Coca-Cola sponsors first anti-gay arrest of the Olympics

An Olympics security officer tackled and detained a young man who held up a rainbow flag during the Olympic torch relay in Voronezh, Russia. The security officer was wearing the standard uniform: one emblazoned with a Coca-Cola logo on the pants and chest. Nobody displays the Coca-Cola logo (or the logo of any Olympic sponsor) without Coke’s explicit permission; and it's not like Coke didn't know.

Corporate sponsors have a lot to lose as their global Olympic ads roll out. Please sign the petition to make them finally speak out against Russia's ugly, religiously motivated anti-gay laws.

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Permalink Reply by Kairan Nierde on January 22, 2014 at 12:35am

Homophobia is sometimes too much for me to handle...I can't face it on every battlefront. I don't have the reserves. Waahh. I know, this is sounding like a first world problems rant. But damn, I can only take so much from my family and community in addition to worrying about which homoeroticly-Manly-Man Dictator is currently scapegoating us. Yeah, Putin, I think you might at least be a closeted bisexual or repressed gay man at most.

For people who don't have the choice to turn off the news and retreat into a gay happy place, I'll sign the petition. I'm not watching the Olympics because Putin's Russia is too fucked up...and I've reached my monthly limit for exposure to hatred.

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Permalink Reply by Kairan Nierde on January 22, 2014 at 2:41pm

Integrity. It's what makes the world go 'round.

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Permalink Reply by David on January 22, 2014 at 5:34am

Steven Fry was right.... these games should have been boycotted by every country that are opposed to homophobia but David Cameron was against that idea. Turning a blind eye like this was how Nazi Germany started. We have to remember that most Russians are good people, it’s only the their leaders that are backward thinkers

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Permalink Reply by David on January 22, 2014 at 2:46pm

I have to admit that I'm going on the basis that I believe most humans are good people...even Russians. I don't know where the 74% of Russians believe that homosexuality should not be accepted comes from. Its a bogus figure or a manipulated figure by that goverment. It could even be the way the question was worded. I think the way forward would new political pressure and of course our support to any victims of government brutality.

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Permalink Reply by Kairan Nierde on January 22, 2014 at 2:57pm

Why do people like Coke anyway? It's like drinking a carbonated, carmel flavored elixer of diabetes. I always burp like a drunkard half way into drinking it and then my teeth feel like they need a thorough brushing. God, this product is the best! It's as if drinking Coke is something we do out of a cultural habit.

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Permalink Reply by Reg The Fronkey Farmer on January 22, 2014 at 2:45pm

Putin has launched a charm offensive ahead of the Sochi Games where he almost said "some of my best friends are gay". He then went on to say that he was not homophobic. However he has also done his part in trying to link homosexuality with paedophilia. So he is an ignorant bigot.