Wasn't the one in China under threat of boycott too?

I think it is a club the west wields to punish states, in this case Russia. It is not like Saudi Arabia will be banned from participation due to their legislation which IIRC contains death punishment for homosexuality.

Sweden's finest (and perhaps only) collaborative, leftist e-newspaper Synapze.se

Day Against Homophobia: Russian LGBT Activists' Views on Boycott of Winter Olympics (August 7)

We believe that calls for the spectators to boycott Sochi, for the Olympians to retreat from competition, and for governments, companies, and national Olympic committees to withdraw from the event risk to transform the powerful potential of the Games in a less powerful gesture that would prevent the rest of the world from joining LGBT people, their families and allies in Russia in solidarity and taking a firm stance against the disgraceful human rights record in this country.

In retrospect, the record of the Olympic boycotts is not utterly promising in regards the potential to bring a change; look at the 1980 boycott of the Moscow Olympics, the 1984 `retaliation' boycott of the LA Games, or at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. What is remembered from 1968 is neither the number nor the names of those who boycotted the Games, but the `human rights salute' by Tommie Smith and John Carlos who rose black-gloved fists and bowed their heads on the victory stand as a sign of resistance to racial injustice and solidarity with everyone who fought for equality and human rights.

The Olympic Games are a unique and powerful occasion for individuals, organizations, diplomatic missions, and governments to come together and voice, in tune with the Olympic ideals, the ideas of human rights, freedoms, equality and justice - regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity.

Finance is the brain [tumour] of the economy

The 2014 Winter Olympics are in Sochi, not Moscow.

Finance is the brain [tumour] of the economy

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Get real, why should the world ever come together and hold the games in the US again [invasion Iraq, rendition, torture, abuse human rights minorities]? Perhaps boycott athletes from the US, Saudi Arabia, Israel to perform in sports? Happened with apartheid in South Africa. Ever since Los Angeles 1984, the IOC is in the hands of corporations, media sponsors and tycoons. One can never have clean games (East- and West Germany WDR) with atletes competing according to the Olympic ideal.

Action groups have come forward at a late stage. US figure skater Johnny Weir sounded off on pleas for a 2014 Sochi Olympics boycott in the wake of controversial anti-gay legislation in Russia. Inside Russia, the LGBT community strongly urges the world community to come to Sochi. By holding the games in Russia, the publicity and pressure will be your greatest asset. The Olympians themselves are not permitted to demonstrate ... remember Mexico 1960.

The Olympic Community have had worse political situations: 1936 Berlin - 1956 Melbourne (Hungary Revolt) - 1980 Moscow (invasion Afghanistan). It seems the US and western nations have a very one-sided conscience about morals. Look at the participation of athletes from countries where there are no rights for minorities. European nations are awful: Chechs, Hungary, Serbia, Baltic states and in principle all Muslim nations.

Better not mix sports and politics unless in situations of international abhorrant crimes: 1936 Berlin (watch Jesse Owen) - 1972 Munich (massacre Israelis) - 1978 Argentina World Cup Soccer.

Putting pressure on athletes or individual nations is IMHO not fair for the Sochi Winter games. There are other underlying issues that may gain prominence: Russia: Sochi Games and the Circassian Genocide. Read The Guardian - The Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics is a political tinderbox for Russia. I bet McCain will voice his vision in support of the State of Georgia and the Circassian Genocide. Oops, a bit of hypocrisy as Georgia invaded Abkhazia in 1992, got support from Gorbachev and fought against the Circassians.

Posted earlier @BooMan - Let Canada Do the Olympics.

'Sapere aude'

The Problem With Stephen Fry's Sincere But Very Confused Open Letter On Russian Homophobia - Forbes

Fry's heart is clearly in the right place, but, as others have noted, the letter is all over the place in terms of its factual accuracy and logic. It posits a direct comparison to Nazi Germany when the far more obvious one (particularly for a Brit like Fry) would seem to be to the Thatcher government's introduction of Section 28.

