Russia’s Olympics coverage descends into foul homophobia and transphobia

The International Olympic Committee has criticised Russia’s state-run TV channels for their vile homophobic and transphobic coverage of the Tokyo Olympic Games.

The record number of queer Olympians competing in Tokyo hasn’t gone unnoticed by Russian broadcasters, who are combatting the display of global LGBT+ pride with an upsurge in bigoted commentary.

The country’s many state-run channels have dedicated several talk shows to denigrating LGBT+ athletes, using words such as “abomination” and “perversion”, the BBC reports.

Rossiya 1, a state-owned channel favoured by Putin and his allies, is said to have particularly targeted the gay diver Tom Daley and trans weightlifter Laurel Hubbard.

The 60 Minutes programme on 26 July was especially rife with slurs, with one panellist, a member of the Russian parliament, saying he was “disgusted” by gay and trans people.

“We stand opposed to all this smut and perversion, strongly opposed. We stand against this abomination,” he shouted.

Russia’s second most-watched broadcaster Channel One featured more anti-LGBT+ comments, with Time Will Tell host Anatoly Kuzichev calling trans people “psychopaths”.

Another Russian MP, Pyotr Tolstoy from the Kremlin’s United Russia party, took issue with the new Olympic motto “Faster, Higher, Stronger – Together”.

He argued that it was part of Western efforts to “implant their agenda of equal rights, additional rights for LGBT, transgender people and other perverts into the Olympic movement”.

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