Kevin Jennings is a lifelong fan of both ice hockey and the Olympics. Last weekend he took his young nephew to an outdoor NHL game at Yankee Stadium. But when the boy asked if he was looking forward to February's Olympic hockey tournament, Jennings had a surprising answer: He won't tune in.
"I think the leaders of the Olympic movement should be ashamed of themselves," Jennings tells Mashable. "How can I take pleasure in watching the Olympics, knowing what's happening to LGBT people in that community?"
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Jennings is a founding member of the New York City Gay Hockey Association and executive director of the Arcus Foundation, which works to advance LGBT issues worldwide. Like many gay rights activists, he finds the fact that the 2014 Winter Olympics are being held in Russia — where strict legislation harshly limits the freedom of gay citizens — both discouraging and insulting.
But Jennings and other activists also see opportunity in the Sochi Games. They see an opportunity to illuminate the plight of gay Russians, and to help improve life for LGBT people in the more than 70 countries worldwide where homosexuality is a crime. With the world's attention turned to Russia, they hope, the message of LGBT equality will be digitally amplified on an unprecedented scale.
"We are living in a time when what happens across the world to any group of people can be instantly uploaded, shared and potentially understood worldwide," says Dustin Lance Black, screenwriter for the film Milk and co-founder of Uprising of Love, an organization that works to support gay Russians.
Russia has never been the easiest place to be a gay person. But the climate became harsher on June 30 2013, when president Vladimir Putin signed into law a piece of legislation banning "propaganda of nontraditional sexual practices" that might possibly be seen by people under age 18.
The law essentially prohibits any public discussion of gay life in schools and the media. It's also been used to ban public events such as gay rights parades. It's not technically an outright ban on homosexuality, but critics say the law creates an inhumane living environment for gay Russians.
Putin was widely criticized in mid-January for saying that gays are, in fact, welcome at the Olympics — as long as they "leave kids alone." Ten days later, the mayor of Sochi told a BBC reporter that his city of 343,000 people has not one gay resident. This week, a newspaper editor was reportedly fined after printing an interview with a gay teacher.
Putin's comments, in particular, received widespread press coverage. But the biggest fear among many gay Russians is that their plight will vanish from the news cycle ones the Games end.
"There's a definite fear the world will move on and forget about them, and that once the global spotlight passes, the Russian government will renew its anti-homosexual campaign," Jennings says.
A number of organizations have seized the Games as a peg for campaigns to help gay Russians. Black's Uprising of Love has enlisted celebrities from a broad spectrum of creative fields to create messages of support for Russians through video, music and the written word. Jennings' Arcus Foundation backs the Russia Freedom Fund, which solicits donations and has so far raised more than $300,000 for the LGBT movement in Russia. The It Gets Better Project (IGB), meanwhile, is crowdsourcing a powerful campaign to send gay Russian teenagers positive messages from around the world. The idea is to show them "that they are not alone," IGB executive director Ted Farley tells Mashable.
As for the charge that the Games shouldn't even be happening in a country that makes such campaigns necessary, an International Olympic Committee spokesperson offered this statement:
The IOC is clear that sport is a human right and should be available to all regardless of race, sex or sexual orientation as stated in the Olympic Charter. The Games themselves should be open to all, free of discrimination, and that applies to spectators, officials, media, and, of course, athletes. We would oppose in the strongest terms any move that would jeopardize this principle.
Gay rights activists Mashable spoke with described a worst-case scenario for the 2014 Olympics. Russia's treatment of its gay citizens is a hot story during the Olympics, then forgotten entirely. Countries such as Nigeria and Uganda, where anti-gay laws are far more restrictive than in Russia, might get the message: You can target homosexuals and still participate on the world stage without consequence.
But what if the Olympics' accompanying attention increases international and domestic pressure on Russia's leaders? What if the media keeps following the gay-rights-in-Russia story after the closing ceremony on Feb. 23? And what if the conversation widens to include other countries where gay life is particularly harsh?
Then the Sochi Games could have an entirely different legacy for LGBT advocates. "This could become a moment of solidarity and greater awareness that could be very beautiful," Jennings says.
"Hopefully we'll see the international community come down hard on Russia. Then in other countries where gay people face criminal prosecution, or even the death penalty, people will say, 'Hey, if things can get better in Russia, maybe they can better in my country too.'"