Russia's horrendous treatment of their LGBT citizens has garnered attention recently, with horrific news emerging from the country of anti-gay legislation passed on Tuesday banning information on homosexuality, hate crimes by neo-Nazi groups, and police brutality on a peaceful gay pride march.Obvious outrage has been sparked in the global community — and gay bay bars everywhere are dumping out their Russian vodka. Dan Savage, a U.S. gay rights activist and founder of the It Gets Better Project, recently called for a boycott of Stolichnaya and other Russian products on his blog. Soon an avalanche of boycott support came down, going so far as to encourage the boycott of the 2014 Olympics in Sochi.
In theory, the boycott sounds great. Boycotts have a long and illustrious history of engendering social change, so hit them where it hurts, right? Unfortunately, the proposed ideas may not hurt all that much.
Stolichnaya released an open letter defaming the Russian government for its actions, emphasizing that it "stands strong & proud with the global LGBT community." The reality that Stolichnaya is not representative of the Russian government, in no way condones the government's actions, and has no social impact over it becomes clear. Since an unjustified decline in Western sales won't even bruise the vodka brand, it will hardly crumble the Russian economy.
we really don't know the affect boycotting will have especially in another country trading on the world market, they said sanctions against Iran were not going to do anything, although not really measurable it has it's teeth and it does bite and like something as small as a little bug bite it still annoys the hell out of you, is that not the point?
Well, what about the Olympics? RUS LGBT, a Russian gay rights group, called for its boycott.However, the Russian LGBT Network urged against it. This is not the first time the Olympic games have been embroiled in political controversy and boycotts, and likely not the last. The games are meant to be apolitical, often achieving their social ends through avid participation when it is least expected. This article by the founder of the You Can Play Project to combat homophobia in sports made the point that the attendance of LGBT athletes could be the biggest symbol."In 1968, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar refused to play in the Olympics as a protest against the treatment of blacks in America. The same year, Tommie Smith and John Carlos stood on a medal stand, gloved fists in the air, as a protest against the treatment of blacks in America. History remembers the athletes who showed up."The real question in this boycott is who it will matter to — since it doesn't to our favorite cuddly villain, Russian President Vladimir Putin. "I don’t think it will matter to Putin because the boycott will just mean there won't be any gays at the Olympics and that makes them happy, but the international noise will matter," said Kargaltsev
these incidents are in the history books they serve to inspire future efforts. there is something to be said about peaceful unrest the violence gets more press because of the sensationalism, the peaceful only when those who oppose create violence but does that bring the protesting to the front or the violence against them?
they say "be careful what you wish for", is that because most of the time we don't know what we want until we see it, that's like hunting, i always wanted to go and i'm good with a rifle, but i saw a documentary about hunting and these two guys tree'd a bear and proceeded to shoot him 6 times with a revolver that was the most inhumane thing i had seen to that date i was 14 and that was the end of that dream for me.
we are a fickled people, we cheer the worse of us and boo the best and potentially best, then tomorrow vice versa, shouldn't we find out what really drives us before we impose our wants on those who don't want it? that's a two way street.
