KIM NURSALL
Vancouver — The Canadian Press
Published Wednesday, Aug. 07 2013, 2:49 PM EDT
Activist and actor George Takei, best known as helmsman Lt. Sulu in the original Star Trek series, is boldly going where tens of thousands have gone before, denouncing Russia’s anti-gay laws, calling instead for the 2014 Games to move to Vancouver from Sochi.
He’s the latest celebrity to weigh in on the Olympic controversy, endorsing a petition at Change.org that had garnered more than 55,000 supporters by Wednesday afternoon.
Russia “intends to enforce its laws against visiting LGBT (lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender) athletes, trainers and fans, meaning anyone even so much as waving a rainbow flag (and I presume many men enthusiastically watching and dramatically commenting on figure skating) would be arrested, held for weeks and then deported,” he wrote in a blog post posted Tuesday.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/...ticle13641678/
Obviously, they won't come here again, but I'm pretty shocked (ok, maybe not) at the state of Russia these days, and how it seems to be regressing further and further with regards to human rights.
Should countries boycott Sochi? It's unfair for the poor athletes who have trained so hard, but supporting this sort of government by giving them millions of tourist dollars and international exposure doesn't sit well with me.
Threaded Mode