Rainbow crossing outside of Russian Embassy in Stockholm protests Russias anti-gay laws

Taking a note from Gay Pride parades around the world, someone painted a rainbow zebra crossing outside of the Russian Embassy in Stockholm. It probably won't attract as many colorful protestors as Sydney's did when the city of Stockholm comes to paint it back to the reflective white needed for traffic safety reason in the dark evenings of northern scandinavia, but its point is already made. The national newspaper Dagens Nyheter calls it "the rainbow protest" and reports that naked people have been seen crossing it at the crack of dawn on Saturday morning while someone photographed it.

Perhaps we'll see these fabled images later? Maybe they'll make it into an ad campaign? Meanwhile, the police are letting people know to take care crossing at Gjörwellsgatan, as the crossing has been vandalized, but nobody has filed a report on it yet. Meaning, that paint may stick around for a while. Watch out when you cross at night as the zebra crossing is not reflective as it should be.

This marks the day when the World Athletics Championships began in Russia, but it's more likely that this protest is also against Russia hosting the Olympics. Since Russia instated laws against gay propaganda, athletes, lobbyists, gay people and politicians have all weighed in on the idea of boycotting the Olympics in Russia. Gay bars all over the west coast have boycotted Russia by pouring out their Stoli, even though exported Stolichnaya Premium Vodka is made in the independent country of Latvia. US Olympic hopeful Johnny Weir who is both gay and married to a Russian man urges people to not boycott the olympics as it has been proven in the past to only punish the athletes, and not the host country. We've been here before. Recently, when China hosted the olympics, human rights groups such as Amnesty and the Red Cross pointed out their ongoing track record of human rights violations, which stirred up emotions of Chinese expats who protested back, hacked several websites, and threatened to kill me. Prediction: many more colorful rainbow flags will be used to protest, but will the likes of Amnesty and the Red Cross join in?