, but apparently the boss of some big Italian pasta company said he wants their TV ads to only feature straight families.
Fascist!
It gets worse.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has said they are "convinced that Russia will respect the Olympic charter, which prohibits discrimination of any kind".
Quislings!
And these demonstrate "an unusually high volume of international bigotry"??? [1]
Where on earth have you been?
Fagburn's surprised Nancy Goldstein didn't go for the hysterics' hat-trick and bring in the "offensive" (!) Inflatable Gay Best Friend, but I guess her story was filed too early to cover that great "outrage."
Frankly, I can think of many far worse weeks for us, but do go on...

Nancy: When not grinning she weeps for the world

She begins with that evil spaghetti monster, Guido Barilla, who said something about The Gays that both she and I disagree with.
How fucking dare he not agree with us?!
There has now been - inevitably - a call for a boycott of Barilla pasta, by people so infected with bourgeois consumerism they confuse (not) shopping with political action.
Welcome to the brave new world of gay "passive-activism"; if it makes you feel good, don't do it.
For the more dedicated LGBT inactivist there's an equally inevitable AllOut petition to get Barilla make an advert featuring a gay family." [2]
As ever, the promise of freedom is just a click away.
Should we now not buy anything that doesn't have a token fag in a TV ad?
How much do you feel your life has been diminished - and the forward march of gay liberation halted - by not seeing a gay dude in a stupid TV commercial today?
On a scale of one to fuck-all?
Do our collective queer dreams now aspire to nothing greater than being sold stuff by someone who looks a bit like us?
What a fortunate, wonderful life you must have had if you think this is what oppression looks like.
It's often stressed that Mr Barilla also said he doesn't agree with gay adoption - I wish he did, I wish everyone did, but they don't. [3]
Some people are bigots, get over it!
Again, should we boycott anything and everything made by a company where the CEO has daft outdated reactionary views we don't like?
I can't imagine finding much political common ground with many multi-millionaire company directors.
And how deluded and naive would someone have to be to get angry when they realise corporations aren't moral agents?
Or that their Capo di tutti capi isn't a saint?

Bit of a scoop here - Russia now hangs gay men

As there has been such an absolute avalanche of anti-gay hate this week, Goldstein swiftly moves onto the IOC statement.
Apparently; "Surpassing even Barilla's unique blend of homophobia and cynicism".
Which, seeing as the former was a relatively mild bad thing to say about The Gays, wouldn't be difficult.
She quotes the Olympic Charter, "Any form of discrimination with regard to a country or a person on grounds of race, religion, politics, gender or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic movement".
Adding; "It also compels the IOC to "fight against" and "take action against" what the charter calls "discrimination of any kind" [4].
The IOC seem only to care about discrimination at the actual Olympic games or in sport [5], but could Goldstein give me one example of a host country - future or past - of the Olympic Games or Winter Olympics without "discrimination of any kind" or with a perfect record on human rights?
London 2012 - we didn't have equal marriage, for one boring thing.
Beijing 2008... err, need I go on?
Goldstein also seems blissfully unaware that the Olympic Charter also states;“No kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas.”( Section 50:3).
The new Russian law outlawing "gay propaganda" is thus rendered irrelevant by this.
Technically, you can't protest about anything anyway - even if it's something as banal as painting your toenails in the colours of the rainbow.
Remember Mexico 68?
She blames Sochi's commercial sponsors; Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Visa, Procter & Gamble...
Presumably if we ask them, or don't buy their junk, these nice big businesses will save us.
We're here, we're queer, and we're not going shopping for your useless crap unless you sponsor Alburquerque Pride! [6]

Why is The Guardian publishing this shit?

Goldstein knows there are other ways to protest, of course.
Strangely, her sole example is a protest at the Metropolitan Opera in New York this week.
The Met's great crime?

