The 2014 Winter Olympics will be held in Sochi, Russia. Seeing as how everyone sort of forgets about the Winter Olympics, especially once figure skating is over, there may be a lot of confusion over why Sochi is all over the Internet; particularly if you get most of yours news via a combination of George Takei and Twitter headlines, like myself. You know something is going on, but not what.
Russian President Vladmir Putin recently signed into law a piece of legislation that banned any sort of propaganda promotting non-traditional relationships as being normal or even attractive to minors. With the world keeping a curious eye on the site of the Olympics, people were quick to react.
Rainbow pins? Not allowed. Rainbow flags? Not allowed. “Some People are Gay, Get Over It” shirts? Come on now.
Officials in the Russian government have assured Olympic officials they will completely adhere to the Olympic Charter and rules – including the Olympics not allowing discrimination of any kind. They even pointed out that the Russian constitution prohibits discrimination against anyone based on sex, race or religion.
Note that much like the United States, gender identity and sexual orientation were not included. I’m not entirely sure why he thought that was something he should point out.
Regardless, the Deputy Prime Minister, Dmitry Kozak, has assured the Olympics that everything will be fine, and that anyone of any sexual orientation will be welcome at the Olympics. Presumably, this means that anyone showing up to watch the games with a rainbow shirt will not be arrested. Presumably.
But I mean, this is also the guy who is insisting the law’s not discriminatory because anyone could be arrested for singing the whole “If You Were Gay, That’d be Okay,” score from Avenue Q, regardless of their sexual orientation. Which… frankly, is just kind of semantics. No, they’re not imprisoning people for being gay (Technically. Yet.), but they’re imprisoning people for suggesting that being gay might be okay.
Oh, I’m sorry, being “non-traditional,” relationship-wise.
Putin has also banned protests, demonstrations, rallies, marches, gatherings, and pickets from the month before the Olympics through the month after around the general Sochi area. Coincidentally, I’m sure.
Russian distaste for homosexuality isn’t a super new phenomenon: some activists sued to be able to have a legal Pride celebration in Moscow, bands like Pussy Riot get imprisoned for being too flamboyant, and there’s a law in the works that will offer free gay conversion therapy to anyone who needs it (gay conversion therapy has been ruled to be very dangerous by psychological communities all over the globe including the American Psychological Association).
This doesn’t mean that all of Russia hates gays. Heinous stuff happens to people who are “different” even here in the United States. Horrible acts don’t speak for the majority, but they do speak loudly. Russia is on the world stage right now. It is going to play host to a major event that is supposed to symbolize world togetherness and community. This means that their hateful words speak louder than ever. Letting them say “non-traditional” is not okay sends a message that the world just doesn’t care about the gender and sexuality minorities out there.
That’s a message the LGBT individuals – and more importantly the youth that Russia is “trying to protect” – have gotten far too much.