For those who have been living on Mars the last few months (and for my own pleasure) I'd like to discuss the situation at this year's Winter Olympics in Russia.
Most discussion about the Winter Olympics this year is not about usual topics such as who can return with the most golden medals or what will be the new world record in certain sports. This year the most important discussions are about basic human rights and how Russia's president, Vladimir Putin signed a law that bans
pro-gay "propaganda" that could be accessible to minors. This basical means that activists are forbidden from any public expression of
gay-rights sentiment. This law passed through the parliament basically without any opposition and
has extensive public support in Russia.
The law made several impacts on the Olympic Games, which open next week. "President Barack Obama, who has criticized the Russian law, is skipping
the Olympics and named a U.S. delegation that includes tennis great
Billie Jean King and two other openly gay athletes." There is nothing new about this though. What is more recent though is that in the US, Coca-Cola and McDonald's are trying to handle protesters that are against these companies for sponsoring an event that takes place at an area where human rights are under oppression.
Minky Worden, director of global initiatives at Human Rights Watch,
predicted that sponsors will insist that the IOC makes human
rights a more important factor in selection of host cities from now on.
"There will be a reckoning after the Games," Worden said. "Olympic
sponsorship is supposed to be the goose that lays the golden eggs, but
this goose is not laying golden eggs. It's laying stinky, rotten eggs."
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