Media Watch - Anti-Gay Olympics in Sochi

Media Sources Scrutinize the Sochi Olympics

Frida Ghitis writes for CNN and asks the public to make the 2014 Sochi Olympics the "gayest ever."

Following Russia’s recent anti-gay legislation, Ghitis calls for the world to lend support to the Russian LGBT community.

"The world has an opportunity to let Putin -- who signed all the laws -- and the politicians he dominates know just how repulsive their actions are," Ghitis writes.

Instead of a Sochi boycott, Ghitis proposes athletes, officials, and spectators sport rainbow flags and gay pride.

Ghitis writes: "Make it an ‘I am Spartacus’ moment for the world."

The Baltimore Sun suggests the gay community should voice its protest against Russia’s anti-gay crackdown by "being counted, not by sitting out."

The article references moments throughout United States history in which pro-gay groups inspired change by "getting smart and using [legal] systems to their own advantage."

Campaigns such as the "SILENCE=DEATH" response to the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, to the "We’re here, we’re queer, get used to it" mantra in the early 1990s "mobilized the pro-gay movement.

Tim Harper offers his take on Russia’s anti-gay crackdown in an article written for The Star.

Harper reaffirms that boycotts are "self-defeating." Instead, Harper feels Canada should continue mobilizing the fight against Russia’s anti-gay legislation.

In the wake of outcry from the Canadian public and Foreign Minister John Baird, Harper calls on foreign leaders to bring the fight to the G20 summit in "Putin’s hometown of St. Petersburg."

Following Harvey Fierstein’s recent New York Times editorial calling for a Sochi 2014 boycott, Grantland reports on how "three very different people from three very different worlds have now dramatically crossed paths."

SeattlePI.com compares the upcoming 2014 Sochi Olympics to the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

Aside from gay-rights issues, rumors also swirl around the Russian government’s Sochi Olympics financial reports.

The Financial Times reports that the Russian government views hosting the Olympics as "a matter of national pride that cannot be counted in rubles."

"Opponents say it is an expensive ego trip for a regime that is anxious to show to the rest of the world that Russia is back, 20 years after Cold War defeat and economic collapse," the article states.

The Gazette points a finger at the IOC following numerous human rights violations in Russia.

Despite its "well-crafted Olympic charter espousing equality and human rights," the IOC "has never been bold enough to enforce it."

Human rights violations plagued Beijing leading up to the 2008 Olympics, but the IOC and the public turned a blind eye to these issues as soon as the Games began. The Gazette predicts the same pattern for the Sochi Olympics.

Scandal and a "lack of stars" take away from the 2013 International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) Championships in Moscow.

Ria Novosti reports on the now dismal road to the IAAF Championships, the "highest-profile international sporting event Russia has hosted since the 1980 Moscow Olympics."

Competition begins at the Luzhniki Stadium on August 10 and runs through August 18.

In Other News:

Following two appearances on ABC’s Dancing With The Stars and a new television gig, the McClatchy-Tribune News Service catches up with Olympic speed skater Apolo Ohno. Now host of the Game Show Network’s Minute To Win It, Ohno is no stranger to pressure. He opens up to the McClatchy-Tribune and offers readers an insight into his road to Olympic history. Many still question Brazil’s ability to host world events following turbulent protests during the Confederations Cup and a chaotic World Youth Day. According to the Associated Press, "protests have accompanied major athletic events before and on a key point, sports economists generally agree with the demonstrators: monster events like the Olympics and World Cup do little in the short term to boost tourism or the economy."

Written by Nicole Bennett.

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