Anyway, I don't think a line by line "fisking" of the letter would serve much useful purpose, but I do want to discuss one very noteworthy flaw because it highlights a problem that is incredibly common in Western discourse about Russia. After noting the banality and stupidity of the law's author, Vitaly Milanov, Fry said the following:

He [Milanov] claims that the "values" of Russia are not the "values" of the West, but this is absolutely in opposition to Peter the Great's philosophy, and against the hopes of millions of Russians, those not in the grip of that toxic mix of shaven headed thuggery and bigoted religion, those who are agonised by the rolling back of democracy and the formation of a new autocracy in the motherland that has suffered so much (and whose music, literature and drama, incidentally I love so passionately).

The problem with this is that Peter the Great, in addition to being a "Western reformer," was also the first Russian leader to formally introduce any sort of legal sanction against homosexuality. It's true that the ban imposed by Peter was only on the Russian army, but Medieval Russia was famously permissive in its attitude towards gays and it seems pretty clear that Peter moved the country it in a less (not more) tolerant direction. So when Fry says that the gay propaganda ban is against "the philosophy of Peter the Great" he's simply wrong: Peter philosophy was an awful lot of things, but it was very obviously not pro-gay. Appealing to the legacy of Peter the Great in a campaign against state-sanctioned homophobia is sort of like appealing to the legacy of Torquemada in a campaign against state-sanctioned torture, it just doesn't make any sense.

stephen means well, but this risks a backlash against gays in russia if it is too successful.

plenty of the wrong people get very rich off these shenanigans, for example the upcoming EXPO in milan is a mired nightmare of bungling and greed.

greece is paying 24 million euros a year to maintain an olympic stadium built when they hosted it, that now stands unused... better use for the money would be making soccer pitches for townlets and villages, as the sport does do a lot of good at that level. these stadia give me the willies

i'd be in favour of winding down these expensive boondoggles anyway, the athletes are usually on roids and i'm fed up with the worship of physicality for physicality's sake, BFD you can jump high or run fast.

likewise in brazil, they're right to protest more circus venues when they're short on bread.

fuck sochi, putin and all the get-rich-quick bandits who push for this claptrap. first sort out the country's real problems, then we can discuss frivolities.

just as russia's getting kicks rubbing america's follies de grandeur in her face, it would be just as nice to see pooty-poo brought down a peg because he can't handle teh gay. fucking hilarious actually. so good for stephen, tough for those who like sports, but really the corruption in world sport has gone way beyond ridiculous and nationalism is so 20th century. it leads to megalomania, and it will take centuries to repair all the damage done as it is... russia better learn to get with the program if they want international respect, and stop treating homosexuality as a Bad Thing or risk looking like uptight idiots, as much of the rest of the world is getting a clue.

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty

"Keep politics out of sport" rings a bell for me -- the sporting boycott of South Africa was crucial in ending apartheid.

But sporting boycotts are too powerful to be wasted, and only useful in narrow circumstances. What is needed is an effective way to publicise the issue.  Perhaps the most effective way would be for one or more medal-winning LGBT athlete to comment on the issue while they have the limelight -- i.e. "promote the homosexual lifestyle" -- and dare the Russians (and the ICO) to do something about it.

_{It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II}

Russia and the IOC agree: Athletes and spectators shouldn't be openly gay at the Olympics.

On Monday, the Russian Interior Ministry confirmed what other Russian officials have been saying for weeks: Openly gay people attending the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, including athletes, will be arrested under the country's draconian new anti-gay law. That law, you might recall, prohibits "homosexual propaganda" and is designed to discourage any kind of support for gay rights or even gay people.

The International Olympic Committee's response to gay people? We mean it: Stay in the closet.

According to an IOC spokesperson, the Olympics aren't the place for "proactive political or religious demonstration," anyway. Just read the fine print: Rule 50 of the Olympic charter declares that "no kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas." By the IOC's logic, gay people should be keeping quiet about their sexuality no matter what, in accordance with Rule 50. If they speak out and get arrested under Russian law--well, it's not the IOC's fault that they just couldn't keep their mouths shut.