The Russian Federation last week altered its initial draft of the United Nations' Olympic Truce to include provisions for "social inclusion without discrimination of any kind" at the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi.
The Olympic Truce is a largely symbolic document pledging goodwill and harmony over the course of an Olympics. The New York Times reported Sept. 14, however, that U.N. officials spent many weeks having to persuade Russian officials to alter their initial draft of the document to incorporate more universal anti-discrimination language.
The initial draft only mentioned "people of different age, sex, physical capacity, religion, race and social status." But U.N. officials have been looking for assurances about the safety of LGBT athletes and pushed to make the language more inclusive, according to the Times.
Previous Olympic Truces did not include provisions for LGBT participants, but many activists have expressed concern for their safety following anti-LGBT laws that were signed into law by President Vladimir Putin this past summer.
A prominent Russian lawyer, Masha Bast, chair of the Association of Russian Lawyers for Human Rights, has come out as bisexual and transgender. She told Europe's PinkNews Sept. 13, "So it isn't a matter of upbringing. It's nature. That's why I think the law against 'homosexual propaganda' is a law against children and one that targets certain social groups. It is a fascist law and nothing else."
Bast's advice for trans Russians is to "come out. The sooner, the better. Don't be afraid of your parents. Too many trans people worry about how society sees them and think they're a problem for society."
Meanwhile, Cher told MacLean's magazine Sept. 8 that she refused to perform at Sochi because of the laws.
"I can't name names but my friend called who is a big oligarch over there, and asked me if I'd like to be an ambassador for the Olympics and open the show," Cher said. "I immediately said no. I want to know why all of this gay hate just exploded over there. He said the Russian people don't feel the way the government does."