For the those unaware, the 2014 Winter Olympics are in Sochi in southern Russia this February. This acts as a backdrop to the controversy of a new law passed by the Russian government outlawing the “celebration of nontraditional sexual relations”. This is punishable by a fine, 15 days in jail or deportation in the case of visitors to the country.
How do we as a nation respond to this? Boycott? This would amount to punishing our athletes who have trained long and hard for this once in a lifetime event. Not to mention those businesses and people in Russia who would benefit from the economic spinoff and had nothing to do with that misguided legislation.
Diplomatic posturing and censure? Probably what it will come down to.
I despise discrimination. I can only hope for a Jesse Owens moment. Owens was a black American track and field athlete who, at the 1936 Summer olympics in Berlin, won four gold medals. His feat was a smack to the chops to his host’s air of smug Aryan supremacy. Maybe just maybe a gay athlete will haul in a couple of golds. A very superficial victory perhaps but very satisfying nonetheless. —Reg LeCrisp
This article appears in Aug 8-14, 2013.
well said, critter guy
While I also find this legislation to be indefensible . I am personally of the opinion that it is none of our business.
This is another sovereign nation , who are IMO entitled to all rights & privileges that come with that. The citizens of many nation have laws & religious dictates that in the opinion of a great many Canadians , to be very wrong & oppressive . Yet I do not believe totally isolating them is the right thing to do, especially over something such as the get together for competitive sport.
Much better I believe would be to refuse them assistance, or loans , offer nothing in trade deals or concessions. We absolutly should put forward our concerns to their policies on ( in this instance gay/lesbian & transgender ) but also female circumcision, child brides, woman who are treated as property , slavery , child workers etc. etc. etc. & condemn them both publicly & privately .
A Boycott I believe accomplishes nothing
The goal of the Olympics is to promote cooperation through sport.
Cooperation cannot be fostered when many of the people involved are actively and increasingly discriminated against
A boycott is mandatory IMO
We cannot participate with a country that is one step short of committing genocide. It would, for lack of a better term, condone their actions against the homosexual community.
Thanks Mr. Reg LeCrisp!
the olympics changed for me when they let professionals in, plus the big winners are visa coke and mcdicks. i love the tiny countries that send one or two athletes
The Olympics is all about McDonalds, CocaCola, and Car sales. No fucking pro athlete today is gonna Jesse Owens their opportunity to make the big big money, though I’m sure we’ll get miles of soundbites out of them.
Economic sanctions against a sovereign nation whose policies we find repellent are a solid option. But boycotting the Games penalizes our athletes, as Reg has pointed out. Perhaps our Olympians should put it to an internal vote:
“Do you, as representatives of Canada, wish to compete in a nation that passes such discriminatory legislation?”
Let majority rule. It should be pointed out that global embarrassment never really did much to affect the policies, foreign and domestic, of the late, unlamented Soviet Union. I see no reason to expect a similar response in Putin’s Empire. Security reasons alone would prevent me from wanting to be anywhere near Sochi.
Munich meets Beslan. Allahu Akhbar!
Don’t go.
Don’t watch.
Email MPs.
Boycott the channels on which they are being broadcasted and let them know you are.
Boycott the products being being advertised and let them know you are.
You boycott by winning, not refusing to participate. Show those fuckers how a triple lutz is supposed to look.
Should a gay man or woman take home a gold or two? (From ANY country that isn’t up its own ass with bigotry) EVEN BETTER.
Think Jesse Owens vs Hitler. It was fantastic that he showed up, competed and wiped the floor with Nazi incompetence.
Whatever, there’s no gymnastics or synchronized swimming at the winter Olympics anyway.
didn’t we go to friggin CHINA? bloody games should be stopped completely. commercial crap.
I never really give a shit about the Olympics ever, so a boycott is rather pointless for me. I would encourage everyone to figure out a way to not support Putin’s tyranny that works best for them. I will note, however, that not buying a particular brand of vodka is fucking stupid.
While I’m here…
As an athlete myself, I can’t condone the boycotting of an international event such as the Olympics. The fact that we’re organizing and cooperating at an international level is in itself a testament to our capabilities, regardless of whatever issues are arising outside of the event.
How to solve the ‘Russia’ problem and effectively protest? If this wasn’t such a large scale and infrastructure intensive event, I would just say switch the venues. Allow Russia to compete, but remove the privilege of hosting the event because of their (what I believe to be) an attack on it’s citizens humans rights. This, however, isn’t possible. We can’t just one day decide to have the Olympics in Denmark, or New Zealand, or Iqaluit, or wherever. Logistically it isn’t a viable option.
Can we just not go? No again. There would have to be an exceptional contingent of athletes absent for this to be effective. As well, there are many negative outcomes from this approach (Sochi would miss out on the economic opportunity, and politically it doesn’t make international negotiation any easier).
How about not supporting/watching/buying into the games? As much as I would love to see the multinational companies lose out on the opportunity to rape the screen time of the games with cheap marketing plugs, I don’t think this is effective either. Not only do the sponsors not rely on the Olympics as their main source of income, if sponsors continually lose money they’ll completely remove their support which ultimately hurts athletes.
How about the homosexual athletes that are representing us completely kick ass against their straight (and hopefully Russian) competitors? Better option, although we can’t rely on an athlete to dominate an event just so we can rub it in Russia’s face, “Neener, neener, neerner! Our Rainbow Boy can totally beat your straight loser, any day of the week!”
The Jesse Owens approach?
http://media.cleveland.com/livingston_impa…
It should be noted that Owens and Long walked arm in arm that day after the event, and Long had actually given Owens advice prior to the event.
“It took a lot of courage for him to befriend me in front of Hitler… You can melt down all the medals and cups I have and they wouldn’t be a plating on the twenty-four karat friendship that I felt for Luz Long at that moment” – Jesse Owens
Maybe that’s a better approach. When the world’s eyes are watching, a simple embrace between people we see as being divided can create the positive change we’re looking for. It isn’t about either side winning or losing, but cooperation and understanding.