h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

We should demand that showing a disturbing lack of faith should be a punishable offence. That would start them thinking. Oh hang on, looking at where they's at already, it probably wouldn't.

Hoo:
“And what are those principles? As in, where are they written, and precisely what terms? I don't know, and I'd be prepared to bet currency you can fold that you don't either...”

And this:

“"How can people celebrate an event whose main aim is to unite humankind under those principles on equality, sharing, cooperation"

Uh... you do realise the Olympics is a COMPETITION, first and foremost, right? As in, its very first principle is that the people gathered together are there to BEAT each other at a sporting event? Because you seem to think it is, at root, some sort of happy-clappy circle-jerk. It's not.”


Have you ever heard of Olympism?
http://www.olympic.org/olympism-in-action

Some “happy-clappy” headings you´ll find in that page:

Sport and environment, preserving precious resources. Putting human beings first. Peace through sport, forging friendships among athletes...

Also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Olympic_Committee

Under Mission and role, you´ll find 16 points, one of them :

4: cooperate with the competent public or private organizations and authorities in the endeavor to place sport at the service of humanity and thereby to promote peace.




Some of you, most, have said that there´s not point to have a boycott, that it couldn´t work...

Now, are we talking abou what´s going to happen , what we consider more effective or what we would like to happen next winter?

I don´t expect any kind of boycott.

I consider that it´s more effective a boycott than some athletes doing “ gay propaganda” in a podium, because , although I really love that possible image( that could happen, if someone wins a medal, and decides to come out), I also think that the consequences, if any in benefit of the russian gays, would vanish the next day, there could even be some nuts who, offended, would go to chase gays. ( Is anybody in jail for the last crime screened on youtube?)

But a boycott with many countries involved and a declaration of the IOC would change things ( I don´t expect that to happen at all)



MacKay,
“Gay rights is a long way down the list of why we should boycott the Olympics.”


But in this occasion, the circunstances are very special, and people ( I don´t expect anything from politicians) should movilise somehow to protest against the vulnerability that such a law exposes a group of human beings.
It´s more than defending gay rights. We all are losing many rights everyday, and we must stand up for anyone who need support, because doing so we are defending our interests too.
So, what can we do? Attend any demostration, sign petitions, write to the politicians asking for public committment... whatever.

The Russian people have survived all sorts of awful laws over the last few centuries. They might not take them as seriously as the people in countries with a long democratic tradition do. As one of my friends said during our St. Petersburg trip, Russia has created a nation of thieves because it starves people and denies them any rights. Anyone who wishes to govern Russia has to consider what it will take to get any results. Threats of severe punishment seem to be the main method.

Russian money keeps some EU countries afloat e.g. Cyprus. Then there is the dependency of many EU countries on Russian oil and gas. Then there is no doubt quid pro quo exchanges between Russia & the US regarding counter terrorism practices (Chechyna - Iraq etc). There may be lip service but I think it is unrealistic that there will be a boycott of the winter Olympics. I mean we have the Bahrain grand prix, we have Saudi Arabia as a most favoured nation of the US ... despite no doubt having far harsher homophobic laws.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/19/russian-athlete-kiss-protest-anti-gay-law

Two Russian athletes have had to deny they're lesbians or that they were protesting the anti-gay laws after they were caught sharing an impressive-looking kiss after winning a medal.

Loving the idea of a gay protest at the Olympics.

Instead of a fist in a black glove, perhaps a latex one would be appropriate?

... or maybe

http://www.photochopz.com/gallery/data/723/medium/gay_olympics.jpg

ps the original Olympics had well oiled naked men competing in various contests ... originating in a culture where homosexuality (AFAIK) was considered normal & healthy (naked male wrestling, naked gymnasia etc).

I seem to have spent the last twenty years or so defending Russia and Putin, off and on like, but in this case I am not going to because this law really is as bad as they say.

This is, apparently, the text of the law (as translated by someone who opposes it): 'the purposeful and uncontrolled distribution of information that can harm the spiritual or physical health of a minor, including forming the erroneous impression of the social equality of traditional and non-traditional marital relations'.

Lovely and vague. Suitably open to interpretation. I think they are probably going to use it mainly to shut down any attempt at sex education aimed at taking a balanced approach to LGBT issues, against charities and so on aimed at supporting LGBT minors (or anyone really), against gay pride events, and such. And it's not just encouraging/ enforcing silence of any kind of positive or even nutural view of LGBT people, publically some *are* now falling over themselves to condem the LGBT 'lifestyle' as a perversion. The Sports Minister, for example. And now challenging that publicly will be difficult.This, of course, is outrageous, but it could go farther than that too.

I am pretty sure that if NotPanickingLtd were based in Russia, it would be in violation. Russia-based researchers probably are. If it's not our entries, it'll be threads.

The punishment, btw, is actually a fine (150£ for individuals and 30 000£ for companies and organisations - expect nervous employers to fire openly gay employees, especially if said companies have any connection of any kind to minors), although I am sure that could escalate depending.

Now for a protest, the Olympics are a good target. It is a source of pride for a country, especially the people running the country, to have a successful Olympics. Plus, it is specially a Putin project. And the reason for this law and the Orthodox church law, is that Putin et al have had the wind put up them by things like the protests surrounding the last presidential election, and decided to fight this by appealing to what you might call the Daily Mail element in the country. The current high levels of homophobia (and anti immigrant feeling) across quite a cross section of society in Russia is not all down to the government, but they have made no attempt to check it and are now actively inflaming it. Well, I say now, but they've been passing this law in individual regions for a couple of years now - St Petersburg has had this on its books for a good two years. I do consider that government and authorities are complicit in the hate crimes against LGBT people. It would be nice to embarrass them in some way (and show support for a beleaguered LGBT community).

The problem is that I don't think a boycott by the UK will have much impact. We're not exactly renowned for our Winter Sports prowess - will anyone much miss us? This is a quote from a noted (apparently) Russian sociologist: "Why would it matter what a little country thinks of us? We are an enormous and rich country with a lot of resources. We don’t really need anyone’s support." I am afraid that even if the US and a whole bunch of actually snow enabled countries pulled out, Russians as a whole probably wouldn't care. This is a popular law. And they are quite used to hearing Russia villified.

I also think it is unfair to our athletes to ask them, and only them, to suffer quite considerably professional and even financial damage to satisfy our collective outrage. It's not just their fight. Would we be prepared to lose our jobs or take a pay cut to (ineffectually) protest this?

If we boycott something, let it be the Opening Ceremony. Nobody should watch it, or better, no country should screen it. That might actually sting a bit.

But I think that much more effective would be to put pressure on the sponsors. MacDonald's and Coke and so on. A boycott of them would be much more effective than a boycott of Russian vodka, which wouldn't attack the Russian economy much, even if the vodka is made in Russia at all, which I doubt for the most part. Sponsors pulling out, or perhaps better, putting pressure on the organizers, both the IOC and the Russian administration, now that would be cool.

They won't move against foreign athletes or spectators, btw. But any Russian athlete who came out would never work in this town again. And whatever the protest, it wouldn't get reported though thanks to the power of the Internet and such...

The question was should we boycott the Olympics because of Russia's attitude towards gay rights.

Obviously not. As Sho said protests are ignored by the world's media (in the main) unless they are violent, and what would a British boycott achieve ? It would hardly seriously affect the medal table. Though it would probably be a major setback to Scottish curling.

Far more would be achieved by openly gay athletes winning medals, though of course Jesse Owens couldn't even get the respect of his own country, though he did upset Hitler.