Olympics has sparked a rise in shocking anti-LGBTQ+ slurs on Russian TV, as gay, lesbian and transgender athletes were called an ‘abomination’ on air.Guests and presenters on Russian state TV’s two biggest channels used offensive language to describe LGBTQ+ Olympians.New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard, who is a transgender woman, was subjected to the worst of the comments.
As BBC News reports, Rossiya 1’s 60 Minutes programme last month saw guest and member of Russian parliament Alexei Zhuravlyov deliver a number of slurs.Saying he was ‘disgusted’ by gay and transgender people, he pointed at a screen showing Hubbard and said: ‘We stand opposed to all this smut and perversion, strongly opposed.’‘We stand against this abomination,’ he.