The bastards didn't dedicate a performance of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin to Russian LGBTs.
Don't they care???
Inside, an American man shouted at two Russian performers; "Your silence is killing Russian gays!"
What, literally?
This was cruelly ironic, as many US/UK campaigners never listen to what Russian LGBT campaigners say anyway.
eg All those Americans screaming for boycotts, when almost all Russian campaigners say they're pointless and counterproductive.
They are all but invisible, inaudible to the likes of Queer Nation NY and Goldstein. [7]
Because we in the west know what's best for the likes of them.
Orientalism redux!

Oh look! Some actual LGBT Russians campaigning!

There were two protests in Russia last week - far more important, meaningful, brave and inspiring than shouting in front of some wealthy Americans.

How much coverage did you see in the news?
There was some about a protest by Nikolai Alexseyev - partly because he always press releases the international media - photos of self attached (remind you of anyone?).

The protest in Moscow against homophobia in schools was completely ignored.
But then their aims were communicating with their fellow Russians, making connections with other struggles, and challenging the authorities - not the real heavy-lifting of getting their name and picture in the New York Times.
Goldstein does conclude by mourning the death of the Russian gay campaigner, Aleksei Davydov. [8]
I'm ashamed to say the name hadn't registered with me, probably because he was an unperson in the western media when he was alive.
Yet he is now brought back to life after death by those who have all of a sudden realised Russia does bad things to the gays.
The readers' comments after this article are - as ever - as depressing as fudge.
Backwards bastards! Boycott! Ban! Boo hoo! Squish squish! *sad face* etc.
But if someone has read and believed all the stories about Russia recently, you can't really blame them for unthinking they're building Belsen on the Volga.
Some people dared to ask why either of these two minor stories are thought so very important and so terrible in the general scheme of global gay misery that they warrant such space.
The endless, voluminous, shoddy coverage about gay life in Russia is sinister, and suggestive of another agenda.
The manufactured feigned outrage over Guido Barilla's unremarkable remarks and the silly, unfunny joke that is the Inflatable Gay Best Friend is ludicrous and embarrassing.
Both can only be seen by any rational person as little, localised outbreaks of mass hysteria.
Beware the pink pearl-clutchers and pitchfork-wavers.
Both are frightening phenomena the media should be exposing, not colluding in.
¡Ya basta!

THANKS IF YOU MADE IT TO THE END OF THIS. I DID WARN YOU IT WAS GOING TO BE BORING. BUT THE POINT IS THAT THE ARTICLE REFERRED TO IS POINTLESS. BUT THEY'LL PUBLISH ANYTHING IF IT CONFORMS TO AND FURTHER FEEDS THE CURRENT CLIMATE OF GAY HYSTERIA. FAGBURN HAS FOUND THIS WEEK SO "BAD" HE WILL NOW MAKE A GAY BEST FRIEND DOLL OUT OF BARILLA PASTA AND DEFECT TO RUSSIA. до свидания! ARRIVEDERCI! GOODBYE!

* I politely pointed some of these errors and inconsistencies on The Guardian messageboard - bizarrely a moderator removed them.
Whilst I'd like to say I had really kicked it to The Man, I fear this is what happens when bored interns moderate your forums.
See also 'G*y' on Tesco Direct...

Gay Star News: Tilda SWINDON! Who he?

