LGBT Olympians And Allies Should Show Up In Russia

[DriftingCrow]

http://www.buzzfeed.com/patrickburke/dont-boycott-sochi
Author: Patrick Burke Source: BuzzFeed

It's illegal to be pro-gay in Russia, and Russia will be hosting the 2014 Olympics in Sochi.

"In light of that, as well as a litany of human rights abuses against the LGBT community that go far beyond locker room intimidation, many groups are calling for an international boycott of the Olympic Games. At the You Can Play Project, we believe that sports can change the world. And for that reason, we are staunchly against the idea of a boycott."

"In 1968, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar refused to play in the Olympics as a protest against the treatment of blacks in America. The same year, Tommie Smith and John Carlos stood on a medal stand, gloved fists in the air, as a protest against the treatment of blacks in America. History remembers the athletes who showed up. The time has come for us to recognize that politicizing sport only limits sport's real potential to change the world. Russian extremists say that being gay means to be lesser; it is to be weak, to be soft. What will they say when (not if, when) a gay athlete wins a gold medal in their country?"

[Ltl89]

Russia has a history of human right's violations, so nothing surprising here.  Though I will say Vladimir Putin does know how to divert the attention of the public in a very skillful manner.  "Oh, what's that about free and fair elections, freedom of speech and the press, and the corruption of the oligarchs..... look there's a gay person and an immigrant, after them"!  Seriously it's very sad that  people take his bait and follow it.  When the two biggest parties in you country are United Russia and the communist Party, you have some big problems.

[Jamie D]

Summer Olympic games were held in Nazi Germany in 1936, and were scheduled to be held in militarist Japan in 1940.

The Winter games of 1936 were held in Garmish and Partenkirchen, Germany.  The 1940 Winter games were scheduled for Sapporo, Japan, and the 1944 Winter Games were to be held at Cortina, in Fascist Italy.  (The 1940 and 1944 games were cancelled.)

Authoritarian regimes love to use sport for propaganda purposes, and the Olympic Committee are tools of oppression.