Johnny Weir will be serving as a figure skating analyst for NBC at the Sochi Olympics, but he’s disappointed some people:
… Despite his sexual orientation, despite his marriage to a man in 2011, despite his long track record of (not always wisely) saying what is on his mind, Weir said Wednesday that he planned to hold his tongue in Sochi, at least when it comes to speaking out against the Russian law.
“I risk jail time just going there, but the Olympics are not the place to make a political statement,” he said. “I’m not a politician and I don’t really talk about politics. You don’t have to agree with the politics, but you have to respect the culture of a country you are visiting.”…
“Self-proclaimed Russophile” Weir may be taking his cues from …
MOSCOW — Viktor Romanov smiles slyly as he explains his plans to hold gay-friendly Olympics in Moscow just three days after the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. These “Open Games” will be for athletes of any orientation and will consist of eight events, including basketball, badminton, swimming and indoor soccer.
“I’m not afraid,” Mr. Romanov said, weathered hands wiping tea from his salt-and-pepper stubble. “I’m apprehensive. We don’t know how the government will take this.”
The passage in June of a federal law banning “propaganda of nontraditional sexual relationships to minors” set off a sustained international outcry and calls to boycott the Sochi Olympics, prompting President Vladimir V. Putin to claim that, “In Russia there are no laws which punish sexual minorities.” Nevertheless, nobody has a clear sense of how the newest statute, specifically the term “propaganda,” will be interpreted.
Sport, Mr. Romanov believes, will be the perfect cover for gay men and lesbians to gather.
Mr. Romanov, a retired investigator for the Soviet and Russian security services, cuts a fatherly figure, wearing faded jeans, a brown leather jacket and worn white sneakers. It remains unclear whether Mr. Romanov’s Olympic intentions will make him a criminal.
So far, the Russian L.G.B.T. Sport Federation, of which Mr. Romanov is chairman of the board, has managed to skirt the ire of the state. The organization is officially registered with the Russian Ministry of Sport but not supported. The Kremlin recently rejected the federation’s application for financing of the Open Games, despite pouring an estimated $50 billion into the Sochi Games.
Instead, the Open Games will be financed through participation fees, individual online donations and, the organizers hope, grants from international supporters. They have invited athletes from across Russia, as well as from abroad.
“Sport is a universal instrument to solve many different problems,” Konstantin Yablotskiy, a figure skater and president of the organization, said. “For some, like me, it makes it possible to forget about everything. When I skate, I only think about music and movement, and that’s wonderful, especially now.”…
No one, as yet, has been convicted under the federal homosexual propaganda law, though propaganda charges have been filed against an activist who held a one-man protest for gay rights in Kazan, the 2018 World Cup host city. Four Dutch filmmakers working on a documentary about Russian gays were arrested in Murmansk in July, but the case was quickly dropped.
“No one knows where the lines are now,” Mr. Yablotskiy said. “In 2012, after these laws were passed in St. Petersburg, we held a sports festival there. We all painted rainbows on our cheeks, walked around the city and rode the metro. Children saw us, but no one said anything. Was that ‘propaganda?’ ”…
“It’s somewhat good that there’s a place where people can be themselves,” Igor Kochetkov, the chairman of the Russian L.G.B.T. Network, a human rights group, said. “But it’s a ghetto.”
Another Holocene Human
http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/press-past/2013/01/21/martin-luther-king-in-his-own-words
scroll down to see a civil rights era Northern City picket in front of a Woolworth’s store for their segregated lunch counters in the South
NYC and NYPD ought to be ashamed of this shopping while black BULLSHIT
marindenver
“but you have to respect the culture of a country you are visiting”
I agree that the Olympics is not a place for politics but I don’t think openly brutalizing people over their sexual orientation is an element of “culture”. And certainly shouldn’t be “respected”. But I appreciate he’s between a rock and a hard place going there as a gay man.
Another Holocene Human
More shame: “What we ask — Impartial service for ALL”
http://shanecandies.com/2013/02/february-13/
Trayon was so angry after the cops arrested him that he returned the belt to the store. Barney’s knows better; one suspects they almost WANT certain people intimidated out of coming there for aspirational purchases. I recall the cry of the blue-blood WASP in THE NANNY DIARIES, that her spa was ruined now, over-run by middle class women.
