ABOVE: Tom Daley, photo via Daley’s Instagram.
Officials have been supportive of the record number of openly LGBTQ athletes competing in this year’s Olympics, proudly showcasing athletic diversity. It’s a notion that’s prompted attacks from Russian TV.
The country’s two most popular television channels have used offensive language and slurs targeting LGBTQ athletes.
The state-run channels used several of their talk shows to speak poorly about the LGBTQ athletes, using words like “abomination” and “perversion.” A spokesman for the IOC (International Olympic Committee) told BBC that they have reached out to the official Russian broadcaster to express their concern.
“Discrimination has absolutely no place at the Olympic Games,” they said in a statement.
As Russia was banned from the tournament for state-sponsored doping, more than 330 Russian athletes are competing as the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC), without either the Russian flag or anthem.
The July 26 edition of the “60 Minutes” was filled with slurs from several panelists. Alexei Zhuravlyov, who is a member of the Russian parliament, said he was “disgusted” by gay and transgender people.
“We stand against this abomination,” he shouted. At one point, Zhuravlyov used an offensive Russian word to describe gay men.
Laurel Hubbard, a transgender weightlifter from New Zealand, and British gold medal-winning diver Tom Daley, who is gay, were the two main targets of these slurs from Rossiya 1.
The state TV’s Channel One, which is the country’s second most-watched channel, also targeted LGBTQ athletes. Anatoly Kuzichev, host of “Time Will Tell,” came to the set wearing a wig in which he impersonated Hubbard and mocked the athlete.
He later called transgender people “psychopaths” and suggested that they should be treated by psychiatrists.
Russia is known for its anti-LGBTQ views under its president, Vladimir Putin. He has widely sought to showcase the country’s “moral values.”
“Spiritual and moral values which some countries have started to forget have made us stronger, and we will always defend them,” Putin said in this year’s state-of-the-nation address.
