Sochi's missing ring

So, everyone probably knows that the Olympics have started, happening this year in the Russian city of Sochi. Probably even folks who are completely indifferent to such things know about this installment of the games, given that they were drenched in news coverage long before the opening ceremony. There are so many geo-political stories around these games and their location.

There’s the story of Vladimir Putin’s personal interest in the spectacle and the prestige that he hopes will hang off the next two weeks’ happenings. Then there’s the story of the regional chaos in this part of Russia, where civil war has raged on and off since the USSR came apart in the early 90s. And there’s the story of the threats of terrorist attacks by anti-Western militants and recent suicide bombings in several locations around Russia. Then there’s the story of the lavish sporting venues that will show up in the international media—and the unfinished, shoddily built hotels that won’t. And the usual stories of poor people displaced and exorbitant amounts spent in the midst of a new economic downturn in Russia. And then there’s the story that seems to have gotten the most coverage: the gay story.

In case you haven’t been following this story, during the run-up to the Olympics—although not explicitly linked to that event—Russia announced a multi-faceted anti-gay law ostensibly intended only to protect children from gay “propaganda.” Leaving aside for the moment the (patently false) implication that LGBTQ identity is in any way a threat to children, in truth, this law has had far wider consequences than that framing suggests. For instance, it not only prohibits adoption by LGBT people in Russia, it has also raised concerns that LGBTQ parents might lose their own children. The law has also resulted in arrests and harassment for peaceful demonstrations on behalf of gay rights, and anti-LGBTQ assaults have increased dramatically, some witnessed by police offers who stood by or even participated. It’s the worst memories and the worst fears of Western gays come to life in the streets of Moscow and St. Petersburg.

To return to Sochi, there has been a great international outcry over this law, and it has come to a focus around the Olympics. Some have urged a boycott of the Olympics. Many have worried that LGBTQ athletes and spectators—and their families and supporters—would risk their safety and perhaps their freedom by attending the Games. Progressive groups around the globe demonstrated their support for LGBTQ rights in ways great and small. In Berlin, for instance, on the first day of the Olympics, gay activists lit a “rainbow flame” that will burn throughout the Games in support of Russia's LGBTQ community. 

And in what seemed to me an excellent move, the Obama administration decided that no top-level administration official would be sent to the Olympics, as would usually be the case. Instead, Obama sent a delegation that included “out” gay athletes—a move so perfect that it even inspired one formerly closeted athlete/delegate to come out.

So, all of that is background to this tale:

During the opening ceremony Friday night, a huge lighted display of the five intertwined Olympic rings failed to come off as planned, leaving one ring unlit. Here’s a picture of the actual scene at Sochi Friday night.

  

This instantly struck me as perfectly fitting. The Olympic rings are supposed to symbolize community, union, the coming together of the five continents (I know; there are seven continents) in the name of sport. So the failure of one of the rings to “participate” in that union just seemed to me quintessentially right: for so many reasons, this Olympics is characterized by divisiveness and exclusion rather than unity—the repression of dissidents, the militaristic rule over peoples seeking independence, the hostile, even violent exclusion of LGBTQ folks.  

  

So, this morning, I turned on my computer and saw this: 

The “glitch” had already become a t-shirt. Now, some part of the creation of this t-shirt may have been crass nationalism—let’s make fun of another country’s mistakes because we’re so cool. But I was struck by something else: the perfect symbolism of this otherwise inconsequential mistake. The missing ring that would have made the symbol whole.

Russian television, which, in another missing-ring move, is essentially state-run, didn’t show the glitch. So Russians didn’t know about the mistake—instead, they saw rehearsal footage with all five rings intact and intertwined. The Russian government was not interested in general in having anything but a perfect show for the Olympics. To be certain that everyone was kept in line, across the land, a bunch of gay rights protesters, regionalists demonstrating against a history of genocide in Sochi, and everyday political protesters were arrested even as the Olympics were getting underway. 

Part of what has fascinated me about this whole story, though, is precisely the prominence that the gay story has achieved, given the many stories that have been floating around. The mainstream media have featured countless stories about this topic. One of the most interesting discussions I encountered was a New York Times article about Russia’s “culture wars.” This piece couches the whole gay issue (and other current actions as well) in terms of Russia’s retreat to an imagined glorious past—a sort of extreme form of our own conservative movement. Framed in this way, the anti-LGBTQ law and many other events in Russia today actually make sense—an awful sort of sense, but sense. It also explains why the Russians appear to have been so open to the anti-gay propaganda of certain American activists—folks who have largely lost their impact in this country (although they had plenty in their day.)

Even commercial interests got involved. Several sponsors of the US Olympics Committee—beginning with AT&T and then expanding to Chobani (Greek yogurt) and DeVrey University (home to many Olympians)—issued statements condemning Russia’s anti-gay law. Perhaps most striking, Chevrolet aired two ads during the opening ceremonies that included gay couples (you can watch them here—be sure to listen to the really nice narrative that goes with the pictures).

The media participation hasn’t been confined to mainstream media. Many of you likely saw Google’s “doodle” at the beginning of the Olympics. It looked like this:

It’s about the Olympics, sure. But the color-coding isn’t coincidental: red–orange–yellow–green–blue–purple … precisely the color scheme of the LGBTQ rainbow flag.

And taking it another step, in the words of another New York Times writer, social media have “served as a prism” for this issue, reflecting and refracting the Sochi-gay connection in a variety of ways.

  

For instance, a British company that encourages innovation through social media invited folks to create an ad that could be used by Olympics sponsors in support of equal rights for LGBTQ people. Here’s my favorite: 

And maybe best of all, the official United Nations Twitter account shared a quotation from United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who was pictured wearing rainbow-fingered gloves (which some sources insist are not a statement about LGBTQ rights).

“Many professional athletes, gay and straight, are speaking out against prejudice. We must all raise our voices against attacks on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or intersex people,” Ban said in a statement to the Olympic Organizing Committee. “We must oppose the arrests, imprisonments and discriminatory restrictions they face.”

And as a final touch, I couldn’t help but wonder whether it was pure coincidence when Attorney General Eric Holder selected the morning after the opening ceremony to announce further extensions of Federal rights to same-sex couples. Take that, Putin!

So what does all this mean in the larger scheme of things? For one thing, it seems to me yet another indication that the LGBTQ movement in Western countries is on a trajectory of amazing, rapid progress. This is not to say that there isn’t still much to be done, and it’s not to say that all is well for all of us. Our well-being still depends hugely on accidents of geography, family, income, race/ethnicity, family and faith community acceptance—on too many variables. But things are definitely looking up. In some strange and sudden way, we have largely ceased being pariahs and have become human beings—even likeable ones. That’s a nice feeling. On the other hand, I worry that we are serving as the current mascot minority, the downtrodden folks whom everyone loves to love—but in that role, we may also be serving as a distraction from the persistent oppression of other groups.  

There’s more to say about this, of course. I’ve said some of it before and will likely say more later on. For now, though, I just want to make note of fact that the awful anti-gay laws that bring us this clever t-shirt and colorful Google doodle today will still remain to haunt LGBTQ folks living in Russia when the Olympic spotlight fades.

I wonder… will the media still care? Will we?

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