Apple blocks the Gay Pride watch face in Russia

[mongeese]

The big picture: Russia continues to heavily discriminate against the LGBT community, and Apple has quietly complied and blocked its rainbow Gay Pride watch face for any Apple Watches linked to an iPhone with its locale in Russia.

People have been wondering for some time why they couldn't access the rainbow watch face in Russia, and now iOS developer Guilherme Rambo has revealed why on Twitter: "The Apple Watch pride face is hard coded to not show up if the paired iPhone is using the Russian Locale."

Apple announced the watch face and a matching pride band at its Worldwide Developer Conference a couple months ago, as part of their larger pride support campaign. Apple's "unwavering commitment to equality and diversity" turns out not to be enough to stand in the way of profit margins for Apple Watches sold in Russia, which is disappointing but unsurprising.

It's very likely this is a result of Russia's 2013 'gay propaganda' law - a law which has seen all LGBTQ parades, art, speech and general support completely prohibited in the country in the name of protecting young generations from 'propaganda regarding sexual relations'. This particular law violates human rights regarding freedom of speech and expression and while the European Court of Human Rights ruled that it encourages discrimination, prejudice and homophobia, little has been done on an international front.

As long as the paired iPhone's locale is set to Russia the face will be unavailable and though this is can be circumvented it could possibly result in jail time in Russia, so it could also be argued that Apple was only looking out for its customers.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/76244-apple-blocks-gay-pride-watch-face-russia.html

 

[The Truth]

Gay Americans may want to think more before spending money on Apple products. It's unbelievable that a US company in this day and age could act so hostile to the gay community.

 

[Tranceliker]

Gays are not something special. some countries may dislike them and that`s OK.

 

[Lionvibez]

If you want to be operating within there borders you have to follow their rules. The same thing applies in China and many people won't like it but that is how is it. You don't get to be the world police in other countries.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Gay Americans may want to think more before spending money on Apple products. It's unbelievable that a US company in this day and age could act so hostile to the gay community.

Oh no, a company put profits before virtue signalling! You cant use rainbows! It's such a hostile action! THE HORROR!

You have to be incredibly sheltered to see this as hostile. Perhaps direct your anger at countries that dont have gay rights, instead of being angry at a company complying with another country's rules in order to make money.

 

[cliffordcooley]

Gay Americans may want to think more before spending money on Apple products. It's unbelievable that a US company in this day and age could act so hostile to the gay community.

This is one topic I agree with. You speak of gay Americans. Yet there wouldn't be so many, if we had not lost our morals decades ago.

 

[yeeeeman]

Finally a normal country. Gays place is at a mental health center, taking their time to understand that people are born with a gender, that families are made from a men and a woman, basic stuff. We don't need to accept their ****, cause that makes things worse for them and for us in the long run. As you can see in the places where they got rights.
Regarding Apples move, they could easily change the name of the screen to rainbow colour or something.

 

[McMurdeR]

Gay Americans may want to think more before spending money on Apple products. It's unbelievable that a US company in this day and age could act so hostile to the gay community.

Oh no, a company put profits before virtue signalling! You cant use rainbows! It's such a hostile action! THE HORROR!

You have to be incredibly sheltered to see this as hostile. Perhaps direct your anger at countries that dont have gay rights, instead of being angry at a company complying with another country's rules in order to make money.

Its not hostile, but it is a little bit hypocritical and a little bit cowardly.

 

[McMurdeR]

Finally a normal country. Gays place is at a mental health center, taking their time to understand that people are born with a gender, that families are made from a men and a woman, basic stuff. We don't need to accept their ****, cause that makes things worse for them and for us in the long run. As you can see in the places where they got rights.
Regarding Apples move, they could easily change the name of the screen to rainbow colour or something.

How does it make it worse? What are you scared of?

 

[Adorerai]

people are born with a gender, that families are made from a men and a woman, basic stuff.

Just to be clear, gender and sex are 2 different things. Sex is biological, it's what you're born with, male/female parts. Gender is the socially constructed roles, behaviors, activities, and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for men and women. For example, the cultural norm in America used to be that men worked and women were expected to care for the household. That's a socially constructed gender roles.

 

[G0DofPaiN]

How does it make it worse? What are you scared of?

I, for instance, would be scared of lesbians, imagine 2 (hot) girls out of the picture for every lesbian couple, as for gay men the more the better. More girls for me.

 

[p51d007]

Gay Americans may want to think more before spending money on Apple products. It's unbelievable that a US company in this day and age could act so hostile to the gay community.

Profit & loss. It is a corporation, that is beholding to the board & stockholders, not some political correctness. If Russia doesn't want that in their country, however wrong, that is their right as a soverign
nation.
The problem with some in society, is if you disagree with something, you should be able to force your views on others.

