Should Sochi olympics be boycotted or moved somewhere else or neither and why?

No gay athletes of ours (or any country’s, really) should go to a batshit country like Russia’s working hard on becoming. I suppose each country should decide on their own and they should decide to protect their citizens.

Boycotted

I’d like to hear some rational reasons to boycott the Olympics, instead of the knee-jerk “we don’t like Russian moral values so we are going to pout”.

Like it or not, Russia’s population has values and beliefs which differ from those in Europe and parts of the US. We may see them is illiberal and inhumane, but the fact is that some hundreds of millions of people in Russia think that way.

It would be the height of arrogance, to say nothing of insultingly disrespectful, to force liberal values on a country that clearly has chosen not to embrace them. That is social imperialism at its worst. It paints the West, and by extension, the US and its population, as a group that goes out of its way to force its will on other countries’ beliefs.

If individuals want to not participate at Sochi, that’s their individual prerogative. But for the US (or other countries) to pull out is rude and poor. Not just for the athletes, but also for the principle that when you are a guest in someone’s home (or country), you should politely act as a guest.

If there was a time to consider boycotting, it was 10 years ago when Sochi was chosen. Not the year before.

Remember that not everyone shares liberal values – maybe they should – but for us to impose our values on another population is simply wrong.

Boycotting Olympic Games always seem to not make the point. It would be better to have a string showing by Gay/Lesbian athletes at the games, and a prominent placement of rainbow symbology everywhere.

@elbanditoroso Actually, we don’t know if ‘hundreds of millions’ of Russian people think that way but that does not matter really because the government made it clear that the rights of our athletes would be violated and the government will implement those threats. I am not in favor of neoliberal spread of Western values when it comes to sexuality and gender on any society, but since this is an instance where our individuals with Western identities are moving into a space where they are put in danger, it feels different to me. And even that being said, I don’t really like when countries are split into the west/east binary – Russia, in many ways, aims and is a Western country and because it’s such a behemoth, does not have one unitary set of values. I am positive there are many Russians who are completely ashamed of what’s going on and are completely against the government’s ridiculous antics.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir I have many relatives in Russia and I can’t think of a single one of them who supports the anti-gay legislation there.

Interestingly enough, I thought the possibility of boycotting was about the Snowden thing…I need to pay more attention to the news >.<

No, it should not be boycotted. The Olympics are for the athletes who have worked hard for this chance to shine.

Jesse Owens would not have been the most successful athlete at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin if he had boycotted the Olympics.

These photographs are relevant.

And this article is, too.

The Olympics are a worldwide symbol of acceptance. Events occurring in Russia today show a country that is at war with a minority group of its own people. The laws recently passed in Russia show rabid hatred for their LGBT minority. I am disgusted by what is taking place there.

Governments should be held responsible for outrageous actions against their own citizens.

Move the Olympics.

President Obama also says no

The President, who is speaking right now at a scheduled press conference, also suggested that a good way to counter Putin’s anti-gay laws is for American athletes to be successful in the 2014 Winter Olympics.

I wish the games could be moved but it is too late to do that.
Boycotting hurts the athletes more than the host country.

Boycotting the products or corporate sponsors and all Russian products might be helpful.

Our nations Ambassadors should carry the rainbow flag. They have diplomatic immunity!

@elbanditoroso Except it isnt really about “our values our different from their values.” Human beings the world over all belong to the same sub-species of homo sapiens sapiens and display the same set of general physical (and by extension; mental) attributes from one phenotypic population to the next. It is a human rights issue, not a value judgement issue. Supporting the idea of people to live in a safe environment is not liberal imperialism or what have you. It would be similar to not condemning slavery in a country because, “well… that is their values.” There are many Russians who also actively disagree with these policies as well, they dont function as a beehive. It is in no way rude to boycott. There is no need to pander to a set of ideas to which you disagree with just because you feel as if you are a guest there. If anything, they are a guest to the hosting of the Olympics. I think every athlete and would be attendee should decide on their own what their own best personal choice of action should be. They might feel that going and performing well is the right thing to do, or they may feel that being absent is a better decision. I think, “just go there, do what they say, dont act out of line, and keep quiet” is far more will enforcing than anything you lambasted.

Boycotting would not be fair for sportsmen who worked hard for 4 years.
But the world community should definitely think of how they can boycott Russia in other ways.

You know what else wouldn’t be fair to the athletes? Getting beaten up by the local fuzz and getting thrown in a Russian prison for being a male figure skater.

Thanks.

Some prominent LGBT members are against boycotting or moving it. They say boycott Russian products like Vodka, and the sponsors of the olympics. (Edited out, earlier olympics)

I don’t understand why they design websites like this, regarding the background,so dark what is the purpose? Someone please enlighten me.
http://fansided.com/2013/08/10/gold-medal-winner-sebastian-coe-against-boycotting-sochi-olympics/

Link looks fine to me.

Okay it is slightly better now,

Are the female Russian band members (the ones in jail with that hateful word in their bands name, fake human right activists) partly responsible, for the backlash against LGBT community, I wonder.

Just to clarify, are you offended by the word “pussy” or the word “riot”?

Fake fake fake, like a 2 dollar bill.

If anything “Pussy Riot” has done a great deal to bring this state of Russian policies to light in the west. We are talking about it, after all. There is nothing “hateful” about the name. They are performance artists who model themselves after punk rockers. Punk rock culture, besides being left leaning and feminist, is notorious for being politically incorrect and targeting sensitive issues by using shock value. And two dollar bills are real legal tender. They are just no longer in production, but neither are type writers and they are real….

I have a two dollar bill. It’s quite real. The expression is “three dollar bill”, I believe.

@flo What, Pussy Riot not real activists? What? What have you done that comes nearly as close to what they’ve done? And what’s hateful about their name? The backlash against LGBT people is squarely to blame on homophobes as is the backlash against Pussy Riot. And sexist assholes, those too.

“They are performance artists who model themselves after punk rockers” You mean copy someone else blindly? I wonder which band they copied?

A person doesn’t need to have to have done anything useful, ever, in order to see it. They are making it obvious, in order to be a human rights activits you have to be

Child: “Why do you smoke mom/dad It is bad for you, ...
Parent: “What have you done close to what I have done?”

“And what’s hateful about their name?” This is for people who just came from another planet: It is used in anger, to be degrading by misogynists mainly.

…By the way the child above is 4 yrs old, not an odult child.
Please ignore the part above “And in order to be a human rights activits you have to be”

@flo Well, I must be from another planet then because they are not misogynist.

@flo No, I dont mean that. I mean that they have adopted those personas in order to make a point through a medium that the public (both the West and the East) is familiar with. To be honest though, it really just sounds as if you are simply offended at the use of the word in the name, and not anything to do with what they are actually talking about. I admit to using the word, sometimes in anger, or lust even, and I am hardly a misogynist. Just the same as me using the word “cock” or “dick” doesnt make me a misandrist either. The only thing that would make me a misogynist or a misandrist would be if I held any hatred towards women or men as a whole, and I do not. Given their political message, it would actually be more accurate to say that they are feminists, and I dont believe that feminism and misogyny are copacetic concepts.

@hogbuttons Edited:
Re. ” Given their political message…”
When companies make a big show of how much money they are contributing to some charitable org. the message is “remember our company’s name, remember to buy from us, not the our competetors”, not ”learn about cause, spend as much money as possible on this org. ” Same thing here, except that maybe they didn’t expect spending time in jail. And there is man who went to court willing to go to jail just to be able to go naked all the time, in case you want to bring up the “they were willing to go to jail” thing.