From the war in Syria to conflict in Ukraine and the South China Sea to mass starvation in Venezuela, this year’s Olympic Games in Rio presented a rare opportunity for the United Nations to bring nations together and to promote peace and justice at a time when there has perhaps been more global turmoil than there has been in a generation.
But while the world celebrates athleticism, peace among nations, and diversity at this year’s Games, the U.N. is running a campaign to give out free hugs and condoms.
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the Brazilian ministry of health, the Brazilian Olympic Committee, and others have partnered together to launch #EuAbraço, a campaign to promote condoms and LGBT ideology.
Hear Dr. Christopher Manion read this article: “UNFPA, UNAIDS Use Olympics to Bring Condoms, Hugs, and LGBT Advocacy to Rio.”
Campaign organizers have set-up condom distribution sites in public parks and squares where the public has gathered in large numbers to watch Olympic events on big screens. Distribution sites have been set-up not only in Rio de Janeiro but also in other major cities across the country.
Brazil’s ministry of health and the Brazilian Olympic Committee further collaborated in “making available a record amount of condoms to athletes” by setting up condom dispensers in the Olympic Village.
Since the start of the campaign on August 4th, over half a million condoms have been distributed. The campaign is planned to last throughout the 2016 Paralympic Games which end on September 18th.
To raise awareness for the event, #EuAbraço used social media to share images and videos of provocatively clad campaign activists giving hugs to pedestrians. UNAIDS also used the event as an opportunity to promote LGBT ideology by using social media to advocate for an “end to homophobia.” #EuAbraço further promoted condom use, rather than abstinence and fidelity, as a means to reduce the incidence of HIV. The campaign sought to combat the “stigma” associated with HIV, a common tactic used by UNFPA and UNAIDS to falsely accuse traditional marriage advocates of bigotry and to normalize infidelity and homosexuality.
Campaign organizers went all out in promoting the event. The Director of UNAIDS Brazil, Georgiana Braga-Orillard, can even be seen posing in a photo posted by UNAIDS Brazil with men elaborately costumed as packages of condoms:
The well-organized and thoughtfully planned campaign has been promoted by the full weight of the United Nations. UNAIDS Brazil posted an image of U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon, saying the “Secretary-General of the United Nations, supports #EuAbraço.”
Perhaps instead of promoting condoms and LGBT ideology, the UNFPA and UNAIDS should address real problems like gang violence and sanitation that affect many of the thousands of Brazilians living in the favelas lining the city, only minutes away from the U.N.’s hug-fest.
