Gay issue gives IOC challenge

Activists want stronger stance. Debate on nations that criminalize sexual orientation.

Despite broad worldwide gains for gay rights, homosexuality remains criminalized in many countries — a sore point for activists who hope the global stage of the Olympics can be a springboard for change.

Specifically, activists are asking why the International Olympic Committee — with a credo of “sport for all” — welcomes in its ranks scores of nations that ban gay sex. For the IOC, which has taken actions in the past to combat racism and sexism, it’s a new civil rights challenge likely to linger long after the London Games.

“The IOC needs to come out of the closet,” British human rights lawyer Mark Stephens said. “Sport for all means all — irrespective of color, gender or sexual orientation.

“It’s a matter of human dignity.”

Stephens, in recent a public lecture and an opinion piece in the Guardian newspaper, has called on the IOC to ban the roughly 75 countries — mostly from Africa, the Caribbean and the Islamic world — that outlaw homosexual activity. That demand has been embraced by Peter Tatchell, a leading British gayrights campaigner, and has prompted several human rights organizations to say the IOC should at least speak out, even if a ban is unrealistic.

“The games would be badly depopulated if you exclude every government with a bad human rights record,” said Marianne Mollmann, a policy adviser with Amnesty International. “But we certainly feel the IOC should be more vocal about these issues …”

Along with proposing a ban, Stephens has urged still-in-the-closet gay and lesbian athletes to come out during the games, which start July 27. He said those who don’t feel safe in their home countries should apply for asylum while in Britain.

IOC spokeswoman Emmanuelle Moreau, asked about the appeals, noted that the Olympic Char- ter “clearly states that any form of discrimination with regard to a country or a person on grounds of race, religion, politics, gender or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic Movement.”