Totally Effective Strategy, Dudes

[Content Note: Homophobia]

As Liss mentioned yesterday, Russia has some monstrous policies towards LGBT people, and is also hosting the Winter Olympics next year. You may have also heard that Dan Savage has successfully encouraged gay bars to stop carrying Russian vodka using the clever hashtag #dumpstoli.

Don't get me wrong, I love the gays. Some of my friends are gay. I never, ever, drink Russian vodka, either. That's mostly because of my ties to Finland, but still, if I'm gonna gonna chug a clear liquor, I'm definitely gonna butt chug it, and it's definitely gonna be Finlandia.

However.

When your first response to injustice at the hands of Russian authorities is to boycott vodka, you might want to think about whether you're being racist. Also, how would you like it if someone started a movement that implies that gay men are a bunch of dudes that hang out in dance clubs drinking vodka?

Besides, when I was learning Russian in high school, my Soviet-made textbook didn't even get to vodka until the middle chapters. (Spoiler alert: It's a cognate.) I recall learning the words for smoking and cigarettes in the very first chapter. Vodka came after smoking, ballet, theater, hockey, gymnastics, and the circus. But sure, Russia is all about vodka. Whatever, jerks.

Second, the Stolichnaya that's available in the States isn't even distilled in Russia. It's made in Latvia. I mean, The Latvian government also hates LGBT people. It doesn't hate queers as much as it hates Russians (and presumably Russian queers), but still. If you don't believe me, the Latvian word for vodka isn't even vodka, which is really saying something.

In conclusion, I dare you to go up to a random ethnic Latvian and just start speaking broken Russian. I fucking dare you, Dan Savage.