Obama's Sochi Olympics delegation includes 2 gay athletes
Billie Jean King, Caitlin Cahow included in official delegation to Winter Olympics
President Barack Obama has picked two gay athletes to be part of the U.S. delegation to the Sochi Olympics and won’t be attending the event himself, moves interpreted as a snub to Russia and President Vladimir Putin.
The White House announced the presidential delegation on Tuesday, and its members are raising eyebrows because of who it includes, and who it doesn’t.
Janet Napolitano, former secretary of Homeland Security, was named head of the delegation for the opening ceremony. She is currently president of the University of California.
Tennis legend Billie Jean King, one of the first prominent U.S. athletes to be open about her sexuality, and hockey player Caitlin Cahow will attend the opening and closing ceremonies.
Cahow, retired from competitive hockey, competed twice in the Olympics for the U.S. But she also has a Canadian connection — she played in the Canadian Women's Hockey League for its Boston Blades team and now sits on the CWHL's board of directors. It offered its congratulations to Cahow after she was named to the delegation.
"It's obviously a statement that's being made, but I think it's an incredibly respectful one," Cahow told USA Today. "Basically, the White House is highlighting Americans who know what it means to have freedoms and liberties under the Constitution. That's really what we're representing in Sochi and it's not at all different from what's espoused in the spirit of Olympism.”
Cahow told the newspaper that it’s a remarkable roster and she can’t believe she’s part of it. Hopefully, it will unify all of Team USA and send a message of love and acceptance to the world," she said.
King, who went public about her sexuality after she was sued by a female partner, also said she was honoured to be named to the delegation.
"Honored to represent USA in Sochi and I hope these Olympics will be a watershed moment for the universal acceptance of all people," she wrote on Twitter. One of King's many athletic accomplishments was beating Bobbie Riggs in a match labelled the "Battle of the Sexes" in 1973.
Canada has yet to name delegation
While Napolitano is a recognizable name, previous delegations have been led by higher-level officials and prominent figures. Michelle Obama led the delegation to the 2012 London Games and Vice-President Joe Biden was head of it for the 2010 Games in Vancouver.
The rest of this year’s delegation includes:
Michael McFaul, U.S. ambassador to Russia.
Robert Nabors, an assistant and policy adviser to Obama.
William Burns, deputy secretary of state.
Former Olympians Brian Boitano, Bonnie Blair and Eric Heiden.
Burns will lead the delegation for the closing ceremony.
The White House isn't saying that it's making a statement with the delegation members, but did say they represent the diversity of the United States.
Advocacy groups such as Athlete Ally and All Out cheered the decision to include two gay athletes in the group, and said it sends a message.
Athlete Ally has a petition urging the International Olympic Committee to do more in response to Russia’s controversial law passed in June that bans the “propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations” to minors. All Out similarly has been pushing the IOC to conduct an investigation into the law.
The IOC has previously said Moscow assured that athletes and spectators will not face discrimination at the Feb. 7 to 23 Winter Games.
Canada has not yet named its official delegation to the Sochi Olympics.
It is expected to do so once all athletes have qualified some time in January.
This week, Vancouver said it plans to send Coun. Tim Stevenson, who is gay, to represent the city in Sochi.
The decision to send Stevenson rather than Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson came after much debate.
Stevenson told CBC that Vancouver wanted to take a strong stand being the previous host city. Stevenson is introducing a motion next week that council urge the IOC to make Pride House a permanent fixture at future Olympic Games, and that LGBT rights be included in the Olympic charter — just as they are in the Paralympic charter.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/obama-s-sochi-olympics-delegation-includes-2-gay-athletes-1.2468613
obama is gay
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getfiscal posted:i just cooked up some hot dogs and i realized it was because of your post
God Bless.
Superabound posted:thank god he was able to find two gay female athletes on such short notice
[
""""It's obviously a statement that's being made, but I think it's an incredibly respectful one," Cahow told USA Today. "Basically, the White House is highlighting Americans who know what it means to have freedoms and liberties under the Constitution. """
*/~~~is part of a gay delegation to russia led by the former head of DHS/*****
swampman posted:russia should send two abortions to america's next olympics
postposting posted:it's funny to read that article and they keep shoehorning in awkward references to canada and canadian stuff that no one could care about and at first you can't figure out why
i think you meant to post this in the canada thread?
stegosaurus posted:will jokes about gay ppl, or things being gay, ever stop being funny? probably not
if only someone had 50,000 highly autistic words to say about this
Superabound posted:stegosaurus posted:will jokes about gay ppl, or things being gay, ever stop being funny? probably not
if only someone had 50,000 highly autistic words to say about this
a low steady rumble is heard emanating from the distant tumblr mountains
Lykourgos posted:Why wasnt putin time man of the year, he did a lot in 2013
because the papers pander to papists
reminds me of the old adage that conservatives care about what happens in their neighborhoods while liberals care about what happens in conservative neighborhoods.
They're putting on a function and inviting the rest of the world to come along and see what their society and culture is like only to be immediately hassled by north American liberals demanding to correct a Russian city because it doesn't have West Hollywood or Vancouver values.
So Obama needlessly antagonizes a proud nation just to help his support base feel a bit righteous, how utterly parochial.