I say they know better because there has been marketing research for years about market segments of people who are not hyper rich, but are for whatever reason really fanatical about a certain product and will sacrifice in order to experience/purchase it.
dedc79
“[T]he Olympics are not the place to make a political statement,” is one of the more naive, or just plain stupid comments I’ve heard in a long time.
Violet
He’s hardly self-proclaimed. He’s an obvious Russophile. His long time coach is Russian, he has lived there off and on while training. He speaks Russian and his husband is of Russian background (don’t know if he’s actually a Russian citizen).
Weir probably doesn’t want to get banned from returning to Russia, given his close ties with the country.
Trollhattan
I don’t know why an athlete would announce, ahead of time, what he or she may or may not do at the event WRT this issue. Unless it’s an outright boycott, which would be a tall order considering the vanishingly small window of opportunity for an athlete to actually be in the Olympics.
Mnemosyne
@marindenver:
@dedc79:
I would be curious to see if Weir is planning to support the “Open Games,” though. If he is, that might have more of an impact on Russia than his making a scene at the Olympics.
Though NBC probably made Weir sign a “shut up” legal agreement anyway.
(Note that I’m not saying that other people shouldn’t make a scene at the Olympics, because they should, but I could see Weir and other former Olympians throwing their weight behind the “alternative” games instead.)
Violet
@Mnemosyne:
I’m sure they did. NBC doesn’t want negative attention on themselves for political protests. If the athletes do it, well, that’s news…and ratings. Bring it on, they’re probably thinking.
Ash Can
It looks like this is the most positive thing that can be said about the situation in Russia, along with, “Well, mass arrests haven’t happened yet.” If I were Weir or any other gay athlete coming to Russia for the Olympics, I’d be pretty damned concerned about my own safety (and if I were a homegrown Russian gay athlete I’d be scared shitless). I can see the Russian authorities taking it easy on foreign athletes to avoid international incidents, but who’s to say no one will get roughed up by free-lance thugs or that nothing will get trumped up to make an example of someone? Forget opining about the politics; it seems to me that if you’re gay, you’re taking an awful chance just going to that country.
different-church-lady
I guess this is the part where a lot of straight people weigh in on what he should or shouldn’t do?
West of the Cascades
Tommie Smith, John Carlos, and Peter Norman respectfully disagree.
Violet
@different-church-lady: No, doesn’t look like that’s happening in this thread.
Jamey
Johnny Weir isn’t tipping his hand. Make bank on it.
Mnemosyne
@Violet:
As far as I can tell, Weir’s husband is the son of Russian immigrants, but I couldn’t quite figure out if he was born here or if he immigrated with his parents. It sounds like the family still has a lot of ties in Russia since Weir went there to meet some of the family while they were engaged, so that could definitely be a factor. It’s one thing to risk your own safety — it’s another to risk the safety of your extended family, especially when you can fly home afterwards and they still have to live there.
MikeJ
@different-church-lady: I don’t think gay people should get to tell Weir what to do either, It’s pretty easy to sit back tell somebody else to ignore a huge payday.
Yatsuno
@MikeJ: Johnny Weir has the agency to decide what Johnny Weir should do with his life and his career. I have no expectation that he should go total activist based on what would be better for GLBTQ rights.
lamh36
@West of the Cascades: this line was really my only critic of Weir. He can do what he likes, but please the Olympics have been about “politics” since it’s inception and the “modern” games have been almost all political since Jesse Owens in Berlin hosted by Hitler himself no less.
ThresherK
@Another Holocene Human: I recall the cry of the blue-blood WASP in THE NANNY DIARIES, that her spa was ruined now, over-run by middle class women.
I don’t have kids and I haven’t dipped my toe into Nanny Diaries. Am I far off thinking “Lucille Bluth” has that blue-blood pretty much covered?
Darkrose
It’s not like Johnny Weir has ever been an activist, or been about anything other than promoting Johnny Weir.
different-church-lady
@Violet: No, but it’s early yet.
But to be serious, I wasn’t limiting my comment to just us here in BJ. And I’m reasonably confident that outside of the usual suspects, blatant trespasses won’t be occurring here. Elsewhere all bets are off.
@MikeJ: Good point, but at least they have more of a direct stake in the issue.
C.V. Danes
Never expect a man to say no, when his livelihood requires him to say yes. Or something like that.
Me wonders exactly where Mr. Weir would draw the line at cultural acceptance…