“The practice of sport is a human right. Every individual must have the possibility of practicing sport, without discrimination of any kind and in the Olympic spirit, which requires mutual understanding with a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play.” –Olympic Charter

The Catechism of the Catholic Church* states: “2358 The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. They do not choose their homosexual condition; for most of them it is a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God’s will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord’s Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition.”

The italicized sentence is directed to us, the straight faithful, and says, don’t be an asshat, to them, or if you read through the whole Catechism, to anybody.

This brings us to the Russian asshat in chief, Vladimir Putin. For quite some time, Russian homosexuals have been a targeted other in modern Russia. The whys and wherefores of this are not clear. Some of it may be a misdirected view of Orthodox teaching, as Putin considers himself an Orthodox Christian. Similarly it may be related to an accurate interpretation of civilizations throughout history, wherein nations with declining birthrates fall into stagnation. He’s been trying to jumpstart the birth by hook or by crook, and ‘banning homosexuality’ may simply be another propaganda tool to motivate the heterosexual population into procreating. Dr. J. doesn’t get how anti-gay laws would enhance the birthrate, but it’s a theory. ‘t might just be a bigot. Who knows, because Dr. J doesn’t.

Anyway, Dr. J. has been enjoying North American reaction to Putin if only in that the US needs to get back into the business of sticking our middle finger up at our rivals when they have their asshats on. Reagan excelled at it.

President Obama was a little ham-handed in sending the U.S. Gay Olympic All-Stars as his delegation, but Dr. J. relished it far more than all of the bowing and scraping he’s done before world leaders to this point. Sending Billy-Jean King (who sadly isn’t going due to her mother’s illness), Brian Boitano and Caitlin Cahow was a lovely shot across the bow.

Nevertheless, the White House isn’t the only fun poking fun at Russia’s nitwittery.

Google got into the act with the banner graphic for this post, a rainbowtastic salute to sport and a reminder of how Russian law is a smack in the face of the charter.

The Canadians created this video which cracked Dr. J. up:

While we’re all poking fun at Putin, of course he may have the last laugh, in that he may have done all of this to bring on the reaction formation that it has. Some of this might have been bear-baiting the decadent West. Consequently, he may ultimately have the last laugh.

* The double-secret Catholic rule book your Gormogons are familiar with, but so many Catholics are not quite familiar with.

Dr. J.