Wow, don't log in for a week and a bit and come back to this?
The only thing I have to say is that if I was to live/travel in a country where the predominant social norm is homosexuality, and they legislated law preventing me from kissing my girlfriend in public (to the point where I could face imprisonment) I would be irate, and think it is totally unfair.
BUT, I don't think grandstanding at the Olympics solves anything, because all of a sudden we all look like school-aged children in the playground trying to annoy the other kids because we don't like them.
I don't know what we (as western society) can do. Going into Russia guns a blazin saying "you must adopt our everything in the world is fair and lovely mentality" is naive. Until we can change the conversation from emotional knee-jerk reactions to calm, defensible point dialogue, there is nothing we can do that actually solves the problem. Unfortunately with the political climate that exists around the world (including the towns, cities, provinces and federal level of Canada), that doesn't seem possible.
My recommendation is that within Canada WE need to smarten up our ways of politics and get everyone (all citizens) involved in a political intervention with the children that run our country, and grow up. Once we do that, we can begin to stand on the world stage with some political weight and be able to back up what we have to say. Right now we're all just piling on just throwing stones from our glass house. Wait until the "trending" conversations shift to Canada and our treatment of first nations, immigrants.
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