the Johnny Weir Mystique

Quebec sports commenters at the Olympics are being critized by gay rights group CQQL after wack comments were made about figure skater Johnny Weir on RDS (French subsidiary of CTV Globemedia).

He’s got red lipstick. He dresses in a feminine fashion. He tries
to be as feminine as possible on the ice. It brings a bitter image to
the the skating world. It’s pretty unfortunate because we might start
thinking every boy who skates will become like him.
—Alain Goldberg

The Conseil Quebecois des gais et lesbiennes (www.cqgl.ca) is filing a complaint with the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council for remarks made by sports commentaters Claude Mailhot and Alain Goldberg. This is in light of even after they apologized—the group says it’s not good enough. A facebook group was created to denounce what they say are homophobic remarks that may incite violence against queers, which you can view here.

Steve Foster of the CBSC, says: “It’s sad, remarks like these. It stops elite athletes
from coming out of the closet because they don’t want to be ridiculed on
a public platform.” (via the Canadian Press).

Among other quotes:

« On devrait lui faire passer un test de féminité
ou de masculinité.»
— Alain Goldberg

« Il devrait peut-être
être en compétition féminine.»
— Claude Mailhot

« Ce n’est pas
l’image du patinage que j’aime. C’est ce que tout le monde pense. On le
dit à voix basse et, maintenant, on le dit à voix haute.»
— Alain
Goldberg

May 17 is the international Day against Homophobia (Fondation Emergence). This year’s theme will be
homophobia in sports.

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