Reuters reports:
A memorial to Apple Inc founder Steve Jobs has been dismantled in the Russian city of St Petersburg after the man who succeeded him at the helm of the company, Tim Cook, came out as gay.
The two-metre (more than six-feet) high monument, in the shape of an iPhone, was erected outside a St Petersburg college in January 2013 by a Russian group of companies called ZEFS.
Citing the need to abide by a law combating “gay propaganda”, ZEFS said in a statement on Monday that the memorial had been removed on Friday — the day after Apple CEO Cook had announced he was homosexual.
“In Russia, gay propaganda and other sexual perversions among minors are prohibited by law,” ZEFS said, noting that the memorial had been “in an area of direct access for young students and scholars”.
“After Apple CEO Tim Cook publicly called for sodomy, the monument was taken down to abide to the Russian federal law protecting children from information promoting denial of traditional family values.”
Promoting “traditional values”, President Vladimir Putin last year signed a law prohibiting the spread of “gay propaganda” among minors.
On the other hand, Seumas Milne informs us, “A real counterweight to US power is a global necessity.” Because, you know, the US is just as bad, or maybe worse.
And don’t forget the strange attraction of some on the US Right for Putin as a manly defender of Russian interests and “traditional values.”
