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?