I don’t think we should be going to Russia for the winter Olympics, thats my personal opinion. I care so much about these issues and I don’t think we should be bringing any commerce to a country which enforces such a lack of equality and a lack of human rights. A country where so much abuse of youth is happening, how can we bring so much attention to that part of the world and reward them for that? For me it’s shocking, then again everyone thinks Miley Cyrus is shocking and thats the world we live in…”
— Lady Gaga discussing human rights in an interview with The Sun
Jawsch
Eh, I don’t see in her statement where she says “Athletes shouldn’t go to the Olympics”. I see her saying the decision to hold the Olympics was a mistake. (Yes, there is a difference)
The headline seems to imply she’s telling athletes not to go to the games, which isn’t true.
Completely agree with her comment re: Miley.
Sohobod
It’s easy for her to talk about people boycotting the Olympics. She has ‘made it’ in her profession. There are many athletes who have worked for years towards this goal. It’s a big ‘ask’ to expect them to give up on their life’s work for what will be noting more than ‘gesture politics’.
Don’t get me wrong, Putin is an evil tw@ but fight where there’s a point. Margaret Thatcher said that she never fought a battle unless she though she could win. Olympics – forget it. Trade etc – no we’re having a conversation.
2eo
Gaga is spot on, surprisingly it’s an as usual needed here.
The arguments about not boycotting, and the repeated mention of Jesse Owens don’t stand up to even the slightest scrutiny.
Sadly the more right wing members of our community believe Russia are doing nothing wrong.
balehead
Telling other people what to do without asking them…that is so gay….
jwrappaport
@Sohobod: With all due respect to the dearly departed Baroness, which isn’t very much, the greatest moral battles in human history cannot so easily be reduced to tactical or strategic analysis: they are fought because the people fighting cannot help but fight, because they would rather die on their feet than live upon their knees.
I’m fairly certain Gandhi didn’t expect to end the British Raj when he began, and I’d bet that Martin Luther King didn’t expect to transform the very essence of American life and politics when he started organizing – they both fought because their very humanity demanded it of them, and they answered the call.
jwrappaport
@Sohobod: You’re right, is is easy for Gaga to ask these athletes to make a sacrifice that may cripple their careers, but it doesn’t make her wrong. She’s asking them to put their money where their mouths are and live in accordance with their espoused convictions, which is probably the most difficult thing a person could demand of another. At the very least, she understands that integrity is the coin of the realm, so to speak, and that there is no more onerous a burden or more noble an aspiration than to be true to your convictions.
tookietookie
This is in accord with my moral thoughts on things. Gaga is fearless. It’s to all our intuitions that it was craven and self-interested of Olympic athletes, especially cowardly and gross of gay Olympic athletes to ask us to slough away our dignity, bargain away our moral compass simply because this was their cause-celebre, their myopic, privileged, bullshit campaign that should ride roughshod over every scared gay Russian kid’s face on Youtube that we see these horrific torture videos. We are all those kids! We are not all Johnny Weirs! I used to love him but he can go fuck himself in the cold, cold outskirts of Siberia. He can go jizz to the images of Russian everydaymans he can’t be bothered to bother himself with. Fuck him big time and every Olympic bullshit person who buys into this policy of appeasement. Fuck them all. Let them all taste the blood and piss of every hate crime in Russia first, let’s dunk their heads in it, and then after all that if they still say onward with the Olympics in Russia let’s close our ears to them and follow our own inner counsel.
Tookietookie123
Well it is sort of selfish to put the games over the lives of millions of LGBT in Russia. I mean, yes it’ll be hard not participating in this years Olympic Games, but there will be others, so they can’t really act like their lives are over as athletes, whereas gay people will continually be denied their basic rights for the rest of their life if we don’t stand up against their tyrannical leader. Many Olympians have made promises of doing something at the Olympics, yet I don’t see the benefit of holding the Olympics in Sochi whatsoever, it really doesn’t make a statement, it just shows that we submit to their discrimination. I would gladly give up anything for the rights of the LGBT community to live a long and happy life.
1EqualityUSA
jwrappaport, I enjoy your writing so much. The content, the sentence structure, the flow is music. Thank you.
jonasalden
@jwrappaport: I know this is somewhat off topic, but that’s some great writing! What are you, a speech writer or something? Inspired!
balehead
I always get the impression from the comments here that nobody goes to a gym or has played a sport….what a bunch of losers…
jwrappaport
@1EqualityUSA: @jonasalden: That’s very generous of you. I’m a middling law student who probably would have done better in a different field.
@balehead: Me in a nutshell: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghxO90gtkm4
1EqualityUSA
#12, jwrappaport, that clip you sent was priceless. Thank you so much. Exquisitely perfect response to Balehead’s attempt to troll. Right on, middling law student.
Bozen
She’s right.
The Olympics should never have EVER have been held in Sochi
And athletes shouldn’t attend.
Deal with it, it’s the truth
JG
Yeah, as she’s already made her cash…
“St. Petersburg lawmaker Vitaly Milonov has filed the request with the Prosecutor General’s office to assess whether GaGa has violated Russia’s immigration or tax laws. Milonov reported that GaGa received $1.1 million for the St. Petersburg show alone.”
Read more: http://www.aceshowbiz.com/news/view/00062856.html#ixzz2doWYuYhP
Hypocrite Ball
viveutvivas
It would be inconceivable for Western countries to attend the Olympics if Russia had subjected Blacks or Jews to the same treatment. This just shows that Obama and his friends are not really on our side when it matters.
frshmn
So she does concerts in Russia, makes a ton of money, but has the nerve to tell athletes training their whole lives for an event that they should boycott the Olympics. Cant wait till her next album flops and maybe we can have an actual LGBT person represent the face of our community instead of some self-serving pop star.