The Human Rights Campaign has started a petition demanding Donald Trump change the location of the 2013 Miss Universe Pageant. Donald Trump is the co-owner of the annual beauty pageant. Miss Universe will be held in Moscow, Russia on November 9. The Human Rights Campaign wants the location of the pageant moved out of Russia because of the country's controversial anti-gay laws. These laws make it illegal for members of the LGBT community to show public displays of affection in Russia. The laws have caused widespread anger when it was announced Russia would enforce them at the 2016 Sochi Olympic Games.
The petition from the Human Rights Campaign hoped to get enough signatures to put pressure on Trump to take his pageant out of Russia. The petition reads, "With the Russian government perpetrating a widespread crackdown against LGBT Russia and pro-equality supporters, we're calling on Donald Trump to move the pageant to another country that respects basic human rights for all." Attached to the petition is a letter addressed to Trump saying, "Just imagine what would happen if one of this year's competitors said something to support LGBT equality? Would Russian forces storm the stage and drag her away? Throw her in jail? Deport her?"
The letter goes on to say that the scenarios proposed are real threats members of Russia's LGBT community face every day. Despite the petition the Miss Universe Pageant will remain in Moscow. For the past two years TV personality and host of Bravo's "Watch What Happens Live" Andy Cohen has hosted the Miss Universe pageant. This year Cohen has refused to host saying he doesn't "feel right as a gay man stepping foot into Russia...their discriminatory policies make it unsafe for the gays who live there and gays coming to work and visit." The Russian law calls PDA by gay couples "homosexual propaganda."
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