Moscow security forces carried out raids on gay nightclubs, bars and saunas in the city center on Friday night, according to media reports, a day after Russia’s Supreme Court effectively banned the international LGBTQ+ movement in Russia, labeling it an “extremist” organization.
Police searched venues across the Russian capital, including a nightclub, a male sauna, and a bar that hosted LGBTQ+ parties, under the pretext of a drug raid, local media reported. Eyewitnesses said clubgoers’ documents were checked and photographed by the security services.
Ostorozhno Novosti Telegram news channel reported that, on the pretext of searching for drugs, police raided a club on Malaya Yakimanka where a party for the LGBT community was taking place.
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Hot take: I unapologetically like John Walker, like, not even in a “he is morally gray and interesting” kind of way. He was brave and had good intentions, he just wasn’t as quick to search for peaceful solutions and had several realistic flaws such as being insecure, ambitious and quick to follow orders for the establishment. Most people (on tumblr) just hate him because he is white so he must be evil or symbolically represent male white priviledge or something, because he didn´t romanticize terrorism as the writers made Sam start doing, and because he “unfairly” got the shield (The shield the dumb ass writers made Sam DECIDE to give up so they could have that sweet drama? THAT shield?). People say that Steve Rogers would have never done what John did, not even after his literal best friend was killed in front of his eyes, ehem… did we even watch the same movies? Did everyone just forget about that scene in Civil War after Tony tried to kill Bucky?
His reasons for murdering that terrorist guy that took part in the killing of his best friend and for wanting to apprehend a potentially dangerous group were waay more understandable than any of Karli’s actions AFTER she started killing innocent people “to send a message” while still claiming to have the moral highground instead of, you know, keep stealing and distributing food and medicines like they were exclusively doing at the beginning or something.
I get that it sucks the writers made the flag smashers the villians (I hate what they did with the good hearted and idealistic Sharon Carter as well), I myself would have prefered if Karli had been writen as an anti-hero or even new hero who teams up with Sam and Bucky, maybe the flag smashers could have been divided into different factions, some more extremist than others, and a government guy could have been the real or worst villain, but that sadly didn’t happen. The moment they wrote her blowing up that building full of unarmed people though, she was a self-righteous murderer just like Zemo, which would have been fine if that was the point of her character.
I was very irritated by the way the show writers, via Sam, tried to minimize her actions and make us feel sorry for her, dehumanizing the people she had killed in the process. We barely ever see her victims, they are mostly faceless entities who don´t matter in comparison to “poor well intentioned baby Karli”.
If the writers wanted to send the audience a message about “doing better” for refugees they could have done so by making the flag smashers the heroes that have been unjustly framed for the terrorist attacks (Which would have been an AMAZING plot twist), or writing them to be more complicated by making most of its members stand against the extemism of certain factions of the group, or by showing the good things they do, making them fight armed guards only. They should NOT have made terrorism seem “cool” and “trendy”, the deaths of civilians “necessary”, and the terrorists the “real” victims of… *gasp* being called… terrorists! The poor babies, noo, so offensive! The correct term is freedom fighters, nooo!
Needless to say, the woobification of the poor baby terrorists didn’t work for me and I wasn’t exactly horrified by Karli´s death or impressed by Sam´s corny victim blaming speech where he doesn´t actually give any practical ideas on how to solve the refugee crisis caused by the snap but sure does love to say the government officials all, indiscriminately (Maybe AOCortez or someone was there? I mean, idk), deserved to feel powerless as hostages because that, apparently, will make them sympathize with the people that made them fear for their lives instead of, I don´t know, seeing them as way too unreasonable to negociate with??
Now, I would have preferred for John Walker´s actor to play Lemar and viceversa, because I get that black characters get killed to motivate white characters far too often, so it would have been nicer to see it done the other way around for once. For John Walker to be the new flawed yet good hearted war veteran who has to redeem himself after making a huge mistake born out of pain for the loss of his friend, someone who has to develop and learn different tactics other than violence in order to defend people, someone who has to learn to question the status quo… and he just happens to be black like Sam. Their rivalry would not be even implicitly about race, but exclusively about differences in methods and about who gets the Captain America legacy. We could still have Bucky hating on him, the funny rivalry moments, no changes.
But sadly the writers needed a character to represent the white that didn’t deserve Sam’s shield but only got it for his race, or for looking similar to Steve, which is an important theme, but one that was perfectly explored already with the plotline about the original black supersoldier who was erased from history, and one that didn´t work for me because they made Sam give up the shield willingly BEFORE it was given to John, a war hero, so all I am getting is that simply being chosen for something important and accepting it because you think you can do the job, wanting justice for a friend, and not trusting terrorists to change their murderous ways is what made John “less than” Sam and Bucky.
I guess what I am trying to say is that John doesn´t deserve half the hate he gets and maybe if the writers had changed his race from the comic books then his character would have suffered less from being placed into a specific “personification of white male priviledge” box here on tumblr. No offence to the actor though, he was great.
Gorgeous Frank, thank you for support!
Please you can help Ukrainian LGBT+ military by buying those t-shirts here:
Getting tired of seeing big posts that are basically like "look there are gay Palestinians too that's why you should support them!" like how about we support them because they're facing a genocide how about that?
Is maccadam an alchohol supplier for megatron's bar?
Nope! I think I’ll have Maccadam’s be the name of the diner Optimus and Bulkhead work at (and previously Bee)
I think I’ll have the names of ships/certain tf hubs and what not be the names of bars/clubs idk, keeping it constant
like the club Nemesis, and a lowly bar Death’s Head, The Garrison as another bar—but also a certain underground fight club and dark trading ring
Locations and such are still a wip!! But hmmm the EPF headquarters absolutely has been nicknamed the Steelhaven (tunnels and tunnels of grimey barred confines masked by a shiny exterior would be responsible for that) and I think I’ll have the entire complex that Bulk, Bee, Prowl, Optimus—and Ratchet with his tiny clinic at street level— be dubbed the Ark as a inside joke maybe simply because the building is filled with misfits of all kinds :D
Peter Capaldi as the TWELFTH DOCTOR
DOCTOR WHO — The Witch’s Familiar
so the academy is reviewing whether or not to remove Will Smith’s award and here are some interesting tweets about that :)
Art by Lennart Butz
kid Ohma: Niko, what is love?
Niko: Love is when you steal my food from my bag everynight, but I still keep it in the same place.
Superior Spider-Man and Scarlet Spider in “The Haunting” mission from Spider-Man Unlimited.
There is 100% less “SpOck and Kaine trying to strangle each other” in this scene than there should be.