By Matt Thekkethala ’15, Staff Writer

“After I compete, I’m willing to rip on Putin’s ass,” she said. Belle Brockhoff is an Australian Olympic snowboarder. Last summer, she became the first Olympian to come out in protest of Russia’s “anti-gay” legislation, claiming that she wanted to prove to Putin how successful LGBT athletes could be.

What did Vladimir Putin, president of Russia, do wrong? Let’s back up. Last summer, Putin passed a very controversial law which banned the promotion of “non-traditional sexual relations,” which most have agreed means gay propaganda. Critics labelled this law as “anti-gay” and suppressive of the LGBT culture. This law was used to arrest people advocating for LGBT rights, including those holding rainbow flags. There was a lot of pressure on the International Olympic Committee to relocate the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics to a more LGBT-friendly location, as the Olympic charter itself forbids “any form of discrimination with regard to…race, religion, politics, or gender.”

Is it illegal to be gay in Russia? Not necessarily. In 1993, consensual same-sex sexual activity was allowed legally, but there still aren’t any laws that forbid discrimination. Many gay activists have been beaten and arrested since the signing of the law. This series of human rights violations has been receiving a lot of international attention due to their severity. Many politicians and leaders around the world have rejected invitations to the Olympics as a form of boycotting. Even President Obama protested this controversial law by sending a delegation of openly gay athletes rather than the usual cabinet and family members.

When confronted about this radical policy, Putin explained that the anti-LGBT initiatives were not targeted on “non-traditional sexual relationships,” but on “the propaganda of homosexuality and pedophilia.” Does Putin equate homosexuality with pedophilia? That’s a whole new level of wrong. Yet surprisingly enough, America did the same thing a little over 50 years ago.

During the era of McCarthyism and the Red Scare, many were convinced that there were Soviet spies living among us. In addition to that, politicians like Joseph McCarthy were able to equate homosexuality and communism in the minds of Americans. They did so by enforcing the point that Soviets were simply less manly than us, and thus they were homosexual. There were supposedly communist sexual deviants creeping around American society, why not throw pedophilia in there? That would surely scare American adults into protecting their kids and supporting McCarthyism.

However this was in the past. We live in modern times, times where no one can get away with doing the wrong thing. Many US companies including AT&T, Google, and Coca-Cola have publicly condemned the Russian authorities for their blatant discrimination and human rights violations. Yet, nothing has changed. Are we doing enough?

Zach Persing ’15 says, “I think it’s really unfortunate that Russian politics are interfering with the games. I personally think discrimination based on sexual preference is terrible, but the specific issue isn’t important. The Olympics have a history of being above politics and conflict. Throughout history, wars have stopped for the Olympics.” Interesting. If the Olympics is above national politics, then none of this should really be an issue. Perhaps nothing should be done. Yet,  this controversy is not about politics. It’s about human rights. The Olympics is not above human rights, as it is clearly stated in its charter.

Hannah Zack ’14 highlighted the “FCKH8 Campaign” led by equal rights activists that sent coloring books featuring different characters representing the LGBT community to various Russian households with children. However the campaign could actually be endangering families as the households that “involuntarily receive these books could be persecuted.” Despite how atrocious these violations are, maybe it’s too dangerous to approach the issue in a radical way such as the FCKH8 Campaign.

Patrick Peters ’15 simply states, “We need the ‘Jesse Owen’ effect.” The African-American Olympic track star not only revolutionized the sport, but also helped the civil rights movement gain traction by competing for his country. Perhaps all that needs to happen is for the LGBT athletes to prove themselves on the field. The Olympics is about sports after all.

Morgin Goldberg ’15 believes that “we [the United States] have some sort of obligation to make a statement about what is clearly a human rights violation and a strong one. If human rights are something we as a country value, we should probably act like it.” Well said. Many US companies have condemned the law and its respective violations. However the most the government has managed to accomplish was to send a delegation of LGBT athletes, a powerful yet merely symbolic message. Should we have boycotted the event? We’ve done it before. (Moscow, 1980. Remember?) True, we’d be crushing the dreams of several promising athletes, but it’s for the sake of human rights, something our country values deeply.

Putin’s “anti-gay” law is more than politically incorrect; it’s morally wrong. It goes against what the Olympics, the international community, and humanity stand for. Besides signing the numerous online petitions available on the internet, I hate to say it, but there’s not much we can do about the Olympics right now. In the long term, I think this controversy may sway Putin’s opinion based on the negative feedback he’s been getting from the rest of the world. We’ll see.