Fifty-two Olympians, with dozens of medals between them and including 12 competitors in Sochi, have launched a trenchant criticism of the lack of action to urge Vladimir Putin's administration to scale back the so-called "gay propaganda" laws and criticised the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and multinational sponsors for not doing more to force them to do so, writes the Guardian.
Megan Rapinoe, who won gold in the women's football in London, said she believed the IOC should have done more and made it clear that this was not a political issue but a basic question of human rights. "People's lives and their wellbeing are in danger, and that goes far beyond anything the Olympics stand for. I think it is important to talk about it and have an ongoing conversation during these Games, and not have this issue silenced," she said, quoted by the Guardian.
"The pronouncements of Russian officials have hardly helped calm the situation. The Sochi mayor, Anatoly Pakhomov, dismissed the concerns completely in an interview with the BBC this week, claiming that there were no gay people in Sochi. His statement, while obviously ridiculous, shows that many Russian gay people have to lead hidden lives, and in official circles very few gay Russians are out of the closet", writes the newspaper.