1. Of course, sexing up a story is standard practice in the mass media. Try pitching an article saying things haven't changed much recently, and nothing really bad has actually happened. Best to make people believe the shock-horror hype.
2. I've been told you're more likely to see the ghost of Mussolini's mistress selling stuff in an Italian ad, than a gay man anyway.
3. She quotes without question professional hysteric, Michael Aravosis of the ever-so patriotic AMERICAblog, source of a translation of the interview, and also, curiously, of endless stories about LGBT Russia. Mike's faith in capital is so fanatical he thinks boycotts are the answer to all #teamgay's problems.
4. I can't find this in the - admittedly very long - charter. Nancy, can you let me know where it is? Ta.
5. South Africa was banned from the Olympics in 1964, not because of the apartheid system, but specifically because they refused to "renounce racial discrimination in sport and opposed the ban in its own country on competition between white and black athletes."
6. See this recent Slate feature by J Bryan Lowder on the gay movement's obsession with consumer boycotts - and corporate endorsements, Barilla Chairman Doesn't Like Gay People: So What?
7. Queer Nation NY is a new group who, tellingly, are making lots of noise/publicity about homophobia in Russia, but not about homophobia in New York.
8. Scott Long has written an obituary of Aleksei Davydov, who he knew, and worked with.
Tris Reid Smith has written movingly for Gay Star News about Davydov - "inspirational" "hero" etc.
Makes you wonder why he never mentioned him when he was alive? 
See also their header about this and Tilda Swindon above.

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.

Thought For The Day: Ian McKellen

If we were to not hold the [Olympic] games because of the internal politics of the country in question, probably they would never take place.
I mean, people would find enough to argue about in America's foreign policy...

Well said, Sir Ian.
You are now - officially - forgiven for Vicious.
x

Gay wet liberals and Tories brains EXPLODE!!! with confusion as Ian McKellen says he doesn't support boycotting Sochi, and this outrage just after Elton John says he still wants to play some concerts in Russia in December. 
Two of their "gay saints" - respectable knights of the realm, no less - become sinners in the blink of a blinkered eye.
How dare the quisling traitors deviate from the neo-colonialist queer consensus and consider what actions might actually be useful and/or not completely useless??!!
Will we ever be the same again... etc etc.

PS Russian anti-gay groups DON'T want Elton to perform there, just like...

Selena Gomez: Gay Rights Hero And Brave Martyr To The Cause!

Pop star Selena Gomez was forced to cancel two concerts in Russia today after government officials denied her visa, reportedly related to stricter transit laws for foreign artists linked to the country's controversial anti-gay legislation.
The singer had been slated to perform at St. Petersburg's Ice Palace on Sept. 23 and Moscow's Olimpiisky Stadium on Sept. 25.
Prior to the cancellation of these two shows, Gomez was facing pressure to take a stand on LGBT rights in the former Soviet Union as the subject of a Change.org petition. The petition called on Gomez to speak out and "let LGBT folks in Russia know that we stand with them, and that they are not alone." It reached over 1,000 signatures before the news of Gomez's denied visa became public.
John Becker, petition author and LGBT blogger at Bilerico, said in a statement to The Huffington Post: 

Huffpost Gay Voices.

BZZT!!!
There is no evidence that Selena was denied a visa because of her support for gay rights.
This would be more than a little odd as her vocal support of gay rights is somewhere between hardly-anything and fuck-all.
Yet, Elton John's playing in December.
Okay, that figures...
Maybe it's true - Russia certainly has its fair share of nutty politicos and bureaucrats - but Fagburn somehow doubts the Russian visa office or security services closely monitor and taks notice of online petitions - even one with a whopping 1,000 signatures.
John Becker's argument is circular and nonsensical; he claims this shows Russia is now on the defensive after criticism of its "anti-gay crackdown" - which by his bizarro logic is proven as they've "banned" an American singer who might (but probably wouldn't) say something pro-gay.
Wouldn't the reverse be true?
Hilariously, Becker recently slagged off Johnny Weir for saying he'd compete in Sochi in a disgusting article for Bilerico - yet here he doesn't mention that #sobrave Selena was gagging to go and play.
Vaingloriously, Becker says this is all due to his e-petition.
Just as he claims that the boycotts are working whenever the Russian government don't do something they weren't planning on doing anyway.

It seems as likely that Selena Gomez's people filed for a visa too late.
I have no idea if she hadn't actually sold many tickets, and to suggest this could be the reason for the no-show would be pure speculation.
The billion-dollar Sochi Olympics spectacle shows that Russia is desperate to normalise its cultural relations with other countries - to seethe that they'd ban former Disney kid Selena Gomez cause she might paint her toenails in all the colours of the rainbow or something sounds just plain dumb.

