This morning, Queer Nation's demonstrated at NBC's holiday party for the staff of the Today Show ( see original press release, below. )
Two dozen protestors held two giant rainbow banners that read, "NBC: WTF?" and "We Interrupt This Pogrom." ( See attached photos. ) The banners were sewn by Gilbert Baker, the originator of the LGBT movement's rainbow flag.
Queer Nation is demanding that NBC stop minimizing the plight of LGBT Russians in order to protect its interests in the upcoming Olympics in Sochi, Russia, and report the truth about the dire circumstances the gay Russian community finds itself in.
PRESS RELEASE
LGBT ACTIVISTS CONFRONT NBC FOR FAILED RUSSIA COVERAGE
Demand NBC Tell the Truth About the Plight of LGBT Russians
Protests at Today Show, NBC Sports Parties
December 12, 2013 ( New York ) — Charging that NBC is misinforming its viewers about the dire circumstances of LGBT Russians ahead of its broadcast of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Russia, LGBT activists will demand that NBC tell the truth about Russia and its anti-LGBT laws.
"NBC has dispatched Olympic commentator Johnny Weir and MSNBC's Thomas Roberts, two openly gay men, to soft-pedal the Russian government's anti-LGBT bigotry," said Ken Kidd, a member of Queer Nation NY, an LGBT rights group. "LGBT Russians have been vilified, assaulted, tortured, murdered, and fired from their jobs by the Russian government and by Russian thugs. It's past time for NBC to report the facts about Russia."
NBC, which spent hundreds of millions of dollars for the broadcast rights for the Sochi Olympics, said in a Dec. 3 statement, "As we've previously stated, NBC will cover all newsworthy issues as they are relevant to the Games, including the LGBT law." The following events have transpired since then; NBC has reported on none of them:
- Dec. 5: New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli asks 10 Olympic sponsors to oppose Russia's anti-LGBT laws.
- Dec. 6: At his Moscow concert, Elton John condemns Russia's anti-LGBT laws.
- Dec. 8: German President Joachim Gauck declares he will boycott the Olympics over Russian human rights violations.
- Dec. 10: European Union Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding says she will boycott Olympics over Russian human rights violations.
- Violence against LGBT Russian continues unabated and Russian government does nothing.
Weir and Roberts cover the Olympics for NBC. Roberts hosted the Nov. 9 Miss Universe pageant that was held in Moscow and broadcast on NBC; in Moscow, he made comments that minimized the harm of Russia's anti-LGBT laws. Weir, who also works for the Russian consulate in New York City, has consistently praised Russia and defended one of Russia's anti-LGBT laws at a recent appearance at Barnard College.
In June, the Russian government enacted a law that bans any pro-LGBT statement in public or private and on the Internet. A second recently enacted law bars adoption of Russian children by anyone living in a jurisdiction that allows same sex marriage. The Russian parliament recently proposed legislation that would allow the government to remove children from a household headed by a gay or lesbian parent. While that legislation has been withdrawn ahead of the Olympics, activists believe the parliament will reintroduce it after the Games are over. The Russian government has also trampled on the rights of political dissidents, ethnic minorities, undocumented immigrants, artists, and others.
Queer Nation NY has also launched "Olympic Jive," a video by Scott Wooledge, a Queer Nation NY member, which is an ironic Christmas gift for NBC.
"This video tells the not-at-all inspiring tale of the International Olympic Committee and eleven of the top Olympic sponsors," Wooledge said. "They have agreed that the ideals of the Olympic charter are expendable platitudes because they interfere with collecting Olympic profits. The inaction by the IOC and the sponsors has reduced the Olympic charter's assurances of non-discrimination and respect for basic human rights to mere jive talk, and the global LGBTQ community are not at all fooled by it."
Queer Nation is a direct action group dedicated to ending discrimination, violence and repression against the LGBT community.
Website: www.queernationny.org .
Twitter: @QueerNationNY.
Facebook.com/qn.newyork.
