We are now well into the Olympic “season.” That’s the time which comes around every two years when the eyes of the world are focussed on a major centre for a sporting competition which is unparalleled in our history.

The Olympic Games, an international spectacle of incredible cost and spirit, brings people together to watch powerful human performances.

Men and women, their bodies tuned to the highest levels of skill and athletic perfection, compete among each other to strive to be the one who is “Higher. Stronger. Faster”.

But underneath the glitz and glamour and money is an undercurrent of politics and human drama. The Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, are no different.

Olympics and politics overlapped in 1936 in Berlin. In those Games, black American runner Jessie Owens beat global competition, including that of Germany, who were determined to prove Aryan superiority in the Games.

Controversy erupted when athletes parading offered the “Olympic salute”, which strongly resembled the Nazi salute.

Similar protests were raised in 1972 at the Olympic Games in Mexico. Two American athletes, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, offered up a raised, gloved fist during the playing of the U.S. national anthem. The raised fist salute was, in those days, seen as a symbol of Black Power. Smith later said that the gesture was not a “Black Power” salute but a “human rights” salute.

But that was not all the protest in those particular Games. A Czechoslovakian gymnast, protesting the Soviet invasion of her country, turned away when the Soviet national anthem was played in the medal ceremony. And a group of Mexican students, protesting their authoritarian government, precipitated a violent response from that government just before the Games, resulting in 44 deaths.

For most people, the Olympic Games in Sochi will be about a television spectacle and athletic competition. Yet protests over human rights have already coloured the Games. Most directly, many nations have objected to proposed Russian laws prohibiting “homosexual propaganda.”

According to the organization Human Rights Watch, the proposed laws prohibit any conversation around sexual orientation in any way, including in matters of equality, orientation, public health or personal experience. Violators of these laws will receive heavy fines.

Human Rights Watch goes on to say that these laws, as they are applied to Olympic organizations and competitors, are a violation of Article 6 of the Olympic Charter, which says that any form of discrimination against athletes is a violation of the Olympic principles and incompatible with the Olympic movement.

Canada has sent a letter of concern to the Russian government over the proposed laws.

What we may see at Sochi are athletic protests. There is some suggestion that some medal winners may offer a “six finger salute” on the podium to show their opposition to the Russian laws and their incompatibility with the Olympic movement. The “six finger salute” is the athlete’s support of no discrimination against anyone, for any reason, anywhere, especially for sexual orientation.

What is even more remarkable is that many cities around the world are planning to fly Pride rainbow flags during the Olympics from their civic buildings in solidarity of discrimination against athletes or anyone else.

So far, St. John’s, Montreal and Vancouver are flying the Pride flag. The provincial government of Newfoundland and Labrador is also flying it from their legislature.

I wonder if any if our civic governments will do something similar in Grey and Bruce? If any civic leader wishes to fly a Pride flag during the Olympics, I know someone who has one and who would be only too happy to see it flown in solidarity with our Olympic athletes. Just contact me.