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Australian Olympian: I Can’t Stay With My Wife But Gay Athletes Can Shack Up!
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16 Comments
No. 2 ·
MikeE
“tons of out athletes” eh?
let’s see… on the OZ Olympic team there’s one male diver who’s out. And one female volleyball player who’s out. Neither of their partners are on the Olympic team. So… where are those “tons of out athletes” frolicking and fornicating in those shared accommodations?
The guy is an idiot. No surprise there.
Jul 16, 2012 at 9:33 am · @Reply
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No. 3 ·
Stuart
Its a media attention grab and a reason for what will be his own piss poor performance at the games
Jul 16, 2012 at 9:49 am · @Reply ·
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No. 5 ·
Anon
And I’d just finished reading this too.
http://espn.go.com/olympics/story/_/id/8133052/the-games-olympic-village-not-televised-espn-magazine
Jul 16, 2012 at 10:37 am · @Reply ·
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No. 6 ·
ousslander
he did not say out gay couples, he only said gay couples.
Jul 16, 2012 at 11:02 am · @Reply ·
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No. 7 ·
Lifer
I’m pretty sure the Olympics have been outed as a f***fest for all, w/ free condoms for all as well.
Jul 16, 2012 at 12:06 pm · @Reply ·
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No. 8 ·
MikeE
@ousslander: and he is outright lying. a gay couple would not have any more luck being housed together than a heterosexual couple.
Jul 16, 2012 at 4:17 pm · @Reply ·
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No. 9 ·
Ambrose
Oh boo hoo. Like the minimal (highly unlikely) possiblility that a gay couple might share a room in Olympic Village overshadows the fact that this man was able to marry legally in his country, and same-sex couples aren’t. This man is clearly a nut job.
Jul 16, 2012 at 5:55 pm · @Reply ·
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No. 10 ·
B
Well, in a silly way he has a point. If you figure gays are 5% of the population (the high end of the estimates of the fraction of the population that is gay – a Kinsey 6), then there is a 0.25% chance that 2 gay athletes will be roommates. Over 13000 athletes compete in the Olympics, so there are going to be a number of cases in which two roommates are both gay. Meanwhile probably no straight guy is assigned a room with a straight woman.
His assumption is that gay athletes will probably find each other to be so hot that they naturally just go and do it, whereas straight athletes never get assigned a member of the opposite sex as a roommate and are thus being “discriminated” against as hookups based on convenience are harder to arrange for them.
It would be a funny argument if the guy was simply joking. He probably isn’t.
Jul 16, 2012 at 9:28 pm · @Reply ·
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No. 11 ·
Who Cares?
This doesn’t surprise me this is coming from an Australian – many of them are known for being VERY homophobic and racist as well. I have a few Australian friends who will even admit that.
Jul 16, 2012 at 10:23 pm · @Reply ·
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No. 12 ·
Joan Rivers
I think he shot himself in the foot with that argument.
Jul 17, 2012 at 1:49 am · @Reply ·
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No. 13 ·
Chris
ousslander, you are correct. Surely there are gay couples who are not out but are rooming together at the Olympics. Probably not many. But it’s a false argument to say the athletes have to be out to room together.
Jul 17, 2012 at 10:16 am · @Reply ·
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No. 14 ·
scott ny'er
from a news site:
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Unfortunately, for the Marks, their belief system is skewed, at least according to the Brisbane Times, which reported Monday morning:
Australian Olympic Committee media boss Mike Tancred told The Age five female shooters would have been forced to share one bathroom if the Marks had been accommodated … ”Russell needs to consider his fellow athletes,” Tancred said with the first wave of Australian athletes due into the East London village today.
”Russell and Lauryn need to understand that it’s unfair to ask five other female shooters to share one bathroom because that disrupts their preparation for their events, and really he also needs to understand that it’s not a motel. It’s not some luxury accommodation where you can get Russell and Lauryn a room. It’s really tight. There are no spare beds.”
Jul 17, 2012 at 12:16 pm · @Reply ·
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No. 15 ·
philosochick
Look, I don’t want to defend potential homophobia, but he MIGHT have an interesting point. Presumably, the sex segregation of living conditions at the Olympics is to separate the opposite sexes (…okay, I hate using that word) due to a worry of sex (ooh, scary sex! Athletes already report that there’s a LOT of sex in the Olympic Village). But Russell Mark may be right: hetero couples may be separated in the Olympic Village, but gay couples are not.
That IS discrimination. I think people’s reactions on here are responding to his heteronormative privilege. Well, discrimination is discrimination, okay? It’s not about who has it worse. Mark has indeed unveiled a problematic policy. The answer should be to desegregate living quarters in the Olympic Village.
Jul 19, 2012 at 9:13 am · @Reply ·
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Add your Comment
His comments are an embarrassment and homophobic as it’s only he and his wife and not all heterosexual couples who are banned. I also read on some Oz newspaper sites that he believes that he’s be persecuted due to his comments on sleeping pill usage, but hey, whhy don’t we just attack the gays while we’re here.