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Why Gay Activists Urge Boycotting Russian Vodka

  • Spence Cooper
  • August 7, 2013

In his article, “Why I’m Boycotting Russian Vodka,” author and journalist Dan Savage discusses Russian President Vladimir Putin’s escalating persecution of gays.

Why Gay Activists Urge Boycotting Russian VodkaPutin signed a law banning the adoption of Russian-born children to gay couples, and to any couple or single parent living in any country where marriage equality exists in any form.

Additionally, six months before Russia hosts the 2014 Winter Games, Putin signed a law allowing police officers to arrest tourists and foreign nationals they suspect of being homosexual, lesbian or “pro-gay”and detain them for up to 14 days.

Gay and lesbian Russians living in the United States are calling for a boycott of the 2014 Winter Games.

Harvey Fierstein with the New York Times claims the law could mean that any Olympic athlete, trainer, reporter, family member or fan who is gay” or suspected of being gay, or just accused of being gay” can go to jail.

Fierstein notes Putin is about to sign an edict that would remove children from their own families if the parents are either gay or lesbian or suspected of being gay or lesbian.

“The police would have the authority to remove children from adoptive homes as well as from their own biological parents.”

Not surprisingly, writes Fierstein, some gay and lesbian families are already beginning to plan their escapes from Russia. Putin has defended his actions by claiming the Russian birthrate is on the decline.

“These anti-gay laws come after years of escalating attacks on gay pride events and LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) people in Moscow and St. Petersburg,” writes Savage.

“Moscow’s city government has banned pride parades for 100 years; in St. Petersburg a small group of LGBT-rights demonstrators was attacked by a violent mob earlier this summer. These attacks are not new and they’re getting worse.”

According to the Huffington Post, 4 Dutch tourists have been jailed under Russia’s “gay propaganda” law after they were suspected of promoting homosexuality to children.

Savage encourages people in Seattle and other US cities to show their solidarity in protest of Putin’s actions by boycotting all Russian vodka.

But according to Bloomberg’s Venessa Wong, two companies produce Stolichnaya vodka. One is state-owned company FKP Soyuzplodoimport, which makes and sells Stoli in Russia and a handful of other markets.

The other is Luxembourg-based SPI Group, a private company that makes and sells Stoli in more than 100 countries, including the U.S., U.K., and Canada.

SPI Group claims it’s being wrongly targeted.

SPI Chief Executive Officer Val Mendeleev tells Bloomberg Businessweek that his company supports LGBT causes and the Stoli boycott is “totally unfair”

“The gay community is one of the active consumers of Stoli,”Mendeleev says, however, he admits some ingredients used to make Stoli do come from Russia, but he insists “the Russian government has no ownership interest or control over the Stoli brand that is privately owned by SPI Group”

Mendeleev went on:

“We fully support and endorse your objectives to fight against prejudice in Russia. In the past decade, SPI has been actively advocating in favor of freedom, tolerance and openness in society, standing very passionately on the side of the LGBT community and will continue to support any effective initiative in that direction”

The two best known Russian vodkas are Russian Standard and Stolichnaya, but Savage provides a list of Russian vodkas currently available in the US:

Dovgan

Gold Symphony

Standart

Hrenovuha

Kauffman

Kubanskaya

Moskovskaya

Narodnaya

Pyatizvyozdnaya

Putinka

Rodnik

Ruskova

Russian Standard

Shustov

Starka

Stolnaya

Youri Dolgoruki

Savage urges people to Tweet their support using the hashtags #DUMPSTOLI and #DUMPRUSSIANVODKA. “And tell friends about what is happening in Russia and ask them to DUMP STOLI and DUMP RUSSIAN VODKA.”

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