Host countries will now have to adhere to nondiscriminatory language written in Olympic charter.
The landscape of professional sports is continually changing in favor of lesbian and gay athletes. Want more proof? Last week, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) voted to change the language of the Olympic Charter to include protection against discrimination based on sexual orientation.
According to Slate.com, the new wording of the Olympic Charter will read as follows:
“The enjoyment of the rights and freedoms set forth in the Olympic Charter shall be secured without discrimination of any kind, such as race, color, sex, sexual orientation, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.”
It remains to be seen how the language in the Olympic Charter will be enforced going forward. Nonetheless, this is a huge step forward. Remember Sochi, Russia? How could we forget? It was a public relations mess for the IOC. For lesbian and gay athletes it was a struggle between wanting to compete and wanting to maintain a sense of dignity at the same time. Thankfully, countries such as Russia are going to have a difficult time winning bids to host the Olympic games in the future.
It looks at though the IOC was paying close attention to backlash it received both before and after Sochi. Brazil and South Korea are the next two countries in line to host the 2016 Summer Olympics and 2018 Winter Olympics respectively. Both countries have a pretty good track record in regards to LGBT rights.
We can only wait and see how everything is going to play out. At least for now, we can enjoy the fact that things are changing for the better.