I love the Olympics. I was a varsity fencer in college and have done serious stints with a few other sports. I love the life lessons sports teach, including dedication, leadership, teamwork, and dealing with both success and failure — all values I’d like to convey to my son. I get choked up during recap montages and medal ceremonies. Normally, then, the start of the Olympics is a time of celebration around my house. And then there’s Sochi.
Le Zbor, the first lesbian and feminist choir in southeastern Europe, has created a charming video “expressing its solidarity with the LGBT citizens of Russia and worldwide.” Watch the Croatian singers here:
Yelena Goltsman is founder and co-president of RUSA LGBT, the association for Russian-speaking LGBT people in the U.S., and a leading voice speaking out for LGBT Russians. She didn’t plan to be an LGBT activist, though — and in fact came to the U.S. in 1990 because of anti-Jewish, not anti-LGBT, persecution, when she was still married to a man.
Here’s a sneak peek of Chevrolet’s ad that will run tonight during the Olympic opening ceremonies, featuring two-mom and two-dad families.
Google lit up the Internet last night with its not-so-subtle rainbow-colored Olympic doodle, quoting the non-discrimination section of the Olympic Charter below it. From what I can tell, based on reports from friends of friends, the doodle is visible by Google users in Russia, too. I’ve been working in social media and social justice for a long time, and I think Google’s move was one of the best-timed, best planned examples of how to use the former for the latter. Other companies are planning to air LGBT-inclusive commercials during the Games as well. But what will the impact of this be?
The Olympics start tonight, and I am going to be watching with mixed feelings: the love of a sports fan, and the concern of a member of the LGBT community. I shudder when I think that Russia may soon pass a bill that would allow the state to take children from parents for no reason other than that the parents are LGBT. The Family Equality Council is taking action, however, and asking people to send a message of love and support to LGBT people in Russia through the “To Sochi With Love” campaign.
If you blinked, you might have missed them. But there, at 44 seconds in, two gay dads and their daughter roller skate across our screens in Coca-Cola’s Super Bowl commercial. A sign of progress and inclusion? Or a token gesture from a company sponsoring the Olympics in an LGBT-hostile country? My opinion is that for
Helen and I take an Olympian approach to our 100th vlog. After watching the Olympics non-stop for two weeks, we bring you the “Top Ten Reasons Parenting Is Like the Olympics” (and not just because it’s like sliding down an icy track at 90 miles per hour). Mombian: She Got Me Pregnant, 03-04-10 by drudolph
Helen and I talk about watching the Olympics with our son, teaching him to skate, and keeping kids active during the winter in a snowy climate. Mombian: She Got Me Pregnant, 02-18-2010 by drudolph (If the embedded video above doesn’t work for you, try it at Dailymotion.) Brought to you in partnership with After Ellen.
What does Olympic figure skater Johnny Weir have to do with gay guinea pigs? The talented Sarah Brannen, author and illustrator of Uncle Bobby’s Wedding, the much-challenged children’s book about two male guinea pigs who marry, made a name for herself with photographs and watercolors of ice skaters long before she turned to furry rodents.
