Should the US boycott the Winter Olympics?

In a way, it already has. President Barack Obama is both refusing to attend and sending in two openly gay athletes to the US Olympic delegation. He joins a number of European leaders, among them the president of Germany, who are staying home instead of venturing to Sochi. But a handful of celebrities have called for more action, asking for a boycott of athletes instead of just politicians.

Is the Winter Olympics something worth boycotting? The reason for boycotting is to protest a new law passed in Russia this June. According to CNN.com, the law makes distributing “gay propaganda” illegal. If this law were passed in the US it would be immediately criticized for violating the freedom of expression in the first amendment by outlawing, among other things, gay rights parades and the education of young people on homosexuality.

The case for the boycott, as I understand it, is that by going to the Olympics you are giving revenue and publicity to a country that doesn’t allow its gay citizens to express themselves or tell anyone, especially young people, about their sexuality. So if no one competed Russia would lose money and hopefully change the laws based on perceived international disapproval.

But I think that there are more direct ways to put international pressure on Russia’s government than by simply not competing, one of which is forcing them to accept gay athletes in their competition, which is exactly what the president is doing. Although clearly the influence of a politician attending the Olympics is complicated and I don’t understand it, I feel like the politicians refusing to attend could do more by attending and trying to publicly advocate gay rights there.