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Comment by ihsw | Hacker News Reader

Fortunately, Nazi Germany didn't arrest Jesse Owens upon arrival to the country. Russia has made it clear that they will not afford the same freedom to gays and lesbians, or more to the point they plan on arresting them immediately upon arrival.

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Why would they? It's not a crime to be gay. The crime is "gay propaganda" (that is, anything that publicly references gays basically).

You're not helping anyone by spreading FUD.

It isn't FUD. You're basically saying it is ok, as long as gays keep their mouths shut, and don't utter "propaganda".

No, I'm saying you should't expect to get prosecuted for something that isn't crime. I'm saying you should have your facts straight.

No, this is not true. It is probably a bad law, but "anything that publicly references gays" is not a crime. The law only establishes a fine (not prison term) for promoting homosexuality as a norm for children under 16. Personally, I do not see how you could do it without being prosecuted for violating "Obscene publications act" in UK or similar laws in US.

There was fairly similar law in Britain until 2003: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_28

Also, I should note there is no protests supporting gay rights in Saudi Arabia were homosexuality is punished by death.

Also see: https://marknesop.wordpress.com/2013/08/02/somewhere-over-th... , https://marknesop.wordpress.com/2013/02/27/warning-explicit-...

Biased, but biased in a different way then usual articles on this subject and therefore useful.

Do you have a source for that? I agree there is not a nice atmosphere (as there wasn't for Owens), but your suggestion that athletes will be arrested on arrival is simply not evident.

Minister Vitaly Mutko... "No one is forbidding an athlete with non-traditional sexual orientation from coming to Sochi, but if he goes onto the street and starts propagandizing it, then of course he will be held accountable"

In any case, arresting athletes is sure to provoke immediate international outrage.

> If a law has been approved by the federal legislature and signed by the president, then the government has no right to suspend it. It doesn't have the authority.

Vitaly was interviewed once again, recently.

Take your pick:

http://www.ibtimes.com/george-takei-move-2014-winter-olympic...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/30/russia-anti-gay-oly...

http://abcnews.go.com/International/russian-lawmaker-suggest...

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/russia-anti-gay-laws-2014-...

I thought that they were going to ignore the anti-LGBT laws for the Olympics [0]

[0] http://rt.com/news/russia-olympics-gay-law-948/

They clarified later that they are going to enforce that law.

They clarified: the law does not prohibit being gay, the law just introduces fines for promoting homosexuality as a norm for children under 16. It is probably a bad law, but it is not saying what everyone protesting it thinks it is saying.

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