QOD — Should the US Boycott the Sochi Olympics?
George Takei has a provocative blog post arguing that It’s Time to Move the Olympics:
It’s been bubbling for some time, but the controversy over Russia’s draconian “gay propaganda” law has now boiled over.Last week, Russia’s Sports Minister confirmed that the country intends to enforce its laws against visiting LGBT athletes, trainers and fans, meaning anyone even so much as waving a rainbow flag (and I presume many men enthusiastically watching and dramatically commenting on figure skating) would be arrested, held for weeks and then deported.Given this position, the IOC must do the right thing, protect its athletes and the fans, and move the 2014 Winter Olympics out of Russia.
Russia has fairly draconian laws designed to oppress the LGBT community and they’ve been clear that people coming to Sochi will be subject to them. There’s a few voices arguing against it, mainly saying that a boycott hurts the wrong people — namely the athletes.
Frankly, I’m ambivalent on the effectiveness of this kind of boycott. The boycott of the Summer Olympics in the Soviet Union over their invasion of Afghanistan stood up for a reasonable principle, but didn’t seem to influence any change of behavior on behalf of the Soviets. Except to have the Soviets boycott the LA Olympics 4 years later. These boycotts do disrupt athletes’ careers. But then there’s this great question:
Many believe that such a call to move the Olympics out of Russia goes too far. Would this be their opinion if the law instead called for the arrest of any Jews, Roman Catholics or Muslims should they display any sign of their religion, such as a wearing a yamaka or praying while facing Mecca? Discrimination in any form is a blight upon the Winter Games, and it must not be tolerated.
So why should be give the Russians a pass on discriminatory behavior we’d never tolerate for other groups of people?
What do you think?
I tend to be wary of boycotting Olympics, just because Carter’s boycott of the 1980 Olympics did not go over well. But in this case, it is a close question. Russia says the laws will not affect the athletes and the spectators in Sochi. But if that is not the case, then boycott. And I do realize this is self serving, because Russians will continue to be subject to those horrible laws regardless of whether they are applied to the athletes or spectators.
Disclaimer: I’m a gay man. Del Dem, I believe there have been mixed messages from Russian officials regarding enforcing the law on athletes/spectators. Some say the law will not apply, while others insist it will. I believe moving the Olympics is the best course of action. A US boycott won’t have a huge impact on Russia, but moving the games entirely is certain to have economic ramifications. One of the roles of the IOC, per their website, is, “To act against any form of discrimination affecting the Olympic Movement.” If they are to act on that role, they can’t pretend Russia isn’t doing what it’s doing to LGBT people.
Russian is not about to risk international incidents during the Olympic period. I don’t actually know who has a worse record for human rights between China and Russia but I know there were no calls to boycott the Olympics in 2008 on any human rights issue. If someone is proponent of human rights (who isn’t?) then picking a specific right to boycott about would seem selective about which rights raise one’s ire.
We are not going to boycott but if we did, we harm those individuals who have pushed themselves and sacrificed much to be able to participate. If the athletes want to boycott, let them raise that flag. We spectators can boycott the television because that is how we participate in the Olympics.
House Republicans introduce resolution to boycott China games.
Heritage Foundation calls for boycott of China games.
There was an entire group that Mia Farrow and others were a part of pushing for the US and other countries to boycott the games.
The Christian Defense Coalition also pushed to boycott the China games.
Beyond that, there were plenty of others asking country leaders to not attend the opening ceremonies to call attention to China’s human rights issues. Other organizations focused on religious liberty, freedom of speech (for journalists) and Tibetan rights were also pretty vocal about a boycott of the China games.
But the China reminder does answer Takei’s question above regarding what we’d do if a country was persecuting a religious group — we’d pay no attention to that and go anyway.
I was wondering if it might be best to follow the example of the Danes during WWII, where most of the population, starting with the King, wore the Star of David when the Nazis invaded and ordered Jews to do so. Thus have an Olympic-size civil disobedience action, where everyone attending wears a rainbow or designated symbol in support of Russian LGBT citizens. What would they do, arrest everyone? And the symbol would appear in all of the pictures, especially if people in the crowds had it on flags.
“House Republicans;” “Heritage Foundation;” “Christian Defense Coalition”
I was sort of referring to mainstream populists not RWNJs
The RWNJs, though, called for the boycott over the kind of human rights violations that other groups were also calling out — like their harassment of Christians. It so happens that the human rights violations the RWNJ are concerned about are fairly narrowly focused on their own interests, but they are still human rights violations.
I oppose an Olympic boycott. The only people who are hurt are the athletes, many of whom are gay and are poised to perform in a manner that will make LGBT supporters proud. And embarrass those with closed minds.
There is not an Olympics to be had if we boycotted every country hosting who doesn’t see things the U.S. way. Wasn’t that the purpose of the Olympics, to put aside those differences?
This idea from Frida Ghitis is worth consideration: She has urged all the athletes of the world to show up in Sochi and “turn the Winter Games into the gayest games in history”:
I’m trying to picture the reaction of my friends on the left had a conservative put forth the stereotype, “and I presume many men enthusiastically watching and dramatically commenting on figure skating,” to refer to homosexuals. 😆
Oddly enough, in all of the Star Trek shows and movies, Mr Sulu was the only one depicted as having had children; his daughter Demora Sulu is the helmsman on the Enterprise-B in Star Trek: Generations.