Countries with discrimination laws could be banned from hosting the Olympics Games.

[Scotguy]

http://www.bilerico.com/2014/02/breaking_az_senate_passes_right_to_discriminate_bi.php

[Roger87]

Thanks fo the map:

Now, related for this topic, with the exception of Kazakhstan, none of the red countries have a considerable chance to host the Olympics in a near future. Some "controversial" countries with real chance of OG like Turkey and India are in the grey area -Heck, even Azerbaijan-, also Russia and China are in the same grey group. Unless Iran make a reconsideration in their foreign policy or the Gulf Emirates -Doha- bribe enough the IOC, this talk only keeps that, as talk.

[Scotguy]

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20140217/NEWS0201/302170043/TN-bill-would-let-wedding-vendors-refuse-service-same-sex-marriage-ban-struck-down

[Nacre]

As has been noted before, though, that is not a national government, and none of the potential bid hosts in the US have adopted that position. Chicago, Los Angeles and New York are all gay friendly. If Phoenix, Arizona made a bid for the games I would expect not only this legislation but also its discrimination against immigrants to be brought up as a strike against them -especially by other Americans.

I should perhaps mention as explanation to non-Americans that Arizona is a retirement destination, and retired people tend to be both the most conservative and more likely to vote. I think that's why these crazy laws get put up there.

[FYI]

^Exactly. And who also wants to have a fricken Olympics in Tennessee anyway. And even then, having cake & flowers refused at your gay wedding is so much better than being jailed & persecuted like in some other countries. It's not even apples & oranges here. Where do some even make the comparison. :-/

[markun]

^Exactly. And who also wants to have a fricken Olympics in Tennessee anyway. And even then, having cake & flowers refused at your gay wedding is so much better than being jailed & persecuted like in some other countries. It's not even apples & oranges here. Where do some even make the comparison. :-/

I make the comparison. Discrimination at any level is unacceptable. This is state-sanctioned bigotry.

[Nacre]

If Bergen passes an unjust law should Oslo be punished for it?

[FYI]

I'm not arguing that it's right, but I'd still much rather live in a country that doesn't persecute their citizens merely for who they are, rather than in one that does, like Russia. A few backward bigots in a handful of backward states wanting to pass some ridiculous backward laws is still not comparable, IMHO. There's always a level of degree where you can & can't compare things anylonger. Discrimination & bigotry still exists everywhere, & as long as there are people from all different walks of life, it will always exist.

[StefanMUC]

I'm not arguing that it's right, but I'd still much rather live in a country that doesn't persecute their citizens merely for who they are, rather than in one that does, like Russia. A few backward bigots in a handful of backward states wanting to pass some ridiculous backward laws is still not comparable, IMHO. There's always a level of degree where you can & can't compare things anylonger. Discrimination & bigotry still exists everywhere, & as long as there are people from all different walks of life, it will always exist.

...and if such extremely high standards are used, it's Au revoir, Paris just as well:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24579037

[Rob2012]

I still think there's an enormous chasm of difference between a nation that's heading in generally the right direction on this with some states resiting the inevitible march of progress (the US) and a nation which has passed national law discriminating against gay rights (Russia). One's going forwards with some friction caused by Tea Party nutters and some on the religious right, whilst the other is going backwards, full stop.

Anyway, a bit more on this, this time from HRW....

Revise Host City Selection Process, Leading Rights Groups Say

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) should carry out a series of reforms to avoid the human rights abuses that tainted the Sochi Winter Games, 33 human rights groups said today in an joint letter to the IOC president, Thomas Bach. The IOC should reform the host city selection process and amend the Olympic Charter’s nondiscrimination principle to include sexual orientation and gender identity as protected categories, the groups said.

The groups pointed to a worldwide wave of outrage spurred by Russia’s discriminatory anti- lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) laws, as well as other serious human rights abuses. A truly successful Olympics cannot be held in host countries that flagrantly violate the principles of “nondiscrimination,” “human dignity,” and other core tenets of the Olympic Charter, the groups said.

“The Sochi Olympics have brought cheers for the athletes, but jeers for the host country’s state-sponsored discrimination and other rights abuses,” said Minky Worden, director of global initiatives at Human Rights Watch. “Only through long-term institutional reform of the Olympic Movement can similar human rights debacles be prevented at future Winter and Summer Games.”

