The historic image of Russian athletes Kseniya Ryzhova and Tatyana Firov kissing atop their winner’s podium highlighted the horrific anti-gay laws that have recently passed in Russia, which has seen one of the state broadcast’s top anchormen announcing on television: “I believe it is not enough to impose fines on gays for engaging in the propaganda of homosexuality among adolescents. We need to ban them from donating blood and sperm, and if they die in car accidents, we need to bury their hearts in the ground or burn them as they are unsuitable for the aiding of anyone’s life.”
It’s an incredibly harrowing, genuinely frightening time in Russia for their LGBTI community at the moment, all but put in the spotlight more among fears of discrimination during the upcoming 2014 Winter Olympics held in Sochi. With gay rights activists working tirelessly to call out the archaic sentiments and aiming to make Russia a safe place for the LGBTI community, a presidential decree passed by Vladimir Putin on Friday has effectively banned all protests, gatherings, rallies, marches and pickets during the Winter Olympics, and has severely restricted access to the Games with designated check points and controlled “zones” where Olympic spectators and their belongings will be searched. According to news.com.au, the decree also bans all cars from Sochi unless granted specific permission. Hey Putin, mate, great job in really selling the Winter Olympics to me. Sounds like a blast!
Gay activist Nikolai Alexeyev tweeted that the measures were “unconstitutional” and that “There will still be a gay pride parade.”
There’s so many things a government can do to elaborately stamp out equality to shield attention from the public eye. But banning soapboxes, hushing dissenters and refusing freedom of speech? Silence is torture.
Via BBC, news.com.au
Title photo by Gerard Julien via Getty.
Title photo by Gerard Julien via Getty.
