ANDREW MOORE discusses the recent LGBT human rights abuses in Russia in the lead up to the Winter Olympics, and urges us to stand on the right side of history by boycotting the games.

In today’s society we live in a time of modernisation, continuous evolving, learning, growing; as individuals and as a society, community, country, we learn to embrace such changes. If I was going to be “down” with today’s dialect, I would call it a society where "social norms" of huge proportions are accepted and change on a daily basis.

 

Could you really see Winston Churchill in a onesie? How about William Wallace listening to his iPod in between battles?

 

No, is the answer, because life as we know it now is very different to how it was back then, as I’m sure you will all agree. So, in such a modern world as we now live, I ask you this question:

Is it wrong to be gay?

As we move into our final step in the UK for rights, by legalising same-sex marriage, we only have to look across the water to see how very different our neighbours can be, and why so many people in this "modern world" suffer because their beliefs vary from another’s. Just like being a woman, or a racial, religious, tribal, or ethnic minority, being LGBT does not make you less human. And that is why LGBT rights are human rights, and human rights are LGBT rights.

 

Which brings me to the current affairs in Russia, where the impending winter Olympics will be hosted within a matter of months. Russia’s president, Vladimir V Putin, has declared war on homosexuals, and thus far, the world has mostly been silent. Earlier this year, Mr Putin signed a law allowing police officers to arrest tourists and foreign nationals they suspect of being gay, lesbian or “pro-gay” and detain them for up to 14 days. Contrary to what the International Olympic Committee says, the law could mean that any Olympic athlete, trainer, reporter, family member or fan who is gay, or even suspected of being gay, can go to jail.

 

It would give the Authorities the power to punish, fine and arrest teachers who claim homosexuality is not wrong; it would give them the power to arrest judges and lawyers if they are seen as biased. It would also give them the authority to remove children from their own families if the parents are either gay or lesbian, or suspected of such. The police would have the authority to remove children from adoptive homes as well as from their biological parents. Not surprisingly, some gay and lesbian families are already beginning to plan their escapes from Russia.

 

Why is Mr. Putin so determined to criminalize homosexuality? Mr. Putin says that his adoption ban was enacted to protect children from paedophiles. Once again the research does not support the homophobic rhetoric. About 90 per cent of paedophiles are heterosexual men.

 

Mr. Putin then claimed he was a Christian, who believed strongly in the word of the bible and therefore would follow his beliefs to the end. And yet, this is the same bible that quotes: "slavery is a natural condition". I think we have all evolved from the days of the bible.

 

In May, a young gay man was murdered in the city of Volgograd. He was beaten, his body violated with beer bottles, his clothing set on fire, his head crushed with a rock, all because of his sexual orientation.

 

This must change. With Russia about to hold the Winter Games in Sochi, the country is open to pressure.

In 1936 the world attended the Olympics in Germany. Few participants said a word about Hitler’s campaign against the Jews. There is a price for tolerating intolerance.

 

We just witnessed the anniversary of the passage of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, one of the true landmark achievements of the United Nations, so I urge for an answer as to where the UN's voice is on these current affairs? Where is the UN's intervention when such hideous crimes are being committed on their very door step?

 

Where is the Olympic Committee's voice? Why should the games be allowed to continue in a place where such human rights are being violated? I call upon any readers out there who deem these crimes as intolerable to sign a petition which will be presented to the Olympic committee in due course and run by a very professional team.

 

As Hillary Clinton, former Secretary of State for America, pointed out not so long ago, when it comes to the LGBT community, we should all “be on the right side of history”.

 

To the victims of these heinous hate crimes, I wish for hope, and give you these words from the bible:  "Be ye not afraid".