Thus far, no one involved with the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics has really offered much in the way of wiggle room: Russia has remained pretty firm on the whole “we will gladly prosecute anything we deem to be gay propaganda” thing, and the International Olympic Committee’s response was to shrug their shoulders and try to relay that sentiment to their athletes and fans.
So for someone to step forward and take a stand on Russia’s anti-gay propaganda law is . . . well, it’s like a breath of fresh air in a room full of Sriracha fumes. As it turns out, NBC (the exclusive carrier of the Olympics in the US) will actually address the anti-gay controversy currently happening in Russia rather than pretend it’s not happening.
According to Queerty, NBC hired Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist David Remnick “to cover the politics beat during the Olympics,” and “[h]is coverage for NBC will include the country’s recent violence towards LGBTs.”
Considering how much NBC has tried to play it vanilla when it comes to politics (that’s MSNBC’s turf — RESPECT IT) it’s pretty great that they’re one of the few major players willing to address the issue. Admittedly, I’m grading on a curve here, because so far Russia’s been adamant about following through on their institutionalized homophobia, while the IOC has basically become the bottom bitches, but it’s still pretty good compared to what we’ve seen so far.
Why you can trust Xtra
