Two articles. Nancy Goldstein in the Guardian with a long headline: Shame on the IOC, NBC and foreign governments for turning a blind eye on Russia's LGBT hate campaign (h/t to John Aravosis for this article and for his use of the word "pogrom") and Johnette Howard at espn.com with a short one: Olympians speak out, about how some athletes are reacting to this. they don't really contradict each other, because the corporations have one role to play in this and the athletes have another. The overlap is in the area of protection.
Follow me below the Great Orange Divider Doodle to see where we find ourselves on this issue as August begins. There's some disturbing stuff below the fold.
Here I'm piggybacking on Christian Dem in NC's diary, Gay foreigners could be jailed and deported at Winter Olympics, because he observes in it that the author of the "don't say gay" law passed in St. Petersburg last year says federal laws can't just be suspended by the government willy nilly. This gives great credence to Nancy Goldstein's opening paragraph:
Outrage of the week: this past Friday's announcement by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that it has "received assurances from the highest level of government in Russia" that the country's draconian new anti-LGBT policies "will not affect those attending or taking part in the games".
Who, she asks, does the IOC or Putin think they're kidding? She reminds us of
Harvey Fierstein's op-ed piece in last Sunday's
New York Times, of the Buzzfeed photomontage of violence against Russia's LGBT community
which Horace Boothroyd III ably wrote about, and Dan Savage's
call for a boycott of Russian Vodka She also calls Stolichnaya's protests a campaign of disinformation. She asks what the world would do if this were an attack on Russia's Jews and suggests that the official reaction, including that of the State Department, would be markedly different. Further:
Twenty-first century queers aren't going to wait quietly for a diplomatic solution while each month more of us are tortured and more of us are murdered. Last month, killers reportedly stabbed and trampled a man to death before putting his body in his car and setting it on fire. Just weeks before, 23-year-old Vladislav Tornovoi's friends murdered him because he mentioned he was gay while they were getting drunk, according to the BBC. They raped him with beer bottles before smashing his skull in with rocks.
NBC? Punting.
NBC Universal, which has paid $4 billion dollars for the rights to cover the Olympics from 2014 through 2020, has also been squirmy. Human Rights Campaign president Chad Griffin's letter (pdf) asking them to include news of Russia's human rights violations alongside their standard Olympics coverage has elicited a hasty if mealy-mouthed response from the network saying that it will "provide coverage of Russia's anti-gay laws if the controversial measures surface as an issue during the upcoming Winter Olympics".
The world has responded by signing petitions asking corporate sponsors (Coca-Cola, VISA, Samsung, Procter and Gamble) to speak out against the anti-gay Russian laws, because nobody believes that assurances that the haters won't come for the tourists mean anything.
But the athletes shouldn't boycott. Just as in Christian Dem in NC's diary, Blake Skjellerup is Johnette Howard's main source. He elaborates:
"I am against a boycott because there is no way I am going to change, or not be who I am, or go back into closet because of my sexuality," Skjellerup said in a phone interview over the weekend from Calgary, Alberta, where he now trains.
"I think it would definitely be more powerful for athletes to attend Sochi than stay away, because I do think having individuals coming out is one of the most important pieces to bring about change, and to bring about understanding about LGBT rights, and to make people see us and realize, 'This person is just a normal person doing what they love and what they've done their entire life. They have a complete right to be in Sochi and to be welcome competing.'
Of COURSE he's correct. And yes, he'll be wearing a rainbow pin. Greg Louganis and Johhny Weir have joined him in speaking against an athlete boycott, and associations like You Can Play and
Athlete Ally (This is where Chris Kluwe, Brandon Ayanbadejo and Scott Fujita are continuing to campaign for LGBT rights) are supporting them.
"Our thinking is a boycott not only alienates people, but we are an organization that's committed to ending homophobia in sports," says Brian Ellner, a member of Athlete Ally's board of directors and LGBT activist who was involved in the passage of New York's marriage equality law. "What would it accomplish if we didn't show up to stand with the LGBT community in Russia as a whole?
"We think what the current situation in Russia has actually done is create a tremendous opportunity to create an army of LGBT and straight allies against homophobia in sports and against these kind of laws in general. … Because don't forget, such laws are not just isolated in Russia. People are fighting the same battles in Africa. There's a 'kill' bill in Uganda that literally allows for the execution of gays. LGBT people are fighting to be out and safe in the Middle East. Showing up and making these points in Sochi could lead to tremendous visibility for the message worldwide.
"These Olympics are an opportunity to move global opinion like nothing else."
No contradiction. The athletes have it correct, the IOC and NBC Universal don't have the courage to join them. The corporate sponsors COULD push NBC to do more than give lip service to fighting for the rights of LGBT people, by making sure that Russia's anti-gay laws surface as an issue during their coverage. What's going to happen if they do? Is Russia going to deport them? Who's going to look bad if THAT happens.
Civil rights are human rights, and the IOC would be well advised to figure that out. If they have to be pushed, the corporate sponsors can do the pushing. Think Procter & Gamble doesn't remember what happened to Target when management decided to support anti-gay politicians? This is an even more compelling issue.
6:22 PM This diary is about the IOC and NBC being craven, and about some gay athletes being brave. It is NOT about the boycott of Russian Vodka.