Olympic Boycott over Russian Anti-gay laws?

I had forgotten that the Olympics are in Russia next year.

To make such a protest truly be effective, either the International Olympics Committee will have to find a new country to host the events in 2014 (which they will not do), or multiple countries will have to band together and jointly announced their withdrawing from the games (which won't happen).

I think many athletes (Johnny Weir immediately comes to mind) may announce their withdraw and protest. If they go to the games, they risk being arrested.

(Not to threadjack, but another thought just occured to me: if there is a gay couple on THE AMAZING RACE next season and Russia is a country that is on the itinerary, CBS is now liable for their safety, so they may not visit Russia anymore.)

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Johnny Weir has already said he will be there and he will not do a thing to change his flamboyancy. Which means he'll be arrested after clearing customs.

I've been through enough of these before to know how sooooo many people will go on and on about how "unfair it is for the kids who have been working sooooooo hard" to be in the Olympics.

But this one will be different: There will be a schism in this country and a backlash wherein we will see just how many of our fellow countrymen agree with the Russian policy and would like to see it implemented here. I do not think this is going to be pretty.

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What about the games themselves? Ice skating is a very flamboyant sport, if they're arresting people who seem stereotypically gay, won't they have to arrest the skaters after their performances?

I tend to agree Erick. No one will be arrested during the Olympics. Russia isn't that stupid. Though it did produce SS.

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Updated On: 7/22/13 at 10:55 PM

36 LGBTQ pictures from Russia... not for those squeamish about blood or violence.


pics

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Ha! The back of this cop's/soldier's(?) jacket, it spells "HOMO" backward. I wonder what it means in Russian, or if there's a missing letter we can't see? Still funny, considering.

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Is this something Amnesty would get involved with? Aren't they primarily a human rights campaign?

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But there can't be a discussion on TV in this country discussing gay people in a human rights context without there needing to be somebody from 'the other side" to "provide balance" to the discussion. Obviously, the US in not unanimous that gay people are fully human, so I think asking the country to take a stand and not send its mostly professional athletes to a competition with so much corporate money invested in it will make Mike Huckabee's Chik-Fil-A Eat-a-Thon look like small deep fried potatoes. "Real American/Patriot/Evangelicals" will DEMAND the US participates. Rush Limbaugh and Huckabee will make it their causes. It is not going to be pretty.

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Updated On: 7/22/13 at 11:46 PM

Fight. Give 'em hell.

Write to the Olympic Committee. Bombard their phone lines. Send them emails. Create a petition.

Make your voice heard. Just as you would do with your politicians.

The only country more brutal than Russia in its treatment of gay men and lesbians is the backward troglodyte country of Ukraine.



Reuters: Shocking: Homophobic thugs beat Svyatoslav Sheremet, head of Gay-Forum of Ukraine, in Kiev. He was attacked after telling the media that the first gay parade in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev was cancelled because of safety concerns

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I've always been ashamed to be 90% Russian since they're by far the nastiest people I've ever had to encounter, but now I'm disgusted that that's where my people come from.