This has got to be one of the stupidest things I’ve read in quite some time…
A Steve Jobs memorial put up outside a college in St Petersburg, Russia back in 2013 has been taken down and the reason why is absolutely ridiculous.
The six-foot tall monument (which looks like a huge iPhone) was put up by a group of companies called ZEFS was taken down after Tim Cook, the man who took over the helm at Apple (and currently the CEO) came out as being gay.
In a statement by ZEFS in an article from NBC News, they cited “the need to abide by laws combating gay progoganda”. The memorial was taken down the day after Cook wrote a piece about being gay…”In Russia, gay propaganda and other sexual perversions among minors are prohibited by law,” ZEFS said, noting that the memorial had been “in an area of direct access for young students and scholars.”
I’d love for someone to explain to me how Apple’s current CEO coming out has much to do with a Steve Jobs memorial and could be considered gay propaganda!?!?
This has got to rank up there with Russia’s closing and investigating of many McDonald’s locations around the country.
I’ll just say that I’m glad that we visited Russia when we did (links to my trip reports below) since I’m not sure that I’d really want to go there right now.
Find out more about Russia taking down the Steve Jobs Memorial and check out a short video about it in the NBC News article here.
Related Posts:
Gene- Exactly! lol…
Brian- I’m sorry that you find my reason to be disengenuous. A bit judgemental, eh? However, I never stated that I would not visit Russia due to gay rights. Maybe I don’t want to go due to McDonald’s being closes around the country… How do you know that is not my reasoning or maybe something else?
I said “I’m glad that we visited Russia when we did… since I’m not sure that I’d really want to go there right now”.
Maybe I could’ve added to that statement as to why I wouldn’t really want to go right now but I did not say it was due to gay rights… The Russian government seems to be quite anti- America at the moment. I don’t know that it’s the average person there… Pulling down the Jobs statue, closing down McD’s for health violations, vandalism on the US Embassy. It seems like anything or anyone American can be a potential victim.
Now if someone were to offer me a free trip to Russia I am not going to say that I’d say an immediate no, but it’s definitely not on my list of places to go in the near future.
I guess everyone has their causes or rights they believe in, but I find your reasoning not to visit b/c of the latest apple and gays a bit disingenuous .
Russia has been anti-gay for YEARS. The biggest perhaps in recent memory was their ban on gays during the winter Olympics, granted that was early 2014, after any of your trips reports to cause you not to visit, per your inference. That said, they received pretty poor ratings from amnesty int’l in 2012. So, why even go to Russia at all if this seemingly inconsequential gesture would have been the cause du jour…when looking farther back, there were far more severe, similar, instances??
Nobody would travel anywhere if all the various atrocities (big or small) were known to travelers. In short, if feels like a fluff article, as you already took a trip to a destination with a very well-known, poor, record with the gay population/rights.
good thing this post is about travel rather than politics