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| "Any form of discrimination with regard to a country or a person on grounds of race, religion, politics, gender or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic Movement." -Principle 6 of the Olympic Charter (x) |
The Sochi Winter Olympics is over. The closing ceremony was last night, and now attention is turning to Rio and Pyeongchang. The Winter Paralympics, starting on 7th March, are still to come, but sadly they don’t command global media attention on quite the same scale. So this seems like the perfect time to assess whether Sochi was a success from an LGBT rights perspective. Did the world make the right choice by going to Sochi?
Before the games started, as I’m sure everyone not living under a rock must know, there was massive media interest in the various human rights and environmental scandals of Sochi. The games cost £30bn, a huge sum which many people felt might be better spent helping the Russian people. Stray dogs roamed the streets and hotels were unfinished when many of the journalists arrived in Sochi, something which caused a storm on twitter. There were rainbow flags plastered everywhere on the internet and in the news, and Russian LGBT rights thrust into the spotlight like never before.
In June 2013, a law banning distribution of propaganda about non-traditional sexual relations to minors was passed in Russia. So close to the 2014 games , it attracted major criticism and scrutiny, which only increased as the games approached. Many countries talked about boycotting the games, athletes made their feelings known, sponsors were asked to boycott the games, and some lobbied the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to move the games to Vancouver where they had been held only four years before. The argument was that Russia’s laws contravened Principle 6 of the Olympic Charter: “6.Any form of discrimination with regard to a country or a person on grounds of race, religion, politics, gender or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic Movement.”
However, for all the talk of boycotts, none ultimately went ahead, and just over a couple of weeks ago the world arrived in Sochi for the Winter Olympic opening ceremony.
Before the games started, as I’m sure everyone not living under a rock must know, there was massive media interest in the various human rights and environmental scandals of Sochi. The games cost £30bn, a huge sum which many people felt might be better spent helping the Russian people. Stray dogs roamed the streets and hotels were unfinished when many of the journalists arrived in Sochi, something which caused a storm on twitter. There were rainbow flags plastered everywhere on the internet and in the news, and Russian LGBT rights thrust into the spotlight like never before.
In June 2013, a law banning distribution of propaganda about non-traditional sexual relations to minors was passed in Russia. So close to the 2014 games , it attracted major criticism and scrutiny, which only increased as the games approached. Many countries talked about boycotting the games, athletes made their feelings known, sponsors were asked to boycott the games, and some lobbied the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to move the games to Vancouver where they had been held only four years before. The argument was that Russia’s laws contravened Principle 6 of the Olympic Charter: “6.Any form of discrimination with regard to a country or a person on grounds of race, religion, politics, gender or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic Movement.”
However, for all the talk of boycotts, none ultimately went ahead, and just over a couple of weeks ago the world arrived in Sochi for the Winter Olympic opening ceremony.
There was a lot of anticipation about the protests which would be held. People were excited about athletes speaking out. Google’s Winter Olympic doodle featured rainbow colours and quoted principle 6. Companies in Canada and Norway both created cheesy pro-LGBT commercials to be shown during coverage of the games. Obama sent a delegation of LGBT athletes to Sochi in his place. Things looked positive, and it seemed that these games could really make a difference.
In only the first few days of the games, a number of things happened. The German team marched at the opening ceremony wearing rainbow coloured uniforms, an openly gay athlete also wore rainbow gloves in an understated protest, and the German ice dance pair skated their short programme to a piece of music sung by gay actor, Chris Colfer. Small things, but it was just the first few days, so surely there was more to come.
But then silence fell.
There was a protest park about ten miles from main Olympic park in Sochi, but it remained quiet. There was no word from LGBT protestors, from environmental protestors, from anyone. The athletes who had promised to be outspoken never said anything. The media coverage became all about sport. It was almost as though there had never been a controversy.
So what now for LGBT people in Russia?
The wave of interest hasn’t entirely moved on. The Paralympics are still to come, and perhaps there will be protests there. In October, Sochi will play host to the Russian Formula 1 Grand Prix, and in 2018 the FIFA World Cup will be coming to Russia. For as long as this type of event takes place in Russia, there will always be some pressure for them to clean up their act regarding human rights, and as long as they want to be a major player within global politics there will be some demand for them to conform to Western values. But I think that we have missed a key opportunity here.
Although I still firmly believe that not boycotting Sochi was the right thing to do, I don’t think we as a community capitalised on the invaluable opportunity presented by the games. The Sochi Winter Olympics were a unique chance to protest inside Russia. Under the scrutiny of the entire world, the disqualification of an athlete, or the arrest of a protestor, would have caused global uproar. But now the attention has moved on, leaving LGBT people in Russia alone and abandoned, in a possibly worse situation than before. With no Olympics to build up towards, Putin and the Russian government are under far less pressure and scrutiny.
"Journalists will go away from here," one gay student and activist told the Wall Street Journal. "And Putin can do whatever he wants."
Attention and action is needed now even more than before the games. LGBT people and activists can’t forget about Russia now that the big Olympic circus has left town. Protests in Sochi didn’t materialise, so now we have to work all the harder to keep Russian LGBT rights on the political and media radar.
The struggle, I think, is only just beginning.
In only the first few days of the games, a number of things happened. The German team marched at the opening ceremony wearing rainbow coloured uniforms, an openly gay athlete also wore rainbow gloves in an understated protest, and the German ice dance pair skated their short programme to a piece of music sung by gay actor, Chris Colfer. Small things, but it was just the first few days, so surely there was more to come.
But then silence fell.
There was a protest park about ten miles from main Olympic park in Sochi, but it remained quiet. There was no word from LGBT protestors, from environmental protestors, from anyone. The athletes who had promised to be outspoken never said anything. The media coverage became all about sport. It was almost as though there had never been a controversy.
So what now for LGBT people in Russia?
The wave of interest hasn’t entirely moved on. The Paralympics are still to come, and perhaps there will be protests there. In October, Sochi will play host to the Russian Formula 1 Grand Prix, and in 2018 the FIFA World Cup will be coming to Russia. For as long as this type of event takes place in Russia, there will always be some pressure for them to clean up their act regarding human rights, and as long as they want to be a major player within global politics there will be some demand for them to conform to Western values. But I think that we have missed a key opportunity here.
Although I still firmly believe that not boycotting Sochi was the right thing to do, I don’t think we as a community capitalised on the invaluable opportunity presented by the games. The Sochi Winter Olympics were a unique chance to protest inside Russia. Under the scrutiny of the entire world, the disqualification of an athlete, or the arrest of a protestor, would have caused global uproar. But now the attention has moved on, leaving LGBT people in Russia alone and abandoned, in a possibly worse situation than before. With no Olympics to build up towards, Putin and the Russian government are under far less pressure and scrutiny.
"Journalists will go away from here," one gay student and activist told the Wall Street Journal. "And Putin can do whatever he wants."
Attention and action is needed now even more than before the games. LGBT people and activists can’t forget about Russia now that the big Olympic circus has left town. Protests in Sochi didn’t materialise, so now we have to work all the harder to keep Russian LGBT rights on the political and media radar.
The struggle, I think, is only just beginning.
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