2014 Olympic Flame Lit And Headed To Sochi

As an lifelong Olympics junkie, the news from Greece that the Olympic flame has been lit usually gets me excited and fired up for and breathlessly anticipating the upcoming winter or summer Games wherever they are happening. 

When I heard the news that actress Ino Menegaki, dressed in her high priestess role, lit the Olympic flame in Ancient Olympia last Sunday and subsequently lit a torch from a cauldron inside Athens' Panathinaiko Stadium, all I felt this time was sadness.  It was grounded in the knowledge that this Olympic torch was headed to the host country of a winter Olympic Games that persecutes my fellow TBLG citizens based on the lies of American based right wing christofools.

The flame, placed in a lantern, was handed over to Hellenic Olympic Committee president Spyros Kapralos who passed it on to Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak to trigger the Olympic torch run that will spend seven days in Greece before heading to Moscow and starting its 40,000 mile journey across Russia until it arrives in Sochi four months from now.


There was a peaceful protest by LGBT human rights activists held on the front steps of the Acropolis Museum where the Olympic flame made an overnight stay inside the Acropolis before being moved to a cauldron in the courtyard of the museum. 

The activists unfurled the rainbow flag and banners stating "Homophobia is not in the Olympic Spirit" and "Love is not Propaganda."

"The Olympics should have taken a stand against this law in Russia because the Olympic ideals are for supporting human rights and diversity and that's not what's happening in Russia," said protester Zak Kostopoulos.


Yes, the IOC should have taken a stand.  But exactly what is that stand?   A boycott of the Games only hurts the athletes who have trained for years to take part in them.   I would have along with others around the world supported a move of the 2014 Winter Games to another nation as George Takei suggested.  

The IOC has already caved in.  Others around the world have four months to decide how they are going to take a stand against the unjust Russian laws.