This year was the first that I didn't even care about The Games. Wasn't even curious. People flew through the air, slid, skated, soared and I'm sure all very spectacularly without my even noticing. Previously, it seemed that we could, as a world and a race of humans, come together and celebrate the very best physical achievements of our kind.
No longer.
What strikes me most about the Sochi 2014 Games is how politically charged and yet empty of meaning they are. As a gay man, I find Russia's anti-gay legislation to be repulsive. There are those that counter that instead of a boycott mentality, one needs to engage in order to effect change.
Fine. So where did that happen?
Instead of meaningful dialogue, the entirety of social comment about the anti-gay law was Johnny Weir's wardrobe (gurl!). This is the best we could do?
I really don't want to hear about how The Games are apolitical. They are political-on-a-stick. Just ask those attending in Munich. Or those who didn't in Moscow. What pisses me off and makes me very self-righteous is that the most sincere form of protest came from Vladimir Luxuria, Europe's first transgendered parliamentarian. The protest? She got arrested twice, once for holding a sign that read "Gay is OK" and the next for wearing a rainbow themed outfit. Really, that's it. A rainbow costume got this person arrested. Seriously. Worse? The Olympic Committee officially supported her arrest.
If this occurred in the US, or Europe, don't you think that all hell would have broken loose? Instead we were fed pablum by second-rate propagandists and corporate shills.
No longer.
What strikes me most about the Sochi 2014 Games is how politically charged and yet empty of meaning they are. As a gay man, I find Russia's anti-gay legislation to be repulsive. There are those that counter that instead of a boycott mentality, one needs to engage in order to effect change.
Fine. So where did that happen?
Instead of meaningful dialogue, the entirety of social comment about the anti-gay law was Johnny Weir's wardrobe (gurl!). This is the best we could do?
I really don't want to hear about how The Games are apolitical. They are political-on-a-stick. Just ask those attending in Munich. Or those who didn't in Moscow. What pisses me off and makes me very self-righteous is that the most sincere form of protest came from Vladimir Luxuria, Europe's first transgendered parliamentarian. The protest? She got arrested twice, once for holding a sign that read "Gay is OK" and the next for wearing a rainbow themed outfit. Really, that's it. A rainbow costume got this person arrested. Seriously. Worse? The Olympic Committee officially supported her arrest.
If this occurred in the US, or Europe, don't you think that all hell would have broken loose? Instead we were fed pablum by second-rate propagandists and corporate shills.
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