As tension heats up between Russia and the world stage over the country’s outspoken anti-LGBT agenda, Long Beach resident Richard Buska has taken matters into his own hands by developing a petition–with over 700 signatures and counting–asking Mayor Foster to dump Sochi, Russia as a Long Beach sister-city.
Prompted by signing a similar petition between another US city and its Russian sister-city, Buska discovered that the Olympics host city, Sochi, was none other than his own hometown’s sister-city.
“When I found out that the national anti-LGBTQ propaganda laws in Russia were essentially the same as laws passed in Sochi much earlier, I was outraged,” Buska said. “That essentially meant that my city had not already had any effect on such policies in Sochi. Considering that correspondence with the local ‘sister-city’ administration didn’t yield any indication of past action in this matter, a bigger gesture was warranted.”
Buska knows that the contingency on which this topic rides–the fact that Russia’s policies have come under mass scrutiny in tangent with its hosting of the winter Olympics, providing a worldwide audience on a scale that would have otherwise been smaller–vastly furthers his own agenda.
Today introduced a new cog in the Russia-versus-LGBTers brouhaha as the International Olympic Committee (IOC) laid out the rules which govern the Olympics–particularly Rule 50 of the IOC’s charter that “no kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas.”
In other words: if you’re an Olympian, don’t even think about showing off your support of the LGBTQ community. And this drove Buska to heighten the awareness of his petition even further.
“If the petition has an effect of getting the Long Beach City council to talk about the issue, that is good,” Buska said. “Someone who needs to hear it will hear it. Whether it’s a voter who decides a non-supportive council member needs to be replaced or a struggling Long Beach LGBT teen, this discussion needs to be heard. If it has an effect on the international sister-city organization’s public statements and policy it’s affected something, that is good. If it contributes to a serious reduction in the fan attendance at the Olympics out of fear of these laws, that is good. If it will affect Russia’s expected profit from the Olympics, that is good.”
Buska has even proposed ideas for bluntly avoiding the IOC’s recommendation to not display one’s support of LGBTQ rights: having each Olympian remove their jacket, turn it inside out to reveal a color, and make a rainbow on the world’s largest stage.
“I see this as one small part of a greater movement to highlight the atrocious policies of Russia,” Buska said, “and by example and extension many other countries as well.”
To sign or read Buska’s petition, click here.
The Mayor’s office has not returned requests for comment.