Friday's opening ceremony for the Winter Olympics will be a bittersweet occasion for many who are fans of both sports and gay rights.
On the one hand, one of the world's great athletic exhibitions and festivals returns for the first time in four years. On the other, that celebration is happening in a country where harsh anti-homosexual legislation drives gay citizens underground and essentially outlaws public support for gay rights.
If you're Stateside and wondering how you can help out from far, here's one easy way to get started: Buying a lot of drinks this Friday night.
See also: Gay Rights Activists See Insult and Opportunity in Sochi
In a promotion called Uprising of Love: Pride House 2014, dozens of bars, restaurants, and nightclubs across the country have pledged to donate $1 for every drink sold between 9am and midnight, local time, on Friday night. Other stores will make donations of their own.
The proceeds will go to the Russia Freedom Fund, which raises money to support gay rights activists in Russia.
Bars in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York and other cities have already joined in with the scheme. One in Ireland has too. Yes, some of the participating venues are gay bars, but many are not. Some are not even bars at all.
(You can see a fuller list of who has joined here, or email pridehouse14@gmail.com to add your own business to the list.)
The Pride House name has its own history, according to Uprising of Love, the organization putting on the promotion. Pride Houses are typically LGBT-friendly places for gay athletes, fans and their friends to gather at international sporting events. While Pride Houses were present at the past two Olympic Games, Russian officials would not permit a Pride House in Sochi.
""The exclusion of a Pride House in Sochi undermines the lives of millions of LGBT athletes, fans and their allies across the world," Russia Freedom Fund spokesperson Kevin Jennings told Mashable by email. "We continue to be disappointed by the actions of the Russian government and the complacency of the IOC."
The Pride House ban is just one symptom of Russia's anti-gay climate. A law signed by President Vladimir Putin last June banned "propaganda of nontraditional sexual practices" that could be seen by people under age 18. It isn't an outright ban on being gay, but critics say it creates an inhumane living environment for gay Russians. It prohibits positive, public discussion of gay life and has been used to outlaw public events such as gay rights parades.
Discouragement comes from high-profile individuals, too. Putin insisted in January that gay athletes and fans are welcome at the games — as long as they "leave kids alone." Sochi's mayor said soon after that his city of 343,000 people has not one gay resident. It's amid this context that Uprising of Love's Pride House drive was born.
"It's not only gay bars who want to support the LGBT community in Russia, but restaurants, clothing stores, beauty salons and more all want to make a meaningful contribution to the cause," Uprising of Love campaign manager Danny Greene told Mashable via email. "Everyone understands that this is a human rights issue."