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“Oh,” the IOC says, “you have nothing to worry about in Sochi, gay athletes!” Not so, says Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko:
“The law talks not about banning a non-traditional orientation but about other things, about propaganda and implicating minors,” Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko told the R-Sport news agency.
“No one is banning a sportsman with a non-traditional sexual orientation from going to Sochi. But if he goes out onto the street and starts to make propaganda, then of course he will be brought to responsibility.
“As a sportsman, he should respect the law of a country,” Mutko added. “Come (to Sochi), but don’t get young people involved, don’t make propaganda. This is what we are talking about,” Mutko said.
This is exactly like dealing with the obstinate American Religious Right. Since the Russian government’s position on what constitutes “gay propaganda” is diametrically opposed to the position held by reality and common sense, you, the gay Olympic athlete, could be held culpable under Russian law for doing anything that might suggest that you’re gay where a Russian minor might (egad!!) witness it.
Jim Burroway reports that Blake Skjellerup, a gay speed skater from New Zealand, will be wearing a rainbow pin at the Olympics, which could get him in trouble with the totalitarian government, considering the fact that a Russian minor might ask, “What’s that mean?” Because mere information is now criminal in Russia.
This is all the more reason why the reality of Russia must be reported, during Olympic coverage on NBC, by a real journalist. Please sign our petition asking NBC to add Rachel Maddow, the finest journalist in the NBC family of networks, to their Olympics line-up as a Human Rights Correspondent.
