Out snowboarder Cheryl Maas raises the rainbow glove to Sochi

Since gay propaganda (read: saying anything nice about LGBT people in public) is illegal in Russia, many athletes are apparently using their wardrobes to get in some sly, passive-aggressive protesting. Between Greece’s rainbow gloves and Germany’s rainbow uniforms, we can assume one of two things:

  1. Other countries are using coded signals in their dress to signify their solidarity with Russian gays, or
  2. Oh god, someone actually thought rainbow uniforms were aesthetically pleasing.

So yeah, Occam’s razor dictates that option one is probably right.

According to The Huffington Post, out snowboarder Cheryl Maas may have taken the rainbow clothing and used it for some incognito protesting.

In the video below (right around the 2:00 mark), Maas raises her glove up to the camera to show off the rainbows. And also the unicorns. Rather innocuous, but news sources are already running with the idea that Maas was using it to quietly voice her opinion.

Is there a chance she was just trying to give the thumbs up to the camera? Yes, absolutely. For all we know, the media could be reading into this a bit too heavily, but to be fair, we’re all waiting for someone to step up and speak out against Putin. Until someone comes right out against him, we probably can’t fault anyone too hard for holding out hope.

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