Gays, Russia and the Olympics

I know this post won't end up being about BDSM at all but it's about, sexuality and I wish to express my view on this.

There has been a lot of discussion in the media lately about the Olympic games being held in Russia and yet it recently passed some rather Draconian laws that target gay people and even people supporting the rights of gay people. I feel strongly about this issue but it needs to be addressed without moral righteousness.  There have been several actions proposed to deal with this but I don't like any of them.  So I am going to put for my solution that has historical roots.

Personally, I feel that if any person chooses to love any other person and everyone is consenting, this is a goodness and should be encouraged. It matters not in the slightest the form of the physical shape of these people.  People loving people is pretty much always good.   (Ok, being a stalker and forcing yourself and your love on someone else isn't  -- but loving them from afar is still cool. If they are truly being loved then their wishes and desires will also be respected.)   I find it hard to believe that the Russian Parliament is dead set against girls being with other girls and threesomes...so in my mind they really have not thought this through.  They are probably only against hair overweight men having sex with other hairy overweight men (and perhaps some, stretching this a bit again, are also against  cute fit boys having sex with other cute fit boys.)  But the way I see it, people should be free to love whom they want and it's wrong to attempt to suppress this.  But let's keep this in context: 20 years ago laws like this were common in North America and so were the accompanying attitudes. So...let's get off our moral high horse and try to encourage change without indignation.  And remember, the Olympics is a sporting event and not a platform for pursing political agendas and bullying other countries to conform to your own moral ethics.

The actions commonly being proposed to deal with the anti-gay laws in Russia are 1) boycott the games 2) move the Olympics to another country 3) have gay athletes protest at the games and see if they are arrested.   I like none of these options.

Boycotting the games does little to affect any laws or attitudes in Russia.  An athlete has trained for years for this competition and typically only has 1 or 2 chances in a lifetime to compete.  Removing this chance for them is completely unfair to the athletes.  Additionally, victories and gold medals are cheapened for any athletes that do not boycott the game.  So boycotting the game is the worst option for athletes and since this is ultimately about athletic competition -- it is not a viable solution.

Moving the games to another country is a complete logistical nightmare. It would be extremely expensive and be effectively throwing away any of the work already undertaken at great expense in Russia.   So from a practical perspective, I also hate this solution.

Having the gay athletes show up and potentially be arrested for defying Russian law is also insane and directly harms gay people by...throwing them in jail and at the mercy of the Russian penal system -- which I picture as merciful as a mousetrap is to a mouse.  If you are interested in protecting and helping gays...this won't do.

 So how do we overcome this problem?  I refer back to my personal historical roots in Denmark for the answer -- and the source of this is my grandparents so I'm not so sure how widely known it is.   You see, during world war 2 Germany conquered Denmark and decided to take up certain unpopular policies against the Danish Jews.   They ordered all of the Jews in the country to wear an armband with a star of David on it so that could easily be identified and persecuted.   The Danish solution?  Every person in the country put on an Jewish armband. And the Nazis were helpless.

So I propose we do the same thing with Olympic games.  Every athlete wears a rainbow uniform in a show of unity and solidarity with this fundamental right to love whom you want to love.   The rainbow is actually a symbol of diversity -- and represents straight people as well as gay, bi, trans etc...so it is perfect.  It doesn't need to change the location of the games nor put protesters at risk not involve a boycott ruining the experience for athletes. Rainbow uniforms can be worn quietly -- yet the message is far louder, clearer and more likely to promote real change in Russia than any other tactic.

So the solution is simple...wear rainbow uniforms at the Olympics -- and let's make the Olympics about the athletes again rather than being just about the country they are from.

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