Saturday, January 25, 2014

What Really happened with Pavel Lebedev and the Coca-Cola Homophobic Police Squad?


So, I've been following this Pavel Lebedev story and found myself amazed at how an incident can get twisted. Pavel was detained for protesting against the Anti-gay law at the Olympic torch relay in Russia. However, the story has been on the uniforms the security guards were wearing.

Their uniforms have Coke's logo on them. They are a sponsor, no secret there. But because their logo is there, some LGBT bloggers and activists believe they are supporting hate and the attack of Pavel. Some folks have written conspiracy theories, claiming that Coke is trying oppress gays all over the world.

After a few bloggers questioned Coke, Coke responded (here's a piece of their response)

As a Presenting Partner of the Sochi 2014 Olympic Torch Relay, our logo appears on all of the uniforms for the staff assigned by the Sochi Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (SOCOG) to support the Torch Relay.

SOCOG reported that a spectator was prevented from breaching the security perimeter around the Torchbearer. The spectator was detained briefly by local police and was fined.

We hope this information is helpful and encourage you to contact us again should you have additional comments or questions.

Jeffrey CIndustry and Consumer AffairsThe Coca-Cola Company

Okay, so security prevented Pavel to breaching the perimeter. I get that, it's their job to keep areas protected. Was it because Pavel is gay? I'm not sure. On a real tip, this is what security guards do. I live in LA, this is a normal thing to see. If you breach the perimeter, you get busted! How did their basic responsibility become an anti-gay attack?

This is one of my biggest pet peeves with some activists. Sometimes they take something simple and twist it all the way around the corner and around the Moon. I get that it's a major issue, but we can't be careless and ridic about this. Please, stick to the facts and not hype.

This law sucks, but twisting the truth and fooling our readers, suck rotten eggs.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You mean the real story wasn't about wearing those brown belts???

Unknown said...

Exactly. Crying "homophobia" in cases where it doesn't exist dilutes our credibility when we point out and fight against the real stuff.

The Stuff

My photo
Viktor is a small town southern boy living in Los Angeles. You can find him on Twitter, writing about pop culture, politics, and comics. He’s the creator of the graphic novel StrangeLore and currently getting back into screenwriting.