The Olympics are a celebration of peace and unity, an opportunity to put aside political differences and join in fraternal awe and support of the most impressive physical specimens on the planet, humans who have dedicated their lives and energies to mastering a set of skills and have been chosen to represent their homeland good-natured competition.
“The practice of sport is a human right. Every individual must have the possibility of practising sport, without discrimination of any kind and in the Olympic spirit, which requires mutual understanding with a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play.” -IOC Charter
Russia’s domestic policies regarding “non-traditional sexuality,” however, has created a massive dissonance between the ideals of the Olympics and the likely execution of them. In June this year, Putin signed a bill, making it law, that said anyone suspected of promoting “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations to minors” is liable to arrest and deportation, and this law has already been used against foreigners.
Making any comparison to Nazis should not be done lightly. One of the most heinous genocide programs in history is (hopefully) not brewing in Russia against alternative sexualities. Unfortunately, there are clear parallels between both situations. Fundamentally, both states support a campaign of terror, misinformation and blame against minorities in order to distract constituencies from stagnant economies and other political problems.
In 1935, however, Hitler’s government was much more accommodating to the International Olympic Committee’s insistence that gays, Jews and blacks be allowed to compete, and agreed to take down anti-semitic signs around Germany. Unfortunately, this only ended up being a 2-week pause on the active persecution of those minorities, to which an optimist may claim that the German’s acquiesced because they had an agenda to hide.
The IOC says that it has “received assurances from the highest level of government in Russia that the legislation will not affect those attending or taking part in the Games.” This is news to Vitaly Milonov, a member of the Russian legislature, who recently suggested to Interfax news agency that athletes competing in the Olympics could be at risk of arrest. “And if a law has been approved by the federal legislature and signed by the president, then the government has no right to suspend it. It doesn’t have the authority.”
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has been approached with a letter signed by 88 members of Congress requesting direct diplomatic protection for U.S. visitors to Sochi, both athletes and spectators alike. Incredibly, that leaves 447 U.S. lawmakers who did not sign this bipartisan letter, which does not call for boycott or political actions against Russia, but merely the protection of U.S. citizens in accordance with their rights during their trip into Russia for the Olympics.
The Chairman of the IOC, Jacques Rogge, had this to say on the issue: “The Olympic charter is very clear: it says that sport is a human right and it should be available to all, regardless of race, sex or sexual orientation and the Games themselves should be open to all, free of discrimination. So our position is very clear.”
President Obama, on air with Jay Leno earlier this month, contributed this to the discussion: “Putin and Russia have a big stake in making sure the Olympics work, and I think they understand that for most of the countries that participate in the Olympics, we wouldn’t tolerate gays and lesbians being treated differently. They’re athletes, they’re there to compete. And if Russia wants to uphold the Olympic spirit, then every judgment should be made on the track, or in the swimming pool, or on the balance beam and people’s sexual orientation shouldn’t have anything to do with it.”
For many sports, the Olympics are the pinnacle of competition and boycotting them would eliminate the goal for years of training and sacrifice, while simultaneously being a huge blow to the exposure and earning potential of both the athletes and the sport. Corporate sponsors have largely avoided taking any public stance on this issue, but are wary of public response to continued poor media exposure.
Openly gay New Zealand speed skater Blake Skjellerup is both adamantly against a boycott of the Sochi Olympics and fully committed to wearing wearing a rainbow pin in competition. As a competitive world class athlete, he refuses to pass up the opportunity to test himself against the world’s best, but he simultaneously refuses to submerge part of his fundamental identity as an individual. To learn more about Blake click here.
He is potentially at risk of both arrest from Russia and disqualification from the Olympic games by the IOC, which at the Beijing Olympics insisted that competitors essentially sign gag orders, a policy they are sure to renew for Sochi ’14.
Keith Olbermann gave a solid breakdown of the situation, shared below. It is crucial for us as consumers and voters to show our solidarity for human rights all over the world. Contact your representatives and congressmen and let them know you want them to push for diplomatic and economic pressures on Russia.
Almost three-quarters of Russians said homosexuality should not be accepted by society, while just 16% said it should be accepted, a recent Pew Research Center survey of global attitudes revealed. By comparison, 33% of people surveyed in the United States said homosexuality should not be accepted by society, while 60% said it should. In Britain, only 18% did not favor accepting homosexuality, with 76% saying it should be accepted.
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