Russia prompted outraged criticism and even calls to boycott the Sochi games when it adopted a ban on homosexual “propaganda” among minors in June of this year. The law was denounced by critics as discriminatory and a curb on rights to free speech and assembly.
The public pleas to condemn the anti-gay laws to the sponsors, namely Coca-Cola as the headline sponsor, appear to have fallen on deaf ears as it emerged recently that Coca-Cola will not be taking a stance against Russia’s anti-gay laws at the Olympics, by neither withdrawing from the Winter Olympics nor making a public statement against them.
Hate crime is still very rife, last weekend seeing a gay club in Moscow being attacked with poisonous gas for the fourth time since the ‘gay propaganda’ law was enforced.
The Olympics should be a celebration of diversity and inclusion, a show of excellence, friendship and respect, not a symbol for discrimination and unjust hatred, which Sochi, unfortunately, is beginning to represent.
