The Nation’s sports editor Dave Zirin said Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Deadline” that the United States was dealing with “similar trends” towards LGBTQ people when discussing Qatar’s LGBTQ rights record, which included homosexuality being a crime.
While hosting the World Cup Qatar, banned players from wearing FIFA’s “OneLove” armbands.
Zirin said, “You know, I’m reminded strongly of the period during the Cold War where the U.S. was lecturing about human rights to the Eastern Bloc, and the response was always, how are you lecturing us? Look at Selma, look at Jim Crow. That was always the battle between the human rights of foreign policy and then the realities at home when people point out hypocrisies. And in this particular case, it’s so important to shine a light on what life is like for LGBTQ people in Qatar, but it’s also important to say that in our country, I mean, the broadcast that you’ve done so far, you know, really moving about Colorado Springs, or the laws against the inclusion of trans children in our society, or the fact that we have children’s hospitals in this country that are scared to open their doors for fear of bomb threats. I mean, all this needs to be part of our assessment of what’s going on in Qatar because we’re dealing with similar trends at home. And if anybody says to what I’m saying, well, Qatar is a state actor, in the U.S. it’s more small-scale terrorism, I think that’s incredibly naive, when you look at the right-wing edge of the Republican Party and certain news networks which are, I would argue, state actors in this process.”
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