Chris Kluwe, the highly respected former punter for the Minnesota Vikings and outspoken supporter of LGBT rights, has penned a scathing editorial for Britain’s The Guardian. In the widely read piece, Kluwe goes to great lengths to underscore how the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has threatened to dethrone any athlete who speaks out against Russia’s anti-gay propaganda laws by threatening to strip him or her of any medals or allowing them to benefit financially in any way from their participation in this Winter’s Sochi Olympics.
He writes:
The International Olympic Committee (IOC), chief benefactor of these big money sponsors, has determined that any athlete speaking out in “accredited areas” against the human rights violations occurring in Russia right now will be found in violation of the Olympic Charter, banned from the games, and stripped of any medals. Corporate sponsorships, the pot of gold at the end of the Olympic rainbow, will disappear. A lifetime spent preparing, training, hour after agonizing hour, will have been for naught if an athlete dares to make a political statement at the wrong time about political events happening in a politicized Olympics; politicized in no small part by the IOC refusing to uphold their own charter when it applies to themselves. How can the IOC get away with this blatant disregard of their own rules? Easy. The IOC has what Olympic athletes want. Money. Power. Fame.
He goes on to explain why he has chosen to speak out and, in a very personal note, adds why he chose to risk everything for our cause:
I decided to stand up for those who needed help, because they asked me to, and because it was the right thing to do. I knew it could cost me my job, my career, and I didn’t care (OK, I cared a little bit, but I did it anyway), because if I didn’t speak up for someone when they asked me to, how could I expect the same in return? The result? I lost my job, one of the most highly sought after jobs in the world, professional athlete in the NFL, for speaking out on LBGTQ rights. I probably lost some friends, people I’ve known for almost a decade, for speaking out on LBGTQ rights. I lost security at home – my wife and I wondering what the future will bring now that our world has changed, the world we’ve known for almost our entire lives together – for speaking out on LBGTQ rights.
You can read the entire piece at http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/feb/04/sochi-olympics-athletes-must-speak-up.
