US Olympian slams ‘ridiculous’ gay luge ad
SOCHI, February 11, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A member of the American luge team in Sochi is furious over an ad produced by a Canadian homosexual advocacy group, saying the attempt to portray doubles luging as sexually suggestive in order to promote "gay rights" is “ridiculous” and “sad.”
The 33-second video, produced by the Canadian Institute of Diversity and Inclusion (CIDI), features two figures sitting on a luge sled and swaying back and forth suggestively to music with the lyrics "Don't you want me baby.”
A screen grab from the sexualized 'gay luge' advertisement.
The ad ends with the tagline: “The Games have always been a little gay. Let’s fight to keep them that way.”
“It’s a gross misrepresentation of everything. All of it seems like a lie to me,” three-time Olympian luger Christian Niccum told Reuters. “To compare sports to sexuality is ridiculous."
The ‘gay luge’ ad can be viewed on Youtube here. (Viewer discretion advised.)
Niccum said that when he was growing up and became involved in luging, sexuality and sports were two distinct entities.
“It made me really think when I was a kid. Those types of thoughts never crossed my mind and now they are promoting diversity using our sport. I don’t think it’s fair for people that do have same sex attraction that they are using sport to promote their lifestyle. It’s not that way at all. To make those comparisons, I think it’s sad,” he said.
“Kids don’t think that way and now they’re having commercials and promoting that this is the way sports are. I just think it’s too bad.”
“When we were kids I didn’t get on the doubles sled thinking, well it never even crossed my mind, that 'oh, this is gay’. You think of like ... wrestlers ... football players, or whoever ... ’oh it’s male on male contact so something is going on’. It’s just sportsmanship. When did we come so sexual about everything?"
The CIDI website states that the group created the homosexual ad because “the discrimination in Russia is unacceptable.”
In June 2013, the Russian parliament voted 436 to 0 to pass a total ban on homosexual propagandizing aimed at children by foreign or domestic activists, leading to howls of outrage from homosexual activists.
However, as noted in a BBC report on the actual situation of discrimination against homosexuals in Russia, the country decriminalized homosexuality in 1993 and homosexual people are free to do as they like without sanction, except to promote their lifestyle to minors.
"Homosexuality, as you know, used to be a criminal act in the Soviet Union. This article in the criminal code has long been repealed and homosexuals can do their thing absolutely freely and without punishment," said Sergei Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister, according to the BBC.
Lavrov added, however, that under the new law homosexuals are not allowed to "aggressively promote their values, which are different from those of the majority, and to impose them on children."
