Taking Into Consideration Russia's Attitude Towards Lgbt Community, Should Claire Balding Have Stayed Away?

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2554362/Balding-targeted-trolls-Olympic-sell-Gay-lobby-attacks-fronting-coverage.html

[Brenden]

No, we all have choices - she made hers - so it upset the gay lobby - tough.

[mikey4444]

No she bl00dy well shouldn't have stayed away ! I admire Balding immensely and if she has stuck two fingers up to Putin and the gay lobby at the same time, well....all to the good.

[tamborine]

Sport is her profession & why Clare is there

[Old_Jim]

Russia is about 20 years behind the UK and EU in terms of gay rights. Should Claire Balding have refused to get out of bed 20 years ago when our laws were similar to those in Russia? I suppose next we'll have politicians refusing to come to the next Commonwealth Games because of Britain's laws on paedophilia.

[whiskeryron]

// No she bl00dy well shouldn't have stayed away ! I admire Balding immensely and if she has stuck two fingers up to Putin and the gay lobby at the same time, well....all to the good.//

I think you will find these days that ONE finger is quite sufficient.

WR.

[mikey4444]

You are a very naughty boy WR...Go to the back of the class !

[tamborine]

Naughty WR, be off with you ;)

[sp1814]

No.

There's a breadth of opinion on this, but I think she made the right choice.

Brenden - what is 'the gay lobby'?

Do you mean individuals with opinions different from your own?

Did you know that gay people have a wide range of views on whether the games should be boycotted?

[Brenden]

sp. LGBT activists. Waiting to be corrected lol.

[anotheoldgit]

sp1814

/// Brenden - what is 'the gay lobby'? ///

Pardon me for butting in, but I always thought that was a perfectly acceptable and universal definition of those who set themselves up to speak on behalf of gays.

[FredPuli43]

Nothing could be a better statement than sending a lesbian to front the BBC's coverage in a country which has the reputation of being hostile to homosexuals.

[jno]

I can't see any evidence of a "gay lobby" here, but that may be just the Mail screwing up again - having used the phrase, it then quotes just two tweets, one from someone whose sexuality isn't given and one from someone who's clearly homophobic. The other tweets it shows are in favour of Balding.

[Brenden]

Thanks AOG, waiting to be slaughtered on another thread regarding my response - whatever.

[FredPuli43]

Curious, AOG. Don't see anything wrong in 'lobby' being attached to any group of individuals or an industry ( 'the farming lobby', 'the motoring lobby'etc). All it means is that the lobby serves to keep the interests and concerns of the named group in the public eye or that of legislators.

Somehow, some see some innuendo in it, that what the lobby, so termed, does is inherently wrong and/or an extreme expression of views or demand for action which is not justified by evidence.

[anotheoldgit]

jno

/// I can't see any evidence of a "gay lobby" here, but that may be just the Mail screwing up again ///

Could this be the 'Gay Lobby' that you are accusing the Mail of inventing?

*** The international LGBTI pressure group, All Out, and the Peter Tatchell Foundation. ***

But why some of it's members have to resort to insults, I just do not know?

*** ‘I am highly suspicious of Putin. I think it’s because of repressed sexuality he has brought this in, because any grown man with boobs down to his waist who poses in these homoerotic poses on his mighty stallion or with his fishing rod in his hand is suspect.’ ***

Paul O’Grady.

http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/gay-uk-tv-star-paul-o%E2%80%99grady-boycotting-coke-not-clare-balding-over-sochi050214

[jno]

aog, by "here" I meant in the Mail's story, not in the country. It says the gay lobby has been protesting at Balding but gives no evidence of this whatever.

[brionon]

FredPuli43-Right mate.good old BBC !

[sp1814]

AOG

The Daily Mail referred to 'the gay lobby' in the original version of this story which I read just after you posted your question.

The article has now been rewritten, and instead of 'gay lobby' the article now refer to 'Twitter trolls'.

Also, since when has Paul O'Grady been part of a gay lobby?

And why should we be respectful of Putin, a man who said at a press conference last week, "Gay people are welcome to come to our country, just leave our kids alone".

If someone said to you, "As an elderly white man, you are welcome to come to our dinner party, but after reading about Jimmy Saville and Stuart Hall", please don't go anywhere near our kids' bedrooms."

Do you not find that insulting?

[sp1814]

FredPuli43

Didn't see your post.

Well put sir.

Very well put.

[sp1814]

By the way APG, getting back to your question, i think it's right that Ms Balding went. As she has said, 'a woman woman boycott would change nothing".

Do you agree that it was right for her to go?