In a direct response to Tim Cook’s public essay laying out his sexual orientation and his reasons for speaking out, Russian media is reporting that a St. Petersburg monument to Steve Jobs has been taken down.
The monument, with an interactive screen displaying information about Jobs, was reportedly put up on the grounds of an IT university in January 2013 on the initiative of a Russian company called Western European Financial Union.
Russian Radio station Biznes-FM cited the company’s chief, Maksim Dolgopolov, as saying he had it removed in part to comply with a law banning the spread of “propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations” among minors.
And:
After Cook came out as gay in an essay published on October 30, prominent St. Petersburg antigay activist Vitaly Milonov was quoted as saying Cook should be banned from Russia because he could bring AIDS, Ebola, or gonorrhea into the country.
The mind boggles.
On the rational side of the spectrum, there’s this op-ed piece from the New York Times:
As Lloyd Blankfein, the chief executive of Goldman Sachs, put it, “He’s chief executive of the Fortune One. Something has consequences because of who does it, and this is Tim Cook and Apple. This will resonate powerfully.”
Trevor Burgess, the openly gay chief executive of C1 Financial in Florida, and one of the first publicly gay chief executives of a public company, said Tim Cook used “the metaphor of laying a brick on the ‘path towards justice.’ ” But, “This is more like 600 million bricks,” Mr. Burgess said. “He has the most influential voice in global business.”
Indeed he does.
Your mind shouldn’t be boggled. Russia has turned into a backwards state again. Nothing they do should surprise anyone.
Homophobes!
“Russian Radio station Biznes-FM cited the company’s chief, Maksim Dolgopolov, as saying he had it removed in part to comply with a law banning the spread of “propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations” among minors.”
I didn’t know Steve Jobs was gay! ;^)
You might consider changing “sexual preference” to “sexual orientation”.
Thank you, absolutely! Fixed.
I am not sure if saying “turn … again” is proper. That would mean they changed at some point of time…
Vile and disgusting but not entirely surprisingly – toxic mixture of ignorance, religion, and fascism.
It’s like the Russians actually like those “Boris & Natasha” stereotypes and are eager to bring them back. What’s next, airbrushing Tim Cook out of photographs?
Its taken for screen REPAIR. You all were tricked to aggro because of non-sense ~lol
I care about this about as much as I care about a new Samsung phone.
Russia was doing alright under Yeltsin.
Relatively speaking. The on going joke was that he was a drunk. Not a power mad psychopath.
I miss the 90’s.
Source? I can’t see anything that cites, “screen repair.” News sources I’m seeing are citing anti-gay laws.
The removal is one piece in a massive pile up of Russian anti-gay stupid. Vitaly Milonov is kind of a special kind of stupid. He’d be very welcome here in America, that’s for sure.
http://www.fontanka.ru/2014/11/03/066/
http://tass.ru/obschestvo/1549568
this “removal” is just a pile of mass anti-russian hysteria.
Milonov is a freak, dont take him so serious, i bet every country has such freaks between politicans, dont? 😀
Yeltsin been weak, and now when RU has a strong leader, you call him “power mad psychopath”
You know who is the best judge? Time.
The rest is a mirror image of propaganda thats fed to masses via media. (10% facts, 90% lies and “own opinions” – usual recipe, bon appetit!)
Vitaly Milonov would be one thing, but given the anti-gay laws on the books in Russia… Weaponized stupid in an ideal environment doesn’t give me a lot of pause.
(Also, he uses an iMac. lawl)
Let’s see when, more likely if, it returns. My bet is never, but I’ll gladly acknowledge that is wrong just as soon as I see the report that it is.
IF it returns (I dont mind if it will not, because it isnt much art in this ugly iPhone model) there will be not much news and noise about it, it is boring and doesnt shock people, no screaming titles like “Russia removes memorial because of anti-gay thingy” 😀
See Chelsea handler for the proper way to handle Putin.
Russia has woke up and reverted to its natural backward tendencies. The Soviets were just an aberration
Ah, spoken like a true fan of the Cold War propaganda machines (both East and West)