(inter)national pride

Can 2010’s Eurovision Song Contest Match Last Year’s Anti-Gay Revelry?

You may remember that last year’s Eurovision Song Contest — American Idol X 1000 Gayness — went down in Moscow alongside a “Satanic” gay pride march that was violently broken up by local police. Anti-gay thugs threatened to beat up gay tourists and some of the 2009 Eurovision contestants even suggested they’d boycott the competition in support of Moscow LGBTs—but none of them did. Will this year’s song competition be met with the same waves of anti-gay sentiment?

Oslo, Norway—the site of this year’s Eurovision—is infinitely more gay friendly than Russia. Oslo was home of the 2010 Mr. Gay World Pageant (which was won by a porn star BTW). The country also legalized full marriage equality in 2008 and ordained gay and lesbian priests in 2007, two things Russia has yet to do.

Moscow’s gays held their pride march alongside Eurovision precisely because they knew the police would come down upon them with the force of a thousand violins. They wanted the world watching and they succeeded. But Oslo’s queers don’t have the same institutional oppression their Muscovite brothers and sisters must deal with; Oslo Pride runs June 18 -27, long after the Eurovision contest.

So the spotlight can stay focused on the singing stars, unless one of the 25 countries represented wants to draw focus on LGBT abuses effecting their slice of Europe. In which case: What song should they sing?

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