Russia’s adoption of an anti-gay “propaganda” law in June 2013 sparked worldwide condemnation before and during the Sochi Games. The ensuing crackdown by Russian authorities on peaceful protests throughout the country further tarnished the country’s image at the very time it sought to burnish it as host country of the Winter Olympics.

Other rights abuses resulting directly from Russia’s preparations for the Sochi Games include the exploitation of workers on Olympic venues and other sites in Sochi, forced evictions of families to make way for construction of these sites, environmental and health hazards such cutting off the water supply for a nearby village, the harassment and jailing of activists, and the stifling of journalists’ efforts to document these abuses.

“The IOC and President Bach can and should learn important lessons from the anti-gay fiasco in Russia,” said Andre Banks, cofounder and executive director at All Out, an LGBT rights group. “Now is the time for the IOC to ensure this never happens again by making respect for the Olympic Principle of nondiscrimination a binding condition for all future Olympic host applications.”

The letter was signed by a wide range of international human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, Freedom House, Human Rights Watch, Human Rights Campaign, PEN, All Out, Athlete Ally, and the Russian LGBT Network. The complete list can be found at the end of the letter.

The groups called on the IOC to take the following steps:

Strengthen the Olympic Host City Bid process to include requirements that host countries do not have laws in place that discriminate on protected grounds and against groups, including LGBT people, in violation of international law. Host countries should also have effective mechanisms to impartially resolve human rights abuses linked to Olympic preparations in a timely and effective manner. The process of selecting a host country should include input and analysis from independent human rights organizations regarding the country’s human rights record;

Ensure that future host city contracts with governments include specific human rights pledges and a commitment not to introduce laws or policies that violate human rights law.The IOC should monitor these commitments closely. The contracts should include clear sanctions for a host country failing to respect these commitments, up to and including relocating the Games; and

Amend Principle 6 of the Olympic Charter, prohibiting discrimination on a number of grounds, to include “sexual orientation and gender identity.” The principle currently states, “Any form of discrimination with regard to a country or a person on grounds of race, religion, politics, gender or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic Movement.”

The Bach letter follows an earlier joint letter from 40 human rights and LGBT groups to 10 major corporate sponsors of the Sochi Games – Atos, Coca Cola, Dow Chemical, General Electric, McDonald’s, Omega, Panasonic, Procter & Gamble, Samsung, and Visa – urging them to condemn Russia’s anti-LGBT “propaganda” law and to support the call for an IOC human rights committee or similar mechanism.

“There have been and always will be LGBT athletes training for and competing in the Olympic Games,” said Hudson Taylor, executive director of Athlete Ally, which works to end homophobia and transphobia in athletics. “To maintain the integrity of the Olympic movement, the IOC should turn its principles into practice and take meaningful measures to make sure future games are free from discrimination and human rights violations of any kind.”

http://www.hrw.org/news/2014/02/21/russia-sochi-highlights-need-olympic-reforms

The letter can be read here (PDF)

https://allout-production-site.s3.amazonaws.com/allout-202-Open_Letter_to_IOC.pdf

[markun]

There will always be prejudiced people of course. The question is whether the law legitimises their bigotry.

[FYI]

There's 18 U.S. states that now recognize same-sex marriage. We have gay pride parades in every major city in this country. We also have television shows, & have had them for quite a while already, discussing gay issues & where even some of the main characters are gay. Even television commercials are now diving into this. I saw a Chevy commercial the other day, where they were showing families, & two of them were both "dads".

How much of that will you find in Russia, besides ZERO. At what point do you draw the line then. And like Stefan just posted, even "liberal" France still has it's own internal conflicts with the issue. No, I'm not gonna coat the U.S. with the same Russia brush on the issue like a few here would like to do. Looks like the majority in this thread don't agree with that assertion anyway either. The U.S. is heading in the right path, unlike Russia & other places like the Middle East. Not really comparable.

[markun]

If you have zero tolerance of discrimination in every judiciary the grounds for Russia style laws do not exisit. I don't care how many 'good' states there are, as long as there are homophobic and discriminatory laws - and I mean laws, legal statutes, not views or opinions held by individuals, I will continue to make that comparison.

Such laws legimitise homophobic bullying and violence, they create a culture that condones homophobia. Where the law leads, social attitudes very often follow.

Anyway, I'm not saying anything else on the subject as i will just be repeating myself.

