I have to say, I’m getting really sick of the gay boycott - you know, that latest thing that the LGBT community has to show solidarity in shunning to make a political statement.  It’s not that I’m against being political, so much as I’m against the world seeing LGBT people as mindless lemmings, throwing themselves off a cliff for any old half-baked cause.

The situation between Daily Xtra and Tim Hortons earlier this month was bad enough, whipping people into a boycotting and petitioning frenzy against Tim Hortons for allegedly censoring the Canadian LGBT news site.  Now, how their readers reacted is not necessarily the fault of Daily Xtra, but when you throw the "c word" around, it’s certainly not for the sake of calming their readers down.  (By the way, when was the boycott on Apple devices for their censorship of gay content in apps?)

The article we wrote in response to the situation, (www.gaycalgary.com/a3593) which offered a technical explanation about how Daily Xtra could have legitimately been blacklisted downstream from Tim Hortons, hopefully burst that hastily blown bubble.  With any luck, it left a few zealots feeling foolish for picking up their pitchforks so readily - that is, if they even had time to read it or the presence of mind to understand it amidst frothing at the mouth and smearing on their war paint.

What did this short lived crying of wolf accomplish?

Sure, it succeeded in getting Tim Hortons to override the block on Daily Xtra’s website from their free wireless internet within 48 hours of the article going public, so that LGBT readers could resume looking at "Aussie rugby player George Burgess’ nude selfies".

But in the grand scheme of things, it seems to me like the LGBT community in being so eager to protect one of its own, basically pointed the finger at the easiest target and threw a combination attack / temper tantrum until they got what they wanted.  Some even continued their tantrum well after Tim Hortons graciously conceded.

This doesn’t strike me as the best way to get the world to see the LGBT community as mature human beings worthy of respect and equality, so much as to fear us like volatile children wielding our power and influence to satisfy vindictive whims.

A mature-human-being-worthy-of-respect-and-equality wouldn’t need to routinely resort to the discrimination card to bulldoze people who stand in their way at the earliest sign of trouble.  They would give people the benefit of the doubt, recognizing that not every bit of adversity they face in life is an insidious plot to keep them down because they are [insert gender/sexuality label here].  They would take the time to research and understand why something undesirable was happening, and work respectfully and patiently through the proper channels to correct it.  They would work within the boundaries of convention that every other person must work within – that is equality, after all.

If you don’t grasp what I mean by "bulldozing via the discrimination card", here’s an exaggerated example:

A gay man walks into a bank and tells the first person he sees - the security guard at the door - to withdraw money for him from his bank account.  Of course the security guard says, "I can’t do that that for you."  The man, oblivious to the way a bank is supposed to work, jumps to the conclusion that the security guard is unwilling to help because he is homophobic, and so he raises a fuss.  Now, any person causing a commotion in a bank would rightfully be ejected, so the security guard may just throw the man out.  This would likely make him cry even louder that he is being targeted and victimized for his sexuality.  Or, the security guard may decide to hand-hold the man over to a teller who then completes the transaction for them.  The man, satisfied at getting what he wanted, returns to tell all his friends that security guards are able to withdraw money for you at the bank, and if they don’t, it’s only because they’re homophobic.

It’s madness.  It’s bullshit to behave this way, not to mention pathetic.  And yet, I’m ashamed to say, I frequently hear about LGBT people doing outrageous things like this.  The scary part is, most of the time I don’t know if they even realize they are being unreasonable - are they really that dense, or are they just feigning ignorance because they enjoy the special treatment?

Now, over the past week my eyes have been rolling as I’ve heard about the latest gay boycott: Russian Vodka – in particular, Russian Standard and Stoli.  That’s not to make light of the terrible situation facing LGBT people in Russia, and the impact on LGBT athletes traveling to Russia for the 2014 Winter Olympics.  My eyes are rolling at the fact that once again, the LGBT community in our part of the world is proving itself monumentally idiotic.

The idea for this proxy boycott was hatched by gay political activist Dan Savage.  Although Savage is highly respected for his "It Gets Better" campaign, there were a few sunspots on his bright idea to boycott Russian vodka.  By putting the crosshairs on Stolichnaya Vodka as one of the "best known Russian vodkas" that should be boycotted, Savage must have assumed:

A) That Stolichnaya is an exclusively Russian product.  (It’s still Latvian, for now.)

B) That Stolichnaya, as a company, agrees with the government’s stance on homosexuality. (It absolutely doesn’t.  They sponsor LGBT events!)

Maybe I’m missing something, but to me, boycotting Russian vodkas like Stoli seems as effective a method of pressuring the Russian government to repeal their anti-gay legislature, as a boycott of sweater-vests would pressure Stephen Harper to step down as Prime Minister.  It may raise some awareness of the cause by sheer dumb luck, but it still needs people to do something more in order for real change to happen.

Pouring a bottle of vodka down a drain is easy and accessible for anyone to do – it’s convenient (albeit wasteful, and not hurting the liquor companies anyway since you already paid for it).  It makes you feel good, like you’ve done your part to make a difference.  Perhaps this is why it has become so popular across the US and Canada.  But in reality, it’s nothing more than a symbolic act – a textbook case of "slacktivism".

The dangerous part is that, having dumped their Stoli and having promised to avoid buying it (for the time being), most people are walking away from the situation feeling that their work is done.

