Queer Nation’s Ann Northrop describes our February 20 visit to NBC. “We walked in from 49th and 6th because they had the small crowd on the little plaza and the 49th St. side of the plate glass windows was unobstructed. As we whipped open… the...
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Queer Nation’s Ann Northrop describes our February 20 visit to NBC.

“We walked in from 49th and 6th because they had the small crowd on the little plaza and the 49th St. side of the plate glass windows was unobstructed.

As we whipped open… the Boycott Homophobia banner and pulled out Gay-Bashing is not an Olympic Sport signs, the cops tried to grab us and hustle us across the street. We insisted on holding our ground (Get your hands off me! This is a public sidewalk!) and succeeded in staying there, evidently quite visible over Hoda’s shoulder.

After 5-10 minutes, they went to commercial, and got up from the anchor desk. Kathie Lee gave a smile and wave to the plaza crowd, then turned and looked at us, glared at me, and refused to return the smile and wave I was giving her. About 15 minutes later, they came back to the anchor desk for a segment. This time Kathie Lee looked at me, still stony, but felt forced to return my wave a little. Then they lowered the curtains around the whole studio. We packed up and left. A good time was had by all.”

All except for Kathie Lee, apparently.

Thanks to photographer Donna Aceto for the shot of a dismayed Kathie Lee watching the protest from the studio.

Queer Nation first protested at the Today show on January 16 because we believed that NBC wouldn’t cover human rights issues, including the fight being waged by LGBT Russians, from Sochi. We were right. The Human Rights Campaign has been monitoring...
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Queer Nation first protested at the Today show on January 16 because we believed that NBC wouldn’t cover human rights issues, including the fight being waged by LGBT Russians, from Sochi. We were right.

The Human Rights Campaign has been monitoring NBC’s coverage. We’re three days from the Closing Ceremony and the end of NBC’s expected 1,500 hours of Olympics coverage. How much time has NBC devoted to human rights? One hour and 47 minutes, HRC says. Roughly .001 percent of NBC’s coverage has been devoted to human rights matters. We wonder why they bothered at all.

Thanks to photographer Donna Aceto for the shot.

GAY ACTIVISTS ZAP NBC’S MATT LAUER, TODAY SHOW
Demand Olympic Network Cover Anti-LGBT Oppression in Russia
Second Zap in 12 Hours

New York, NY (January 16, 2014) — A dozen members of the gay activist group Queer Nation zapped the broadcast of NBC’s Today Show this morning, demanding that NBC report on the Russian government’s
ongoing attacks on gay men and lesbians and other human rights
violations. NBC is the exclusive network for the Olympics in Sochi next month.

“NBC and Matt Lauer will have remarkable access to Vladimir Putin and the Russian LGBT community,” said Ken Kidd, one of the Queer Nation protesters. “Along with that comes the responsibility to report the real news. 
We are putting NBC on notice: Making Sochi a two-week travelogue infomercial for Putin would turn NBC into his media collaborators.“

Carrying a banner reading “Human Rights Yes, Russian Lies Nyet,” activists chanted “Human rights are not a Game, Putin’s lies kill!” just as the Today Show went live at 8 am, surprising anchor Matt Lauer, who was standing in Rockefeller Plaza outside of the NBC studios, from which the Today Show is broadcast. Lauer, who was interviewing the Today Show audience members who gather outside the studio, will anchor NBC’s Olympic coverage from Sochi. Onlookers turned away from NBC’s cameras to watch the protest.

Police led the chanting protesters away from the plaza after 10 minutes. There were no arrests.

On January 15, two members of Queer Nation NY confronted figure skater Brian Boitano at an appearance at the Rubin Museum of Art in Manhattan. Boitano, one of three openly gay men and women chosen by President Barack Obama to represent the United States in Sochi, has remained silent on Russia’s anti-LGBT laws, insisting instead that athletes and spectators respect Russian law when they travel to the Olympics. Boitano said nothing during the ten-minute confrontation. Activists demanded that he actively oppose Russia’s anti-gay laws when he goes to the Winter Olympics.

In June, the Russian government enacted legislation that effectively bans any pro-LGBT statement in public or private and on the Internet. In July, a law banning adoptions of Russian children by people from any jurisdiction that allows same sex marriage took effect.

A second, more 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 legislation’s passage has been followed by unprecedented, effectively state-sanctioned violence against LGBT people, who have been harassed, arrested, beaten, raped, tortured, and killed. Activists had called for a boycott of Sochi and for the Games to be moved from Russia, citing its abysmal human rights record, including its attacks on LGBT Russians.

“Covering the gay and lesbian members of the US delegation to the Winter Games is not the same as covering Russia’s dismal human rights record,”
continued Kidd, referring to NBC’s interview with tennis great Billie Jean King, another delegation member, earlier this month. “NBC must report on the Kremlin’s murderous policies right now. Its lack of coverage of Russia’s human rights violations while burnishing Russia’s image ahead of the Games is shameful.”