  
'Nobody and nothing will stop Russia on the road to strengthening democracy and human rights and freedoms," Vladimir Putin once declared. He didn't literally add "NOT EVEN CHER" – but as opposition to Russian's anti-gay legislation grows, it becomes increasingly clear that he was thinking it.
And so to the burgeoning of a cultural boycott of sorts. Sooner or later, every last celebrity will be required to show their hand on this one – get researching, Helen Flanagan! – but in the interests of keeping you up to date, Lost in Showbiz is pleased to offer a rundown of who has declared thus far...

Marina Hyde in Friday's Guardian cruelly mocks the latest craze amongst Team Celebrity. 
Contains all your favourites; Stephen Fry, Cher, Lady Gaga, George Takei, Elton John, and Heather Mills!

PS The Sochi organising committee have issued a statement saying; “There have never been negotiations with Cher about her possible participation in the ceremonies." Surprise!

Exclusive: Putin 'Murders Gay Puppy'!

President Putin, the Russian president of Russia, has apparently killed a gay puppy with his own bare hands, Fagburn can exclusively reveal.
The photo above shows the clearly terrified little doggy-woggy, just moments away from certain death.
It is taken from a shocking new video that no-one has actually seen, but Radio Free Europe/Voice Of America - a highly-respected independent news outlet funded by the US state department - has said definitely exists.
They say Putin can apparently be heard calling the dog "my beautiful little bitch" and trying to sexually humiliate it by threatening to "give it a bone".

There are fears this could just be the beginning of the mass extermination of all gay puppies in Russia.
"I fear this could be the beginning of the mass extermination of all gay puppies in Russia," commented national treasure, Stephen Fry. "I spent an afternoon in St Petersburg last year, and I can tell you these adorable little doe-eyed balls of fluffiness are treated like dogs."
Mr Fry has called for a show of solidarity by all entrants at next year's Cruft's Dog Show wearing a big pink bow.

Playwright Havey Fierstein was not alone in pointing out this all has chilling echoes of Nazi Germany; "This is exactly how Hitler started. First he killed his alsatian, Blondi, in his Berlin bunker, then he gassed all the Jews. Except this time, Poo-tin is killing gay puppies right now. In secret."
Fierstein claims that in Moscow specially trained "dog-handlers" round up "stray" dogs and intern them in specially-constructed "dog homes".
It is understood many have been "put down". 

Leading American gay journalist and mediawhore, Dan Savage, has urged for a mass boycott of Choco Choco Doggy Treats, which are made in Baltimore.
"Enough is e-fuckin'-nuff! Time to hit the Russians where it hurts! All gay men and our straight allies must stop buying Choco Choco Doggy Treats immediately! Even if they don't have a dog."
"Money talks! Let's make it bark!"
And if that doesn't work? "I think we should invade Russia, just like I kept saying we should invade Iraq."
Asked if his boycott was ill-thought-out and pointless, Savage told Fagburn; "It's working! There's no reports of Putin killing any other gay puppies today."
"The fact that Putin isn't doing something now that he wasn't doing before proves the protest - which was organised by me, incidentally - is working."

The #boycottchoco campaign has rapidly caught on worldwide - Manhole, a gay bar in London's trendy Soho, has sent out a press release saying they will not sell Choco Choco Doggy Treats to their customers - and pointing out that they currently have a wide range of tantalising drinks offers most nights.
Veteran gay rights campaigner, the normally publicity-shy Peter Tatchell, has promised to bombard the media with press releases quoting himself, and photos of himself, until someone prints one.
But the campaign's most famous supporter has to be Ian Brady.
The Moors murderer has posted a selfie on his Facebook page where he holds up a sign reading; "#Boycottchoco! Won't somebody please think of the children!?"