Like a lemming, one may think there is safety in numbers; that you must be moving in the right direction if you are falling in line with so many others.  But like a lemming, you are lulled into a false sense of security that is only broken by the rocky ground at the bottom of a cliff you didn’t see coming. In the case of the Stoli boycott, the lemmings go splat on the rocks when people realize they didn’t actually fix anything by following this direction they were given.  By that time it’s likely too late to do something real about it.

There have to be so many other ways to actually help the LGBT cause in Russia, albeit less fun and convenient than inverting a liquor bottle.  My first thought would be to see if there is anything we can do to support the LGBT rights groups – could they use our time or money?  Can we petition the Russian government directly?  Can we convince our government leaders in Canada and in the US to, in some way, put political pressure on Putin’s government?  Can we convince gay and straight athletes from across the world to make a pro-gay statement as part of their victory speech if they win a medal?  Can we get the IOC itself to make a pro-gay statement at the Olympics?

Oh wait...things like this are going on, many of us just haven’t heard about it because the mainstream media is too wrapped up in this dumb Stoli campaign.  Here are some related news headlines from our website alone:

Stephen Fry: Open Letter To The Prime Minister and International Olympic Committee (http://www.gaycalgary.com/n843 ), Should the Winter Olympics be Moved to Vancouver? (http://www.gaycalgary.com/n841 ), Obama on Jay Leno: ‘I have no patience for’ Anti-LGBT Russia (http://www.gaycalgary.com/n840 ), 83 Members of Congress Demand LGBTs be Ensured Safety at Sochi Winter Olympics (http://www.gaycalgary.com/n829 ), IOC urged to make visible pro-gay statement at Winter Olympics (http://www.gaycalgary.com/n828 ), Ban Russia from 2016 Summer Games, Egale open letter to the International Olympic Committee (http://www.gaycalgary.com/n821 ), Pride House calls for International Olympic Committee to host in 2014 (http://www.gaycalgary.com/n820 ), Apartheid South Africa Banned by IOC for 28 Years; Jailing of LGBTs Goes Unpunished? (http://www.gaycalgary.com/n819 ), Petition To Putin Reaches over 221,000 Signatures (http://www.gaycalgary.com/n815 ), Stoli Responds to Russian Vodka Boycott, Gays Still Aren’t Buying (http://www.gaycalgary.com/n811 )

Not hurting an ally to LGBT people like Stolichnaya Vodka is another good place to start.

"I want to stress that Stoli firmly opposes such attitude and actions [of the Russian government against LGBT people]. Indeed, as a company that encourages transparency and fairness, we are upset and angry. Stolichnaya Vodka has always been, and continues to be a fervent supporter and friend to the LGBT community," said CEO Val Mendeleev in a public statement that the company issued in response to the boycott.  Such a statement may even be punishable under the anti-gay legislation in Russia, so the company has taken great risk to reassure the LGBT community they are on our side.

In fact, a news report by CNN posted on July 31st (http://www.gaycalgary.com/u562 ) dredged up a bit of history - that 10 years ago, the Russian government attempted to seize ownership of the company in what came to be known as the "Vodka Wars", forcing owner and founder Yuri Shefler to flee the country.  Stolichnaya Vodka is already at war with the Russian Government!  What possible "leverage" or "influence" do boycotters expect them to have?!  If anything the Russian Government is laughing at their misfortune now!

Tim Hortons and Stolichnaya Vodka are roughly in the same boat, albeit on a very different scale.  Both companies are not our enemy - even allies to the LGBT community - yet both have been scapegoated and become the target of an LGBT boycott.  But these boycotts are publicity stunts pulled at their expense, on the reasoning that as big companies they can afford to absorb the abuse for the sake of the LGBT community getting mainstream media attention and getting its message out.

Wow.  Anyone who shits on their friends like this, doesn’t have friends for long.

July was a lull period with mainly just the Stampede to keep us occupied.  But things will start to pick up again this month with Coronation 38 in Edmonton on August 24th.

Calgary Pride at the beginning of September will keep us hopping.  We’re sponsoring the major dances happening over that weekend, such as Louder at Vinyl on August 30th, the PURE Pride Dance at Flames Central on August 31st, and Fused at Commonwealth on September 1st.  For more information, look for their ads in this edition.

Also if you’re an arts and culture buff, mark your calendar for the annual Q the Arts Cultural Festival on August 23rd, brought to you by Fairy Tales.

A while back, Steve was humoured to discover that people were selling old copies of GayCalgary Magazine on sites like EBay, so that readers around the world could collect hardcopies of the editions with their favorite celebrities on the cover.  Following this, we began to receive requests similarly from people around the world, often begging us to send them copies of particular editions.

We’re more than happy to give people whichever editions they want for free if they are willing to stop by our office in person to pick them up.  However, the moment people want us to mail the magazines to them, it costs us money.

Within the past few months the number of requests we have been receiving has steadily increased, which made it prudent for me to momentarily set aside my upgrading work on GayCalgary.com to do something to meet this demand.

This month we’re introducing a new area on our website called the Magazine Store.  This is a shopping cart solution that allows visitors to place orders for any of our old editions, and calculates the cost of shipping it to them.  We charge a small handling fee per magazine to cover our time to gather, package, and send out the order.  Customers can pay by mail, with their PayPal account, or with a credit card.

Check out the Magazine Store by clicking the link on the Magazine page, or by going to:

http://www.gaycalgary.com/MagazineStore