[Rob2012]

Sure, discriminiation is bad whereever it is. The comparison ought to be between Kansas and Russia then, not the US and Russia. If NYC puts forward a bid (and let's not get into the likelyhood of that in this thread please Athensfan and FYI ), what some nutcases who run a red-state do or don't do shouldn't impact it; it'll be the US' bid in a state as liberal as much of Western Europe.

[mr.bernham]

No, no, no, I draw the line their. It is a ridiculous notion to force the IOC to force other nations to conform to someone elses ideology. Russia is ironically a religious state now and as a country they have a right to say no gays as much as any other nation has the right to say no immigrants etc. Gay Marriage and the like is still a highly political cause and the IOC does not need to let any more politics into the organization.

[baron-pierreIV]

Fact of Life: It's NOT a perfect world. Never will be.

[Rob2012]

No, no, no, I draw the line their. It is a ridiculous notion to force the IOC to force other nations to conform to someone elses ideology. Russia is ironically a religious state now and as a country they have a right to say no gays as much as any other nation has the right to say no immigrants etc.

How about no blacks? Get those niggers out!

[Nacre]

No, no, no, I draw the line their. It is a ridiculous notion to force the IOC to force other nations to conform to someone elses ideology. Russia is ironically a religious state now and as a country they have a right to say no gays as much as any other nation has the right to say no immigrants etc. Gay Marriage and the like is still a highly political cause and the IOC does not need to let any more politics into the organization.

And yet the IOC refused to allow South Africa to participate at all during Apartheid.

[baron-pierreIV]

The discussion is endless. The IOC should just drop or amend their charter in the non-Discrimination clause...and that does NOT include issues of sexuality. The Olympic Games do NOT revolve on the issue of sexual choice. Wrong gender (i.e., # of chromosomes, yes) but not sexuality. Otherwise, in trying to please everyone, NO ONE will be appeased.

[Rob2012]

The Olympic Games do NOT revolve on the issue of sexual choice. Wrong gender (i.e., # of chromosomes, yes) but not sexuality.

I have no idea what you mean by this!

[baron-pierreIV]

I have no idea what you mean by this!

What I meant was that the only sexual issue that the IOC addresses explicitly is if you are a male trying to compete as a woman (or is it even possible vice-versa). Nowhere does the Charter really spell out whether hetero, gay, bi-, asexual or metro-orientation should be the bases for any sort of action that the IOC has to take in any form. Is that clear enough??

[mr.bernham]

How about no blacks? Get those niggers out!

Well you know...from history Australia did it. So did many other nations. Love how the world just adores noting how the US once had slaves...Australia used to only allow whites to immigrate until the 90's. And at least when we had slaves their were apart of families and treated as such, minus the crazy fools who did not. On top of that the South led the way in rights for mixed people, in fact they were free to live and work as the rest of society and some of them had slaves.

Bottom line you Europeans need to get over it, the US is not is terrible and racist as you all believe; must I remind you of the terrible conditions Caribbean immigrants were treated in the 70's when they arrived in the UK? Next thing to get over is this silly notion that one day the entire world will allow gay marriage. I sadly see the opposite I believe that Europe will go backwards if the economic crisis gets any worse.

I have no problem with gay rights (especially in the US), I have a problem with people forcing beliefs on others and diminishing the very thing that makes the games so special, the thing everyone thinks is a deciding fact about who hosts the games. CULTURE, many religions and cultures do not believe in certain gay rights, and going by international policy that's perfectly just and right. What is not right is forcing beliefs, that's when you get civil wars and revolutions that result in radical and tyrannical nations.

[Sir Rols]

Well you know...from history Australia did it. So did many other nations. Love how the world just adores noting how the US once had slaves...Australia used to only allow whites to immigrate until the 90's.

The White Australia Policy was not our finest moment, but it started to be dismantled from the late 40s and finally consigned to the dustbin of shame from the early 70s.

[mr.bernham]

The White Australia Policy was not our finest moment, but it started to be dismantled from the late 40s and finally consigned to the dustbin of shame from the early 70s.

Just as Slavery was not ours. Every nation has the dark spots.

[Sir Rols]

Just as Slavery was not ours. Every nation has the dark spots.

I'm not denying that. But pointing out your date errors which most of us who have grown up in more tolerant and enlightened decades since the 60s would find insulting.