I posted elsewhere that I feel that openly LGB athletes should wear a rainbow ribbon/flag/whatever on their clothing.
These guys have been training for long and hard to get to where they are and it would be unfair to ask them to boycott. They may also have commitments to sponsors and the like who could also do something to protest about the treatment of LGBT people in Russia.
We could start by finding out who sponsors LGB athletes in the Winter Olympics and contact them to raise awareness of the problem and ask them to perhaps place a rainbow flag on their company adverts.
Money talks!
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You know folks it would all have been much easier in Sochi, had the Russian human-rights activists been not hypocrites and greedy scoundrels, had they done at least something to protect the rights of LGBT community. As of today most of them hold anti-gay views themselves. Take for instance their most popular opposition leader Alexei Navalny. What has he done to make life of gays and lesbians in Russia easier? Nothing is the proper answer. In fact he even openly condemned gay marriages! Well what about other leaders of their protest movement? Just the same. They do nothing. Although I can say with full responsibility – I'm a junior officer of the NED – that quite a lot of money has been allocated to them for these purposes. None of them will stir a finger to make LGBT community members feel comfortable at the Olympics because this 'mars their political image' and repels the electorate.
As a proof of my words here's the letter of the Director of the Center for the Development of Democracy and Human Rights Yuriy Dzhibladze to the NED Director, Russia and Eurasia Miriam Lanskoy. He writes in detail that Russian opposition pols do nothing in that respect.
i.imgur. com/timkirI.jpg
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Thank you for your contribution, Hayworth, although I had no idea what the NED might be before I looked it up. Yes, there seems to be a lot of corruption in Russia (as in many parts of the world). A third of the money allocated to the Games has possibly been used for bribes and sweeteners.
I am not trying to excuse any of these acts, but there has to be a way forward. My tiny contribution is given because there is a fifteen year-old girl in the Bryansk region who has been placed "under supervision" for coming out and distributing information among her friends. There are undoubtedly others like her. There is a witch hunt going on and people are at risk. I find it hard to believe there are no honourable people in Russia.
I'm afraid I wasn't able to access your link.
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Absolutely ObW. I seem to have met and had long conversations with many of the British and French versions of these people last year at various rallies and counter-demos.
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The IOC has made their position clear... They have begun condemning countries for voicing their negative opinions against Russia's Laws, and has spoken out against people going there to protest the laws.
"Athletes including Emma Green Tregaro of Sweden and Nick Symmonds of America have both protested Russia while taking part in the competition and have both have been warned that further pro-gay statements could lead to disqualification from the Games"
This warning was issued to them as early as August of last year. This included anything they did int heir own countries prior to going to the olympics.
The IOC also claim to remain neutral in political matters, but that's just a convenient excuse in this case.
- In 2012 the Olympics Committee succeeded in encouraging Saudi Arabia to allow female athletes to compete in the Olympics for the first time. This is a huge political statement in Saudi Arabia!
- South Africa, the country was barred from taking part in the Olympics from 1964 to 1992 because of the political disagreements in the country
- 1936 Olympics, Hitler’s Germany did not want Jews and Black people from competing but the IOC of the time encouraged Germany to have a change of heart.
The line is drawn with LGBT people apparently. I was patiently waiting for them to pick a side, and they've decided to pick the side of discrimination
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True, very true...
simply no one wants to mess with Russia..
if the big powers of the world, US, China, Russia, UK, France....did something to go against UN policies no one says or does anything..UN itself is sabotaged from within when ti comes to enforce respect for human rights
sadly what the IOC did back then only applies to "lesser" countries
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Well, since both Germany and the UN have been mentioned, I have read many suggestions that the Russian Orthodox Church is behind a lot of the homophobic panic. As you will all be aware, the head of that other big gang, the Pope, considers he presides over a legitimate state (Vatican City or The Holy See - the names have been used interchangeably and rather confusingly at times). In 1929 Pope Pious IX came to an arrangement with Mussolini to have the Vatican recognised as an independent state in return for not speaking out against the regime. Since then successive popes have increasingly stuffed committees at the United Nations with a totally unrepresentative number of "observers" who eventually managed to obtain voting rights to vote against pretty much any human rights improvements the UN has tried to introduce, including statements on reproductive rights for women, sexual health, glbt rights and quite silent on the matter of paedophile trafficking.
Putin may be working hard for popularity and clamping down on all dissent, but it is the Church that has the hearts and souls of many of the people.
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Actually, it would be AWESOME if the Russian government spends all the millions of dollars, and hardly anybody shows up for the Olympics???
Can you image, half or more of the stadiums empty?
All that money LOST, all that income LOST!!!!!
I would LOVE that!!!
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