Twitter
Facebook
Brian Boitano on gay rights and future Olympics
It’s pretty clear that if President Obama had not appointed Brian Boitano to be a part of the official US delegation to the Olympics, he may have never come out publicly.
But he correctly sensed what it meant for him to be going to Russia – a country that has a gay anti-propaganda law that flies in the face of Olympic ideals.
Brian told NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday: “By bringing a lot of attention and realizing that other countries like America are moving forward with this, it brings attention to how they’re not moving forward if they don’t agree with this. We are America. We are moving forward. You can either come with us or we will leave you behind.”
Brian, 1988 Olympic Gold Medalist in men’s figure skating, is convinced that the games will never again be held in a country that is proud of its prejudices.
“I truly believe that the IOC will never again choose a country to have the Olympics in that doesn’t have a good human rights record or a country that is not tolerant.”
Comments
(All comments are reviewed before being published, and I review submissions several times per day.)
FAEN says:
I respect Brian as an athlete but that’s as far as it goes for me. To hide in the closet when coming out could have made a difference and to not speak out when his brother, Mark Boitano(R) NM, voted against marriage equality is cowardly to me.
I read in a recent interview that Brian wants to be a role model for gay youth. IMHO he would be a poor example to follow. I’d rather gay youth chose to emulate someone that is proud of being gay, not someone still dealing with internal homophobia.