Activists Hope Coloring Books Highlight Russia's War on LGBT Citizens

[William769]

If you haven’t heard about Misha & His Moms Go to the Olympics, then you’re about to.



FCKH8.com, a for-profit T-shirt company based in Michigan, plans to mail children in Sochi and Moscow 10,000 copies of Misha & His Moms Go to the Olympics, a coloring book featuring LGBT people and their families, ahead of next year's Winter Olympics in Russia.

“Russia has made it a crime for any pro-gay words to be spoken, and that law is about to be broken,” says Luke Montgomery, founder of FCKH8.com. “The message of this coloring book is to let kids in Russia know that being gay is normal. Beating and imprisoning people just for being out of the closet or arresting them for simply saying that it’s OK if someone in their family is gay,is an attack on human rights and a trashing of the Olympic spirit. We’re going to be breaking this homophobic law, and there’s nothing the government can do to stop it.”

The coloring book effort to highlight Russia’s stance on LGBT rights stems from a law passed earlier this year that imposes fines and possible jail time for any positive discussion of LGBT issues identities in a venue that might be accessible to minors.

Misha & His Moms Go to the Olympics, printed in Russian, tells the story of a Muscovite boy named Misha and his two lesbian mothers going to the Olympics in Sochi. It shows the boy meeting friends from around the world, one with a mother and father, and another who has two legally married dads who are shown exchanging a small kiss with the Olympic flag in the background. The book also portrays Russian police beating a gay couple for holding hands and two straight female Olympic medal winners kissing on the winner’s platform to protest the anti-gay law.

http://www.advocate.com/parenting/2013/11/01/activists-using-coloring-book-take-aim-russia

[NYC_SKP]

1. I like it! It's in both languages, too!

[William769]

3. Thanks! I didn't see that.

[Brickbat]

2. That shirt. WANT.