• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • About Towleroad
  • Towleroad on Social Media
  • Privacy Policy

Towleroad Gay News

Gay Blog Towleroad: More than gay news | gay men

  • Travel
  • Sports
  • Law/Justice
  • Celebrities
  • Republicans
  • Madonna
  • Books
  • Men
  • Trans Rights
  • Royals
  • Monkeypox
  • Kanye West’s Presidential Campaign Paid Alt-Right Pal Milo Yiannopoulos Nearly $50k For Consulting After Being Blindsided By $116k Bill
  • James Dean & Marlon Brando’s Alleged Affair Revealed After Casting Agent Exposes Rendezvous With Hollywood Stars
  • Unearthed: Late Lisa Marie Presley Blames Scientology For Michael Jackson Divorce — ‘They Made Sure That I Left Him’

UPDATED: ACT UP Disrupts Stoli Event At Splash In New York – VIDEO

RJ Aguiar July 31, 2013

 Most Original Stoli Guy
Less than a dozen members of ACT UP / NY stood up in front a crowd of roughly 150 at a "Most Original Stoli Guy: New York" event taking place at Splash Bar in Chelsea yesterday, and began shouting and displaying signs with slogans such as "Russia Kills Gays" and "Dump Stoli". Most of those in attendance viewed the demonstration in "bewildered silence", according to Gay City News. The show's drag queen host was the only one who vocally supported the Russian vodka brand, quipping, "This is what happens when you drink Absolut".

As security began tearing some of the group's signs and escorting them out of the building, the host went on to add, "Look at those assh*les being taken out of the bar. This is America, not Russia!" 

While ACT UP's demonstration turned out to be brief, one of the group's organizers, Mark Milano, was still pleased. "I think it was great," he said. "They were totally taken off guard. There were Stoli executives in the room who saw their event crashed." Another ACT UP member, Brandon Cuicchi, told Gay City News that “Stoli was doing an event they could not do in Russia. You’re not LGBT-friendly marketing to gay people while saying nothing in your home country. 

Act UpACT UP, an HIV awareness and activism group, first started making headlines during the late 1980's, at the height of the AIDS epidemic. Now, the group is expressing its concern that Russia's new anti-gay "propaganda" law might cause harm to groups seeking to combat HIV in the country:

"The ACT UP demonstrators voiced specific concern that under the new Russian legislation, dissemination of safe sex education, condoms, and AIDS treatment drugs will be targeted as 'homosexual propaganda,' something that could cripple effective prevention efforts. The group is calling on UN AIDS to condemn the new Russian law."

Stoli's parent company, SPI Group, has already decried the Russian vodka ban and expressed its support for the international LGBT community. Many human rights activists, including the likes of Dan Savage, remained steadfast in their efforts to "dump Russian vodka". Last night's demonstraton no doubt serves as a reminder of that fact. 

UPDATE: Video footage of the protest has hit the web. Watch it AFTER THE JUMP…

video
play-rounded-fill
Link
typorama 6 copy
 

Topics: Activism, Health, News More Posts About: ACT UP, AIDS, AIDS/HIV, Boycotts, New York, New York, News, Russia, Russia

Related Posts
  • Zelensky: Russia destroyed 30% of Ukraine’s power stations in a week
  • Exclusive-Ukraine will never forgive Russia – Russian Nobel laureate
  • Studio 54 owner Mark Fleischman dies by assisted suicide at Dignitas, says his business partner
  • James Dean & Marlon Brando’s Alleged Affair Revealed After Casting Agent Exposes Rendezvous With Hollywood Stars

    James Dean & Marlon Brando’s Alleged Affair Revealed After Casting Agent Exposes Rendezvous With Hollywood Stars

    Published by Radar Online MEGA James Dean was claimed to be a mega-fan of fellow screen legend Marlon Brando before they allegedly engaged in an “S&M” relationship, so it may come as no surprise that other …Read More »
  • Unearthed: Late Lisa Marie Presley Blames Scientology For Michael Jackson Divorce — ‘They Made Sure That I Left Him’

    Unearthed: Late Lisa Marie Presley Blames Scientology For Michael Jackson Divorce — ‘They Made Sure That I Left Him’

    Published by OK Magazine MEGA Lisa Marie Presley is holding the Church of Scientology accountable even from beyond the grave. The late singer, who died at the age of 54 on Thursday, January 12, believed Scientology …Read More »
  • Lawsuit to take aim at Utah law banning transition care for minors