Yesterday, America's most right-wing Neo-con gay loon, James Kirchick, took over a live TV debate on Russia Today about Syria to bring attention to the non-existent gay puppy pogrom.
Donning a comedy rainbow bowtie that spins round and round, he told their dozens of viewers; "You know what? Fuck Syria. America should just bomb it back to the stone age. Then we should get all our sexy US marines to march on Moscow."
After launching into a barely coherent tirade about how Chelsea Manning, Edward Snowden and Glenn Greenwald should be publically hanged as traitors in a Walmart carpark, the censors at Russia Today immediately cut-off Kirchick after half-an-hour.

Patrick Smugtwit, a gay journalist famed for his stunningly original and intellectual articles, has written online; "I literally weep for the Russian gay puppies. No-one feels their pain as much as me. Boo-hoo-hoo. Why has there been such silence about this, apart from all the articles about it? Imagine if this was happening to black puppies!"
In a statement, Sebastian Posh-Twit from LGBTory - the Conservative party's gay group - slammed the Russian premier; "Although our party has a long history of supporting the torturing of puppies for fun and political gain, we have changed, and now only use them for hunting foxes."

But it's not just the gay right who are angry about this - many apolitical gay men are now pretending they care by leaving ever madder and ill-informed comments on gay media message boards.
One - @keverrett69 - posted recently; "LETZ BOMB THE RUSSIAN SCUM! 4 THE LOLZ!!!"

A spokesman for Puppy Love (мальчишеское увлечение), Russia's leading dog advocacy group, told Fagburn they thought this was all "hysterical and rather silly and based on wilful misinformation."
"I think there might be a hidden agenda here, where, once again, an officially declared enemy of the US is obediently demonised by the media in the service of Western power and neo-imperial American hegemony," he said.
"There are far, far worse things happening to gay men in many other countries now - and the US and UK are hardly queer utopias - so maybe people should stop and ask why the situation in Russia has suddenly got such obsessive, endless blanket coverage?"
"Any rational person would see this as an outbreak of mass hysteria."
"Basically you can say any old shit about Russia right now and get away with it."
But what would he know, he's a fucking filthy Russian?

• Protests have been organised in cities around the world next Friday, where people are invited to take part in a mass Pissing Against The Wind - or, if they can't be arsed, they can make themselves feel better by clicking on one of those AllOut.org e-petitions that politicians always ignore.

Russia: On Sense & Nonsense

"I live in New Jersey, so I'm not even still considered an equal human. I wasn't considered an equal in this country, so why should I stay away from another country that doesn't consider me equal, and why should I not show the world what I worked hard for?"

Ice-skater Johnny Weir on a US chat show yesterday.
A quite reasonable statement that sends the host and the good ole American patriots in the gay media predictably mentalist!
Hang the traitor!

If you want a thoroughly depressing reminder of how thought-control works in democratic societies, read any of the readers' comments sections on stories about Russia on gay blogs and websites.
See, for example, the utterly odious, threatening ones about Johnny on Queerty and lose a little more hope for queer humanity.
(Update: Or witness this confederacy of dunces on Pink News).
Little parlour game; try asking a question as obvious as "Do you think we should consider what Russian LGBT campaigners think?" and see where that gets you.
AMERICAblog - "A great nation deserves equality" (!) - now has a dedicated Gay Russia section; a wonderful round-up of misinformation and madness.
As ever, it's instructive how this issue so animates the gay right.
And anyone who dissents from the standard spoonfed "Worse than Hitler! Boycott 'em! Ban 'em! Bomb 'em!" line gets virtually lynched by the pink pitchfork mob.

Lib Dem President Tim Farron has tabled a motion on the "deplorable" situation in Russia.

