IOC to punish Athletes that speak out against Russia

[Ariel]

Gay Star News asked the global Olympic bosses what they were planning to do to ‘make sure the LGBT community in Russia can have a visible, proud, safe presence at the games’.

But the IOC replied the games were not the place for ‘political’ statements. Any participant who steps out of line may be punished, not by the Russians but by Olympic chiefs themselves.

- See more at: http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/olym ... 9iiLh.dpuf

According to the article "stepping out of line" includes something as little as wearing a rainbow flag pin. This includes all athletes, coaches, and anyone working for IOC. The penalty for breaking this rule will be disqualification.

Prior to reading this I'd heard conflicting statements about whether or not Olympic participants would be safe to protest, and I wasn't sure if a boycott was in order or not. Now that I've heard that both the IOC and Russia will punish peaceful protests within the country, I am 100% pro-boycott.

[PennySycamore]

AAARRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!

This is such a change from what the American Olympic organizers did when Atlanta hosted the Summer Games in'96. Cobb County, Georgia County Council passed anti-gay resolution saying that "the gay lifestyle was incompatible with family values" as a test to see if the Olympic organizers would stay true to their word that if Cobb County passed the resolution that the county would not be the site of any venues during the Games. As a further test, Cobb County got Greenville County in SC to pass the exact same damn resolution. As a consequence, the Olympic torch did not come down US 29 through the county, but had to be carried in a van till it reached the City Limits of Greenville which had NOT passed such a resolution and IIRC had passed a resolution condemning the County's resolution. We had a big party with the Torch downtown. I went and it was fabulous!

I hated that damn resolution that the county passed for three reasons: it hurt people I care very much about, it kept the Torch from coming within a couple of blocks of my house where my girls could have easily seen it, and it was just stupid and unfair.

[crazyforkate]

Dear IOC,

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