President Barack Obama is offended by Russia's anti-gay propaganda laws. He says a U.S. boycott of the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi, however, is not the proper manner to protest.
According to ABC News, Obama said he does not intend to refuse U.S. Olympians the opportunity to compete in the Games.
"I do not think it's appropriate to boycott the Olympics," the president told reporters at a news conference at the White House.
"Nobody is more offended than me by some of the anti-gay and lesbian legislation that you've been seeing in Russia," he added. "One of the things I'm really looking forward to is maybe some gay and lesbian athletes in bringing home the gold, or silver, or bronze, which I think would go a long way in rejecting the kind of attitudes we're seeing there."
According to news.sky.com, British broadcaster Stephen Fry has appealed directly to England Prime Minister David Cameron and members of the International Olympic Committee "to stop the games being held in Russia, comparing President Vladimir Putin's treatment of gay people to Adolf Hitler's treatment of Jews."
If the Sochi Games go on, Fry said the situation would be comparable to the 1936 Games taking place in Nazi Germany.
Obama, however, said boycotting would be a counterproductive measure.
He told reporters that that if Russia blackballs gay and lesbian athletes from their Olympic squad, "It would probably make their team weaker."
Earlier this week in an interview with NBC's Jay Leno, the president said he has "no patience" for anti-gay laws similar to that of the Russian edict.
"I've been very clear that when ... you are discriminating on the basis of race, religion, gender or sexual orientation, you are violating the basic morality that I think should transcend every country," he said.
The U.S. boycotted the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow over the then-Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan.
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