Commentary

Putin’s anti-gay Olympics – Should we participate and condone the hate?

Putin’s anti-gay Olympics – Should we participate and condone the hate?

Much has been written about Russia, their new anti-gay laws and the 2014 Winter Olympics.

The debate: Should the U.S. go and compete, or should we boycott?

President Obama said Friday: “I do not think it’s appropriate to boycott the Olympics.”

So I suppose that means the U.S. will be going to Putin’s Russia.

The President wants us to win medals: “One thing I’m really looking forward to is maybe some gay and lesbian athletes bringing home the gold or silver or bronze, which I think would go a long way in rejecting the kind of attitudes we’re seeing there.”

Really? 

Did Jesse Owens winning the gold change the attitude of Hitler and his killing of Jews, gypsies, gays and whoever else he deemed not worthy to live?

Of course it didn’t – just like the U.S. going to Putin’s Russia to win medals will make absolutely no difference in the treatment of homosexuals.

Allowing the Olympic Games to stay in Russia, and not boycotting, is telling the Russians that it’s okay they kill homosexuals.  It doesn’t matter that they (the Russians) promise not to enforce their awful anti-gay law during the Olympics. What matters is that they have the law in the first place.

Perhaps it’s because the United States is so divided on the issue of gay rights that, as a country, we are so divided on the Russian anti-gay, Olympic issue.

We have states making laws that allow us to marry and states making laws that prevent us from getting married.

We have Christians who hate us, and Christians who love us. We have politicians who work tirelessly to see that we have our constitutional rights, and politicians who use every ounce of their power to make sure that the Constitution was most certainly not written with the homosexual in mind.

For me, the Olympics are a no-brainer. Either move them, or boycott them.

To put the life of one gay or lesbian in danger so they can bring a medal back to a country that is divided on whether or not a homosexual should have the right to marry or adopt or be fired – well, is just wrong.

And let’s be real about what the Olympics really are. 

They are a money-making machine — money that will be going into the hands of the Russian government who are doing nothing to stop the luring and killing of homosexuals, and instead passing laws making everything from pride parades to hand-holding into a prison sentence.

If we, as a nation, don’t stand up now for what is right and just for all people, when would be the appropriate time to do just that?

The President said earlier this week that he has “no patience for countries that try to treat gays and lesbians and transgendered persons in ways that intimidate them or are harmful to them.”

And yet, he doesn’t “think it’s appropriate to boycott the Olympics” that are being held in a country that is “treating gays and lesbians and transgendered persons in ways that intimidate them or are harmful to them.” 

I’m confused as to what The President really means.

How much are the medals really worth? I’d have more respect for these athletes if they refused to go to a country that has such little respect for the life of another human being.

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