var addthis_config = {“data_track_addressbar”:true};
Keith Olbermann is back on our radar, thanks to the convergence of sports and politics à la the 2014 Winter Olympics.
Last night, Olbermann awarded the mayor of Sochi, Russia — home to next month’s Olympic Games — the “Worst Person in the Sports World,” for claiming his town is one-hundred percent heterosexual. Or, to be more specific, zero-percent gay.
Yes, Anatoly Pakhomov says there are no gays in Sochi, a city of nearly 400,000 residents — not to mention all the imported worked building the Olympic facilities.
The BBC, which first reported the story, writes that when “asked about gay people, Anatoly Pakhomov told Panorama: ‘We don’t have them in our town.'”
Anatoly Pakhomov said homosexuals were welcome at the Games – as long as they “respect Russian law” and “don’t impose their habits on others”.
“Our hospitality will be extended to everyone who respects the laws of the Russian Federation and doesn’t impose their habits on others”, he said.
But when asked whether gay people had to hide their sexuality in Sochi, the Mayor said: “No, we just say that it is your business, it’s your life. But it’s not accepted here in the Caucasus where we live. We do not have them in our city.”
When challenged, the mayor admitted that he was not certain there were no gay people in Sochi: “I am not sure, but I don’t bloody know them.”
BBC Panorama reporter John Sweeney visited a gay bar in Sochi the night before he interviewed the mayor.
Most people did not want to be filmed and those that did were cautious about what they said.
Drag queen Madame Zhu-Zha said there was a gay community in the city and in other areas of Russia.
“There are very many clubs for gay people in Moscow – in Sochi we have two gay clubs as well. In some places there’s serious prejudice against gay people. In other places it’s not as bad.”
Nice to see Olbermann again. The Sochi mayor, not so much.
//www.youtube.com/embed/JBrVuVY9fS8?start=141