The zaps are the latest in a series of high-profile protests launched by Queer Nation and dating to July 2013. They include December 12 actions at two NBC employee Christmas parties and earlier confrontations with Moscow government officials at meetings promoting US investment in Russia. The group has also targeted supporters of Putin performing at the Metropolitan Opera and Carnegie Hall as well as “Russia Day” at the New York Stock Exchange.
Virtually every other news outlet saw the primary focus of President Putin’s national address as defending his war on LGBTQ people; PBS NewsHour’s headline was typical: “Putin defends Russia’s anti-gay laws in annual state of the nation speech.” But...
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Virtually every other news outlet saw the primary focus of President Putin’s national address as defending his war on LGBTQ people; PBS NewsHour’s headline was typical: “Putin defends Russia’s anti-gay laws in annual state of the nation speech.” 

But not NBC News! NBC posted Thomson Reuters news agency’s report but redacted any mention of the anti-gay laws, human rights abuses or the controversy surroundingSochi 2014 Winter Games. This is exactly why we are demanding that NBC to COVER the news–not COVER IT UP!

See for yourself if you can find any mention of “teh gay” in NBC’s report here: http://nbcnews.to/1c3vDkk. 

Then compare how NBC News actively redacted LGBTQ and human rights issues from the very same Thomson Reuters’s report they credited. You can see here:http://reut.rs/1ftTF7a
Now playing: Olympic Jive! This is the not at all inspiring tale of the International Olympic Committee and eleven of the top Olympic sponsors’ Road to Sochi. 

This coalition of some of the biggest mega-corporations on Earth dutifully and unfortunately followed the lead of feckless IOC president Thomas Bach. They have made a collective agreement that the shining ideals of the Olympic charter are merely easily expendable platitudes if they ever threaten to interfere with the collecting of large wheelbarrows full of Olympic profits. The result of the IOC and sponsors’ inaction is the Olympic charters’ hollow assurances of non-discrimination and respect for basic human rights have now been reduced to mere jive talk and many in the global LGBTQ community are not at all fooled by it.
Join Queer Nation NY when we pay a visit to NBC’s holiday parties. Tell Hoda, Kathie Lee, and Brian to report the real news about Russia. Merry Christmas! Today Show: Thurs., Dec. 12, 11:15 am, The Gallery at the Dream Hotel, 355 W. 16th St. NBC...
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Join Queer Nation NY when we pay a visit to NBC’s holiday parties. Tell Hoda, Kathie Lee, and Brian to report the real news about Russia. Merry Christmas!

Today Show: Thurs., Dec. 12, 11:15 am, The Gallery at the Dream Hotel, 355 W. 16th St.

NBC Nightly News: Thurs., Dec. 12, 7:15 pm, Old Castle Pub & Restaurant, 160 W. 54th St.

FOR IMMEDiATE RELEASE:

NBC’S JOHNNY WEIR DISMISSES RUSSIA’S ANTI-GAY LAWS, VIOLENCE

Activists Demand NBC Denounce Comments & Russian Laws

Remarks Made at Forum on Moral Responsibilities of Olympic Athletes

December 3, 2013 (New York) — In comments made at a forum on the moral responsibilities of athletes at the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Russia, gay figure skater and NBC Olympics commentator Johnny Weir minimized the impact of Russia’s anti-gay laws and disparaged US and Russian activists who are battling to overturn those laws, which have fueled a growing campaign of anti-LGBT violence in Russia.

“I only see the rosy, golden side [of Russia],” Weir said, according to an article in Gay City News, a New York City LGBT paper that reported on the event. “I choose to see Russia in an arrogant, selfish way.”

“Johnny Weir’s comments are a further assault on LGBT Russians, who are being violently attacked by the Russian government and neo-Nazi gangs as a result of these laws,” said Ken Kidd, a Queer Nation member. “Since NBC has seen fit to hire him, he might as well have added, ‘This message brought to you by NBC’s coverage of the Winter Olympics in Sochi.’” Kidd added, “NBC must immediately denounce Weir’s comments and speak out against Russia’s anti-gay law.”

The December 2 event was held at Barnard College on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.

The statement by the retired figure skater disregards the violence perpetrated by the Russian government and neo-Nazi vigilantes, who have routinely posted videos of their attacks on Russian websites since the law was enacted in June. The law bans any pro-LGBT statement in public or private and on the Internet. 

Leaders worldwide, including President Barack Obama, have denounced the laws, and LGBT activists around the globe have protested the law and the continuing violence directed at LGBT Russians. Since June, gay and lesbian Russians have been arrested, jailed, beaten, raped, tortured, and murdered in a growing wave of de facto state-sanctioned violence.

Queer Nation, an LGBT rights group, protested outside the event calling on NBC to accurately report on the dire circumstances of LGBT Russians. Weir derided LGBT activists as “idiots like the ones outside tonight, dumping vodka in the street,” and added, “They say all these stupid things.” Weir attempted to walk back this characterization on his blog this morning.

With much fanfare, including an October 23 appearance on NBC’s Today show and a profile in the New York Times the next day, Weir announced his retirement from figure skating and that he would be a commentator on figure skating for NBC during the Games in Sochi, Russia.

“With his claim that the law only bans ‘anal sex in front of libraries,’ NBC’s Johnny Weir has, in effect, endorsed the Russian law,” Kidd said, referring to another remark Weir made at Barnard. “Horribly, these comments in support of Russian gay-bashing are the first public statements made by any major company, including the sponsors, involved in the Olympics.”

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.