My Problem With the Olympics

Ordinarily I love the Olympics. Especially the winter Olympics, what with the freestyle skiing, the figure skating, the speed skating, the downhill skiing, pretty much anything that happens on skates or skis--I want to watch it.

Except this year. This year, I was deeply bothered by Russia's anti-gay legislation. Basically, the law bans public displays of affection between same-sex couples and also promotion of media that portrays gay relationships in a positive light. The purpose of the law is to protect children from seeing positive representations of homosexuality. Because oh, the horror. Or something.

It upsets me that the Olympic committee is willing to allow countries with positions like this to host the Games. The Olympics is supposed to be an inclusive event, and the committee should have a policy of choosing host countries that share that vision of inclusivity. I feel that the fact they didn't is a slap in the face to the many gifted gay Olympians competing.

It's also personal for me. I have a dear college friend who's gay, and who is living in Russia now. I think about what his life must be like, living in a society where the prevailing culture believes positive examples of people like him shouldn't be shown to children. A lot of countries have anti-gay agendas, and Russia is probably not the most hostile country in the world for gay people. I also know that the US isn't perfect in this regard. But that doesn't mean the Olympics committee can't do better than this.

I don't blame people who watch the games anyway. But I just can't with this. It makes me sick and it makes me sad.

Anyway. This made me smile today, so...I'm just gonna leave it here.