Russia may prosecute gay athletes at the 2014 Winter Olympics

Yesterday, I started my show producing career by producing my first 3 hour sports talk show "The Sports Sandbox" on Sports Talk 1460 ESPN. It was a lot of fun. Little nervous as we got started, but definitely calmed down as the show went on. Part of my job is to watch for breaking news and for things I can pass along to the hosts that might add to the show. I came across this story and, although we won't discuss it on the air for a little while, I found it very interesting. Apparently there is a Russian lawmaker out of St. Peterburg, Russia that has stated that gay fans and athletes from other countries won't be immune from prosecution if they attend the 2014 Winter Olympics. The law states that it is illegal for homosexuals to publicly display affection toward each other. That is the Russian law. It doesn't say it's against the law to be gay. It says you can't show any kind of public display of affection.

As I've stated before this blog is not for Political debate. I honestly don't care what you think about gay rights as I'm sure you don't care about my opinion on the topic either. This is not the place for that debate. My question to you folks is this...what do you think about what this lawmaker said? I can see both sides of the argument so I'll make an argument for  both sides. So here we go.

IT'S NOT RIGHT: This doesn't seem very right to me because the fans and athletes coming to these  games are not citizens of Russia. How can you charge someone with a crime like this when it isn't a crime in other countries? Russia is saying that if you come to their country and hold hands with your partner, you will go to jail and be prosecuted. It seems like they are trying to keep other countries from coming to the games. Who knows.

IT'S THEIR RIGHT: Russia has the right to make whatever laws they want just like we do here in the United States. I've been on trips abroad before and the first thing you learn when you go abroad is that when in another country, you better know that country's law. If you are gay and are offended by the law in Russia, don't go to the Winter Olympics. If you are gay and still want to go to the Winter Olympics, then don't publicly show affection. It's that simple. So for those of you who are screaming at your computers right now saying "How dare Russia say that?" Remember this...if a Russian comes to the United States and breaks one of our laws that isn't a law in Russia, what would we do? Exaclty!!! We'd arrest them and prosecute them too.

So whether you agree or not with Russia, I'm sure they don't care what you think. As long as the gay fans and athletes going to the Winter Games will be careful and abide by Russian law, I'm sure they will return home safely and without a international police record.