That this House deplores the recent legislation passed in Russia banning the promotion of non-traditional relationships; notes that this is akin to the former Section 28 legislation in the UK; further notes that the new law appears to be part of a wider crackdown on the freedoms of the LGBT community in Russia; believes that we must listen to those Russian LGBT groups and activists who urge very strongly that boycotts in any form or nature, from sporting, like the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, to drinking vodka, are not supported by them and only increase the likelihood of harm towards LGBT Russians; and calls on the Government to work through international and diplomatic channels, like the G20, the Council of Europe and the International Olympic Committee and commercial and business interests already involved in sponsoring the 2014 Winter Olympics, alongside indigenous LGBT campaign groups based in Russia itself, to stand up for the human rights of the Russian LGBT community.

Heaven forfend we might consider what gay people in Russia think best.
Surprisingly sensible stuff from an MP - though it's an early day motion, so no more than the parliamentary equivalent of sending out a press release.

And, just for fun, here's a short BBC TV News item on why the vodka boycott was pointless bollocks. 

In the interests of balance here's some of the usual gay hysterics over on Huffington Post Gay...

"It's high time to talk about asylum. The only way at this point that the US can help Russian gays and lesbians is get us the hell out of here!

"Russian gay activist" Masha Gessen, there (though she's actually an American citizen - and clearly more barking than Battersea Dogs' Home).
Let's organise a mass exodus of LGBT Russians to the 100% homophobia-free American holy state!!
Yay, you've clearly really thought that one through.
It's a sign of how completely debased this "debate" has become that such a laughable and ludicrous statement is taken seriously, and not even challenged.

And finally... Harvey Fierstein - who has already made the morally obscene comparison between Russia today and the Nazi holocaust - says what's going now on has all the hallmarks of a witch hunt.
Though the current climate of hysteria in the US and UK sounds rather like a witchhunt, don't you think, Harvey?
Just ask Johnny Weir.

Winter Olympics: None More Gay!

Back in 1976 when I edited the magazine Sportsworld, then the official publication of the British Olympic Association, I received a telephone call from a Melbourne radio station in the middle of the night following the British figure skater John Curry’s breathtakingly artistic gold medal-winning performance in the Innsbruck Winter games.

“Hi,” said an Aussie voice. “We’ve all been watching your guy John Curry win the Olympics. Isn’t he something? Understand you know him quite well.” I concurred that indeed I did.

“Great. Look, mate, would you mind telling us a bit more about him – we’re all keen to know. Can we go live with an interview now?” “No problem,” I replied.

“OK... We’ve got Alan Hubbard, editor of Sportsworld magazine live from London, who knows this Pommie skater John Curry we’re all talking about... Tell me Alan, is he a poofter?”

I recall I quickly mumbled something about his sexual orientation being his own business. “Well,” came the response, “he sure looks a poofter from here!”

Thankfully, things have moved on since then – even in Australia. But not, apparently, in Russia and, significantly, certain other discriminatory outposts, including Qatar, which follows Russia as World Cup hosts in 2022, and where being gay, as the late Curry eventually revealed he was, is still tantamount to being a pariah...

Alan Hubbard writing in The Independent leading into talking about you-know-what.
Illustrated with the above photo of the "flamboyant" American figure skater, Johnny Weir.

The article is quite accurately titled; For Sochi the future is gay, whether Vladimir Putin likes it or not One certainty is there will be no boycott neither will the games be shifted

Got that?

Regardless of how daft and counter-productive these "demands" were in the first place, they were objectively not going to happen.

It would make a nice change if, just for once, one person calling for people to "do something" about homophobia in Russia had stopped for four seconds and thought things through.

Not that I'm suggesting for one moment that this "debate" has been dominated by a load of idiotic gay hysterics waving their pink pitchforks, you understand.*
It's encouraging that some sane and rational voices are starting to be heard in this thoroughly depressing episode - here's Alice Arnold; Britain's homophobia needs to be tackled before we turn to Russia's.
Quite.

*Check out the usual avalanche of stupidity on Huff Post Gay, and remind yourself why the LGBT movement's fucked.
They've even run an article that asks; Imagine if they'd say that about race.
AARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!
Such sophisticated, original and radical political debate, HuffPo!

