The face of the Russian vodka boycott is Dan Savage, the man known for permanently attaching Rick Santorum's name to frothy feces and the brain behind the It Gets Better anti-bullying project. Savage explains that vodka is a good place to start:

[B]oycott or no boycott there is something we can do right here, right now, in Seattle and other US cities to show our solidarity with Russian queers and their allies and to help to draw international attention to the persecution of gay men, lesbians, bisexuals, trans people, and straight allies in Putin's increasingly fascistic Russia: DUMP RUSSIAN VODKA.

Following Savage's lead is Sidetrack, one Chicago's biggest gay bars. Its statement, picked up by the Huffington Post, reads:

Sidetrack cannot support a brand so associated with Russia at a time when Russia is implementing (against strong world criticism) it's [sic] anti-gay law that bans gay "propaganda". The Stoli story is complicated by decades of lawsuits whereby the actual Government of Russia has laid claim to the Stolichnaya brand name. Very soon the Russian government itself, which bans positive portrayals of LGBT people, may be the beneficiary of the goodwill earned by Stoli's distributors and bars over the years.

A fellow Chicago bar has propped up a sign that states, "proudly serving non-Russian vodkas."

Now, will this push be enough to actually hurt Russia's vodka companies and affect change? There is evidence, according to one marketing study, that 45 percent of gay men and 44 percent of lesbians who drink prefer to drink vodka. That's a solid number, but given that LGBT people are just a small number of the general population, the boycott could be futile.

What Savage and fellow vodka boycotters need is for this movement to catch fire among straight allies. There's nothing wrong with gin, after all.

[Note from Editor: An earlier version of this article opened with a different lead paragraph. It didn't get the message across and was amended.]

This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.