Russia's anti-gay law gives 'licence to thugs and hooligans,' says Star Trek's George Takei [View all]
Source: Canadian Press
Former "Star Trek" actor George Takei has reasserted his stance that next year's Winter Olympics should be moved from Sochi to Vancouver due to Russia's "horrific" and "homophobic" anti-gay laws.
... Takei says the law has given "licence to the thugs and the hooligans, who then felt free to attack anyone that they deemed to look gay or lesbian." And Takei warns that giving Putin an Olympic platform will only increase his support and lead to "other horrific, oppressive things."
"We've gotta learn from history," Takei said this week in a telephone interview from his California home. "In 1936, the Olympics committee granted the rights to stage the Summer Olympics in Berlin. Three years before that, Hitler came to power and he got a law passed which seemed innocuous at that time: Jewish professors could not get tenure.
... "Putin is a former KGB guy, and now he's president of Russia, and he got this some people say it's innocuous, I think it's horrific propaganda law passed, homophobic propaganda law passed. And now we're offering him that same international stage, that same international spotlight.... I think we need to take the Winter Olympics away from Russia."
Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/Russia+anti+gives+licence+thugs+hooligans+says+Star+Trek+George/8788673/story.html