From The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/07/sports/games-officials-tiptoeing-around-russias-antigay-law.html?hp&_r=0
By JERÉ LONGMAN
Published: August 6, 2013
The Winter Olympics begin six months from today in Sochi, Russia. Athletes find themselves in a risky situation. On the one hand, they face prosecution for advocating for gay rights. On the other, they face banishment by Olympic officials for publicly opposing Russia’s discriminatory new law.
Just as Russia now prohibits “propaganda” in support of “nontraditional” sexual orientation, the Olympic charter prohibits athletes from making political gestures during the Winter and Summer Games.
So it is entirely possible that any bobsledder or skier wearing a pin, patch or T-shirt in support of gay rights could be sent home from Sochi, not by Russian authorities, but by another group that suppresses expression: the International Olympic Committee.
Would the I.O.C. inflict such a public-relations disaster on itself? Perhaps not. But Olympic officials worldwide, including those in the United States, along with NBC and corporate sponsors, have put themselves and athletes in an awkward position by only tepidly opposing the Russian law that bans “homosexual propaganda.”
Blake Skjellerup, a short-track speedskater from New Zealand, has said he plans to wear a gay-pride pin in Sochi; if he gets into trouble, “so be it.” Harvey Fierstein, the playwright and actor, has called for a boycott of the Winter Games. Gay rights activists in New York and elsewhere have urged the removal of Russian vodka from bars.
But those who organize, broadcast and underwrite the Games have offered little beyond tardy and lukewarm criticism.
The Olympic charter calls sport a human right that should be practiced “without discrimination of any kind.” But all the indignation the I.O.C. could muster about Russia’s new antigay law was a statement saying the Olympic Committee would “oppose in the strongest terms any move that would jeopardize this principle.”
Just as the I.O.C. said it had received assurances that the law would not be enforced at the Sochi Games, Russia’s sports minister said that it would be.
Before the law was passed, the I.O.C. could have pressured Russian officials, saying it would not support the Sochi Games under such conditions. Instead, the Olympic Committee acquiesced.
In contrast to the 2010 Vancouver Games and the 2012 London Games, there will be no Pride House in Sochi as a meeting point and informational hub for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender athletes.
Continue reading at: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/07/sports/games-officials-tiptoeing-around-russias-antigay-law.html?hp&_r=0