HenryKrinkle posted:i have this strange feeling that the level of anti-gay bigotry & repression in Russia isn't as bad as we're being led to believe.
haha yeah those people who were beaten and killed were no big deal. i mean come on guys. putin hates the US so he cant be doing anything that bad
HenryKrinkle posted:i have this strange feeling that the level of anti-gay bigotry & repression in Russia isn't as bad as we're being led to believe.
I've seriously had thoughts on both sides of this issue.... I completely get it. Unfortunately both sides have strategic takes.
Superabound posted:Obama sends gays to country known for assaulting and imprisoning homosexuals. so either gay injustice over thre isnt as bad as they say it is, or Obama is initiating the first stage in a plot to exile Americas homosex populations two at a time, like some kind of anti-Noah. Operation Fast & Fabulous
what, you can't move for gays around here. The new 'freedom commissioner' installed by the incoming conservative government is gay which is a great cover for dismantling hate speech laws and workplace standards.
This is to be the historical mission of the 21st century homosexual, to bridge the gap between liberalism and race-war
c_man posted:HenryKrinkle posted:
i have this strange feeling that the level of anti-gay bigotry & repression in Russia isn't as bad as we're being led to believe.
haha yeah those people who were beaten and killed were no big deal. i mean come on guys. putin hates the US so he cant be doing anything that bad
I'd believe in this 'moral stand' argument a bit more if the President had arranged for Tibetan and Uiygur-American mayors to be the delegates to Beijing.
And I must have missed the outcry about the treatment of homosexuals in South Africa when they hosted the world cup, probably just got drowned out by the vuvuzeulas
Ironicwarcriminal posted:Superabound posted:Obama sends gays to country known for assaulting and imprisoning homosexuals. so either gay injustice over thre isnt as bad as they say it is, or Obama is initiating the first stage in a plot to exile Americas homosex populations two at a time, like some kind of anti-Noah. Operation Fast & Fabulous
what, you can't move for gays around here. The new 'freedom commissioner' installed by the incoming conservative government is gay which is a great cover for dismantling hate speech laws and workplace standards.
This is to be the historical mission of the 21st century homosexual, to bridge the gap between liberalism and race-war
'intersectionality' exists so white people can go to black people and say "well the entire global economy was built based on the forced labor of your ancestors and you still are universally discriminated against and thrown in jail in neo-slavery, but im gay and you have to appreciate my oppression too bigot"
addressing and race issues like the prison-industrial complex, gentrification/gerrymandering, unequal distribution of wealth, illegal immigration are not possible under capitalism, so instead let's throw a bone to rich white gay ppl which actually reinforces the structures of capitalism like the military and private property mediated by marriage. and he gets away with it, cause how dare you criticize liberalism you homophobe!
"theory comes from practice, and yes these people led the greatest waves of revolution in history while i am part of tiny sect and post on the internet about stalin. but atually existing socialism was homophobic, ask me about what the revolution should look like so that GLBT people don't feel like class is more important." -a 1st world amerikkkan trot
babyhueypnewton posted:'intersectionality' exists so white people can go to black people and say "well the entire global economy was built based on the forced labor of your ancestors and you still are universally discriminated against and thrown in jail in neo-slavery, but im gay and you have to appreciate my oppression too bigot"
addressing and race issues like the prison-industrial complex, gentrification/gerrymandering, unequal distribution of wealth, illegal immigration are not possible under capitalism, so instead let's throw a bone to rich white gay ppl which actually reinforces the structures of capitalism like the military and private property mediated by marriage. and he gets away with it, cause how dare you criticize liberalism you homophobe!
It's cool that intersectionality
(an approach developed by black feminists like Crenshaw and the Combahee River Collective, to address issues like domestic violence, the damaging impact of US immigration policy and status, racist housing policies, and the school-to-prison pipeline)
has become a boogeyman for straight white first world guys
(I don't know if you are yourself white, bhpn, but this is definitely the case among lefty dudes in the UK)
to bash gay white first world guys for incremental/liberal reforms in getting access to power. I appreciate that there are quite people on tumblr and twitter who use intersectionality as a term an awful lot to describe an awful lot of things, but basing one's world view on 'what teens say when trying to work out who they are' or 'antisocialjusticewarrior42069.tumblr.com' seems a little off.
really makes me think
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For every Stalin, Mao, and Hoxha, you've got a Lenin/Kollontai/early USSR, Castro (who's since regretted his policy on persecuting gay people and ascribed it to pre-Communist cultural factors, that he overlooked in his policy-making relative to issues like the Missile Crisis - this would be ~liberalism~, I guess), and KPD (let's not forget that East Germany was less aggressively homophobic than West Germany, either).
I realise you've had this discussion tons of times with Maggotmaster and others, and you're just not going to give up this 'faggots = liberalism' praxis, but I just think it's important that quite a few historical actually existing communists disagreed with you.
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During the past few years strong movements have developed among women and among homosexuals seeking their liberation. There has been some
uncertainty about how to relate to these movements.
Whatever your personal opinions and your insecurities about
homosexuality and the various liberation movements among homosexuals
and women (and I speak of the homosexuals and women as oppressed
groups), we should try to unite with them in a revolutionary fashion.
- Huey Newton