    Lawsuit to take aim at Utah law banning transition care for minors

    Published by Reuters By Brad Brooks (Reuters) – The legal director of a leading LGBTQ advocacy group on Monday said he is preparing a lawsuit to ask courts to block a new Utah law that prohibits …Read More »
  • U.S. court rejects J&J bankruptcy strategy for tens of thousands of talc lawsuits

    U.S. court rejects J&J bankruptcy strategy for tens of thousands of talc lawsuits

    Published by Reuters By Tom Hals, Mike Spector and Dan Levine (Reuters) -A U.S. appeals court upended Johnson & Johnson’s attempt to offload into bankruptcy tens of thousands of lawsuits over its talc products, ruling the …Read More »
Previous Post: « Grant Launches New Studies About Transgender Military Service
Next Post: Gay Priest Addresses Pope’s And Cardinal Dolan’s Remarks On Gays »

Primary Sidebar

Adjacent News

  • Seventh Memphis officer suspended, three firefighters sacked, over fatal beating

    Seventh Memphis officer suspended, three firefighters sacked, over fatal beating

  • Principal orders librarian to take down Holocaust survivor’s famous quote

    Principal orders librarian to take down Holocaust survivor’s famous quote

  • Former FBI official warns of right-wing violence akin to ‘violent Islamic jihad’

    Former FBI official warns of right-wing violence akin to ‘violent Islamic jihad’

Good Trash: Going to Read It Somewhere, Y'know

  • Stormy Daniels takes victory lap after Trump pens tirade about her on Truth Social

    Stormy Daniels takes victory lap after Trump pens tirade about her on Truth Social

  • ‘He Was Consumed With Sadness’: Lisa Marie Presley ‘Destroyed’ Ex-Husband Michael Jackson With Shock Divorce Filing

    ‘He Was Consumed With Sadness’: Lisa Marie Presley ‘Destroyed’ Ex-Husband Michael Jackson With Shock Divorce Filing

  • Jane Fonda ‘worried’ about Barbarella remake

    Jane Fonda ‘worried’ about Barbarella remake

RSS Partner Links

  • The Secret To Reading An Inconvenient Bible
  • Keke Palmer Reveals How She First Found Out She Was Pregnant
  • “A helpful explainer for the Paul Mescal-Phoebe Bridgers drama” links
  • Why is Priscilla Presley fighting to invalidate Lisa Marie Presley’s will?
  • My tribute to wonderful publicist Jeff Ballard
  • NEW: Manhattan D.A. Presenting Evidence To Grand Jury About Trump
  • Multi-vaccinated Matt Doyle to miss 10 performances of “Little Shop of Horrors” after testing positive for Covid

Most Recent

  • Kanye West’s Presidential Campaign Paid Alt-Right Pal Milo Yiannopoulos Nearly $50k For Consulting After Being Blindsided By $116k Bill

    Kanye West’s Presidential Campaign Paid Alt-Right Pal Milo Yiannopoulos Nearly $50k For Consulting After Being Blindsided By $116k Bill

  • James Dean & Marlon Brando’s Alleged Affair Revealed After Casting Agent Exposes Rendezvous With Hollywood Stars

    James Dean & Marlon Brando’s Alleged Affair Revealed After Casting Agent Exposes Rendezvous With Hollywood Stars

  • Unearthed: Late Lisa Marie Presley Blames Scientology For Michael Jackson Divorce — ‘They Made Sure That I Left Him’

    Unearthed: Late Lisa Marie Presley Blames Scientology For Michael Jackson Divorce — ‘They Made Sure That I Left Him’

  • Lawsuit to take aim at Utah law banning transition care for minors

    Lawsuit to take aim at Utah law banning transition care for minors

  • U.S. court rejects J&J bankruptcy strategy for tens of thousands of talc lawsuits

    U.S. court rejects J&J bankruptcy strategy for tens of thousands of talc lawsuits

  • Michael Jackson’s Son Prince ‘Couldn’t Be Happier’ His Cousin Is Playing The Famed Singer In Upcoming Biopic

    Michael Jackson’s Son Prince ‘Couldn’t Be Happier’ His Cousin Is Playing The Famed Singer In Upcoming Biopic

  • Judge blocks New Jersey ban on guns at beaches, casinos

    Judge blocks New Jersey ban on guns at beaches, casinos

  • Florida pastor clashes with DeSantis over Black history courses and vows to host them in his church

    Florida pastor clashes with DeSantis over Black history courses and vows to host them in his church

Most Commented

Social

Twitter @tlrd | Facebook | Instagram @tlrd

Footer

Copyright © 2023 · Log in

×