Good on Google – its homepage today features a not-so-subtle protest against Russia’s new anti-gay-rights law, as the Sochi Winter Olympics commences (picture above).
Google’s logo has reinvented the Sochi logo in rainbow colours, the rainbow of course being a symbol of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) rights.
It is accompanied by the following quote from the Olympics charter: “The practice of sport is a human right. Every individual must have the possibility of practicing sport, without discrimination of any kind and in the Olympic spirit, which requires mutual understanding with a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play.”
(Hear, hear, incidentally.)
There have been widespread protests across the world following Russia’s move in June to make the “promotion” of “non-traditional sexuality” illegal. The move is generally seen as dangerously anti-LGBT rights.
Stephen Fry wrote a particularly powerful letter calling on David Cameron to boycott the Sochi Olympics over the anti-LGBT legislation, comparing Sochi to the Berlin Olympics in 1936, which took place while Hitler was persecuting the Jews.
Fry wrote: “[Putin] is making scapegoats of gay people, just as Hitler did Jews. He cannot be allowed to get away with it.”
Clicking on the rainbow Google logo takes you to a Google search results page mainly dominated by news stories pointing out that Google is taking a stand against the anti-gay legislation, although the search box reads “Olympic charter”.
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