 

[treetops]

Idk it can be a slippery slope, what if google removed all pictures of women without their face covered to cater to Saudi Arabia. Or removed all mention of Christianity\Atheism. Just an example.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

people are born with a gender, that families are made from a men and a woman, basic stuff.

Just to be clear, gender and sex are 2 different things. Sex is biological, it's what you're born with, male/female parts. Gender is the socially constructed roles, behaviors, activities, and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for men and women. For example, the cultural norm in America used to be that men worked and women were expected to care for the household. That's a socially constructed gender roles.

Gender and sex are synonyms. Go read a dictionary.

"gender is a social construct" is a line pushed by tumblr snowflakes that cant handle not being pretty princesses and have to constantly make excuses and new definitions for words so they can be offended at something. If they can blame societal roles and cultural beliefs on gender, then they have something concrete to blame all their problems on, or use to create a safespace for themselves where they dont need to face reality. What society has expected of the 2 genders has changed over the years, but there are still only 2 genders, male and female.

Roles in society are not gender.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Idk it can be a slippery slope, what if google removed all pictures of women without their face covered to cater to Saudi Arabia. Or removed all mention of Christianity\Atheism. Just an example.

News flash: google is not going to give up an entire country's worth of profit to please some SJWs. Saudi arabia already blocks plenty of stuff from their citizens, they dont wait for google to do it.

Multi-billion dollar corporations virtue signal to pretend they care about you. If they could enslave you to make an extra buck, they would. $$$ drives their actions, full stop. The only time they would appease SJWs is if they believe they will make more profit doing so as opposed to telling them to shove it.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Finally a normal country. Gays place is at a mental health center, taking their time to understand that people are born with a gender, that families are made from a men and a woman, basic stuff. We don't need to accept their ****, cause that makes things worse for them and for us in the long run. As you can see in the places where they got rights.
Regarding Apples move, they could easily change the name of the screen to rainbow colour or something.

You are confusing gays and trans there.

Gay men and women dont claim there are more then 2 genders, they just want to sleep with the same gender.

Trans, OTOH, are a basket-case of mental illnesses. The T part of LGBT has been forcing the LGB part out of the group, pushing this "gender is a social construct" and "more then 2 genders" and "gender isnt sex" BS, and encouraging mental illness, only to commit suicide like clockwork after butchering their own bodies chasing some invisible dysphoria enforced by peer and social pressure.

 

[Uncle Al]

I wonder if Putin is sending out his complementary bottles of Polonium to all the Apple leadership & major stock holders yet?

 

[psycros]

Finally a normal country. Gays place is at a mental health center, taking their time to understand that people are born with a gender, that families are made from a men and a woman, basic stuff. We don't need to accept their ****, cause that makes things worse for them and for us in the long run. As you can see in the places where they got rights.
Regarding Apples move, they could easily change the name of the screen to rainbow colour or something.

You are confusing gays and trans there.

Gay men and women dont claim there are more then 2 genders, they just want to sleep with the same gender.

Trans, OTOH, are a basket-case of mental illnesses. The T part of LGBT has been forcing the LGB part out of the group, pushing this "gender is a social construct" and "more then 2 genders" and "gender isnt sex" BS, and encouraging mental illness, only to commit suicide like clockwork after butchering their own bodies chasing some invisible dysphoria enforced by peer and social pressure.

This has been exactly my experience with so-called "transgendered" people, with one bit of addendum: almost none of these people had a stable upbringing and in most cases were abused mentally, physically or both. I have known at least three homosexuals personally who came from average whitebread familes with stable home lives. Nature just made a little boo-boo and thus when they hit maturity they were attracted to the same sex. Their basically harmless to society as long as they don't evangelize their lifestyle to teens and young adults who are riding that tidal wave of hormones . Gays have been around for at least two thousand years while there are no reliable historical examples of sexually confused individuals (and no, Loki doesn't count).

 

[McMurdeR]

Finally a normal country. Gays place is at a mental health center, taking their time to understand that people are born with a gender, that families are made from a men and a woman, basic stuff. We don't need to accept their ****, cause that makes things worse for them and for us in the long run. As you can see in the places where they got rights.
Regarding Apples move, they could easily change the name of the screen to rainbow colour or something.

You are confusing gays and trans there.

Gay men and women dont claim there are more then 2 genders, they just want to sleep with the same gender.

Trans, OTOH, are a basket-case of mental illnesses. The T part of LGBT has been forcing the LGB part out of the group, pushing this "gender is a social construct" and "more then 2 genders" and "gender isnt sex" BS, and encouraging mental illness, only to commit suicide like clockwork after butchering their own bodies chasing some invisible dysphoria enforced by peer and social pressure.

