The best response to repression is engagement
I opposed boycotting the Sochi Winter Olympic Games to protest the crackdown on LGBT rights in Russia. In part, that was because I didn't want to victimize athletes who had worked so hard to make the American team. But it was also because I'm confident that the best response to the mounting repression in Russia is engagement.
American supporters of equality should engage with Russians, and we should do so proudly and boldly. That said, however, we also need to have some humility and a sense of history. It wasn't so long ago, after all, that LGBT Americans, including athletes, faced ugly, rampant bigotry in the U.S.… Seguir leyendo »