Vodka: Gay Mass Hysteria Grips New York

Vodka has been seen being poured down the drain outside Russia’s consulate in New York this afternoon as another gay bar boycotts Russia’s national drink in protest at the country’s homophobic stance.
Bottles of Stoli were gripped with disdain and emptied by staff from Boxers, a gay sports bar in the city, outside the Russian consulate on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
Around 100 people [sic] took part in Wednesday’s protest.
The bottles of vodka were donated by Boxers, situated on 37 W 20th St, Manhattan, who earlier had confirmed they would no longer be selling Stoli.
“As the largest LGBT seller of Stoli in the region, we feel that this symbolic step is of great importance in showing our solidarity,” said Robert Fluet, co-owner of the Boxers NYC bars...

Pink News.

So someone's boss told their minimum wage slaves to put on a branded company t-shirt for a photo op he then press released to publicise his over-priced bars?
Amazing!
This is how revolutions start!
Reminds me of the CNT's streetfighting in Barcelona in 1936.
Actually, I'm being sarcastic - what this "campaign" reminds me of is the hysterical mass buying of Elton John's Candle In The Wind when Princess Diana died.
ie It's a load of silly bollocks.

PS Tomorrow I will be protesting Russian homophobia by not eating caviar while not doing that silly Cossack dance. If you care as much as I do, please join me.

• Extraordinary Popular Delusions And The Madness Of Crowds by Charles Mackay (1841). Edit: Hilarious video of gay mass hysteria in New York on the Telegraph online - whose Russophobia clearly trumps their homophobia.

Update: Here's the VK page where videos of the attacks on young Russian gay men are being posted. I can't verify them, but I find it hard to believe they're not real. Heartbreaking, terrifying stuff - but how anyone can think that not buying Russian (or Latvian) vodka is going to change anything is beyond me...

Israel/Palestine: Pride Against Injustice

After Pride Toronto banned the group Queers Against Israeli Apartheid from taking part last month, comes news that Madrid Pride have told an official delegation from Tel Aviv they are not welcome because authorities in the city have not condemned the raid on the Free Gaza Flotilla.
But whereas Pride Toronto said they didn't want politics to rain on their parade, Madrid Pride made their decision as they still see Pride as a political event.
Antonio Poveda, of Spain's Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Transexuals and Bisexuals, told El Mundo newspaper; "After what has happened, and as human rights campaigners, it seemed barbaric to us to have them taking part. We don't just defend our own little patch."
A report on Guardian Unlimited today does not mention that the delegation was official and organised in conjunction with the Israeli Tourist Board, who were to have a Tel Aviv themed party, and a bus bearing the slogan "TLV Love Embassy".
This makes it seems like a hysterical over reaction by pro-Palestinians against innocent and politically neutral "Tel Aviv residents".
It wasn't.
In an article in The Jewish Chronicle on Monday, Shai Deutsch, the Israel Gay and Lesbian Association's Tourism chief is quoted as saying; “There is no doubt that our presence there, together with the European campaign will contribute to a significant increase in gay tourism in Tel Aviv this coming winter.”
It's part of a broader campaign - both economic and political - to try and improve the image abroad of the Israeli thug-state.
This process has been dubbed "pinkwash".
El Mundo and The Guardian also quote Eytan Schwartz, a spokesperson for Tel Aviv.
In the interests of balance Schwartz got 165 words on GU to Poveda's 26.
Schwartz said; "We invited the organisers of the gay pride event in Madrid to join a march this Friday in Tel Aviv, the only place in the Middle East where you can be gay in public."
Really?
In August 2009, a gunman killed two people at the Tel Aviv Gay and Lesbian Association Centre. The killer has not been found.
In 2005, an ultra-Orthodox Jew stabbed three participants in the Jerusalem gay pride parade. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports that "several bombs [have been] set off to protest Jerusalem Gay Pride parades in previous years."