This has been exactly my experience with so-called "transgendered" people, with one bit of addendum: almost none of these people had a stable upbringing and in most cases were abused mentally, physically or both. I have known at least three homosexuals personally who came from average whitebread familes with stable home lives. Nature just made a little boo-boo and thus when they hit maturity they were attracted to the same sex. Their basically harmless to society as long as they don't evangelize their lifestyle to teens and young adults who are riding that tidal wave of hormones . Gays have been around for at least two thousand years while there are no reliable historical examples of sexually confused individuals (and no, Loki doesn't count).

What are you people smoking? If someone wants to have a sex change, why is it a problem for you? What's the harm? Where's the skin off your nose?

Speaking of mental illness - if you're that arrogant that you think you get to tell other people how to think and behave? What to do with their bodies? How to live their lives, is that not extreme narcissism?

 

[Mc128k]

Please guys, let's do a little bit of open-minded research with humility. Opinions are irrelevant.

There are deviations of the body and the mind. Nature does that as a result of diversity.
Throwing off your homo fears in the comments of a tech site only makes the readers see bad information, therefore making this a worse place.

 

[davislane1]

Finally a normal country. Gays place is at a mental health center, taking their time to understand that people are born with a gender, that families are made from a men and a woman, basic stuff. We don't need to accept their ****, cause that makes things worse for them and for us in the long run. As you can see in the places where they got rights.
Regarding Apples move, they could easily change the name of the screen to rainbow colour or something.

You are confusing gays and trans there.

Gay men and women dont claim there are more then 2 genders, they just want to sleep with the same gender.

Trans, OTOH, are a basket-case of mental illnesses. The T part of LGBT has been forcing the LGB part out of the group, pushing this "gender is a social construct" and "more then 2 genders" and "gender isnt sex" BS, and encouraging mental illness, only to commit suicide like clockwork after butchering their own bodies chasing some invisible dysphoria enforced by peer and social pressure.

This has been exactly my experience with so-called "transgendered" people, with one bit of addendum: almost none of these people had a stable upbringing and in most cases were abused mentally, physically or both. I have known at least three homosexuals personally who came from average whitebread familes with stable home lives. Nature just made a little boo-boo and thus when they hit maturity they were attracted to the same sex. Their basically harmless to society as long as they don't evangelize their lifestyle to teens and young adults who are riding that tidal wave of hormones . Gays have been around for at least two thousand years while there are no reliable historical examples of sexually confused individuals (and no, Loki doesn't count).

What are you people smoking? If someone wants to have a sex change, why is it a problem for you? What's the harm? Where's the skin off your nose?

Speaking of mental illness - if you're that arrogant that you think you get to tell other people how to think and behave? What to do with their bodies? How to live their lives, is that not extreme narcissism?

Stop projecting.

 

[Reachable]

If I may contribute to this dumpster fire of comments:

Tolerance is big word. Those who feel the need to actively denigrate LGBT can pretty much be summed up as those who are fighting those impulses in themselves. It's the enemy within.

It's also important that Russia not be demonized excessively. Putin himself has said that gays should "of course, never be persecuted." Exact quote. Gay pride rallies are questionable in their usefulness at best. No, they should not be banned. But designating them as 'propaganda regarding sexual relations' is not such a stretch.

Tolerating minority lifestyles while not encouraging or promoting them is not an unreasonable stance. Russia's law is unnecessary, but it's a nervous, conservative culture. Not making too big a thing out of the issue either way strikes me as a sensible attitude.

 

[i3kingwizardop]

Gay Americans may want to think more before spending money on Apple products. It's unbelievable that a US company in this day and age could act so hostile to the gay community.

This is one topic I agree with. You speak of gay Americans. Yet there wouldn't be so many, if we had not lost our morals decades ago.

That is the stupidest thing I've seen today. Gay people don't choose their orientation, any more than you did.

 

[i3kingwizardop]

If I may contribute to this dumpster fire of comments:

Tolerance is big word. Those who feel the need to actively denigrate LGBT can pretty much be summed up as those who are fighting those impulses in themselves. It's the enemy within.

It's also important that Russia not be demonized excessively. Putin himself has said that gays should "of course, never be persecuted." Exact quote. Gay pride rallies are questionable in their usefulness at best. No, they should not be banned. But designating them as 'propaganda regarding sexual relations' is not such a stretch.

Tolerating minority lifestyles while not encouraging or promoting them is not an unreasonable stance. Russia's law is unnecessary, but it's a nervous, conservative culture. Not making too big a thing out of the issue either way strikes me as a sensible attitude.

Russia is a mob state and putin is the godfather.

 

[cliffordcooley]

That is the stupidest thing I've seen today. Gay people don't choose their orientation, any more than you did.

That is the stupidest thing I've seen today. Gay people do choose to go against nature. It is called temptation and everyone is tempted to do things they shouldn't. People will always be tempted, that will never make it right when they do.