TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - A monument in honor of Apple founder Steve Jobs was taken down in Russia on Friday, after Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed himself as gay.
The giant iPhone shaped statue was constructed outside of a St. Petersburg University that became one of Russia’s most liberal city. The statue was removed last Friday.
The statue was constructed in 2013 by the initiative of Maxim Dolgopolov, the company boss of ZEFS.
“In Russia, gay propaganda and other sexual perversions among minors are prohibited by law,” ZEFS said in a statement released by Russian radio Ekho Moskvy.
“After Apple CEO Tim Cook publicly called for sodomy, the monument was taken down to abide to the Russian federal law protecting children from information promoting denial of traditional family values.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a federal law in 2013 that bans “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations to minors,” a several months after the iPhone statue was constructed.
Putin stated that the law is not discrimintive, but to keep childrens safe. The statue was build one year after Jobs’ death.
At the time it was constructed, an organization called the “Communists of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region” complained that the memorial was too phallic, that the structure inappropriately “symbolizes the superiority of the American way of life,” and that Jobs’ face would scare children.
ANTARA NEWS | JAFAR M SIDIK
