In the world we live in today, unity of all races is encouraged and talked about frequently on news channels, at family dinner tables, and even classroom full of high school students. What isn't talked about as often as this, unfortunately, is the individual rights that members of the Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender, or LGBT, community are forced to live without. These rights include marriage, employment, a place in history, and in some countries, their life. A change in laws to allow for these rights is the best, though it should be the only, option there is. .
In all countries of the world, there are laws condemning affiliation with any sexuality other than heterosexuality. In 1993, Russian officials passed laws allowing for gay marriage and even for known members, meaning they were "open," of the LGBT community to be political officials. With the election of Vladmir Putin, all such laws were repealed. Failure to comply with Putin's new uncivilized laws could result in long term jail time or even in some cases, death. Even during international events like the 2014 Sochi Olympic Winter Games, when the world's eyes were fixed upon his country, Putin used fear to inspire famous Russian athletes to speak out against the riots that LGBT Russians and many others were forming. Among these sport idols was Svetlana Zhurova, a Russian gold medal speed-skater in the 2006 Turin Games, who made a very unusual statement to the press when asked about the riots, saying that she had "never seen [this] at any Olympic Games, and [she] would call on the people who are going to protest that it doesn't make sense. For the spectators, it is more important who wins than whether he or her is homosexual or not" (Wharton). Russia has now taken regressive steps in progress, and steps back towards the old Soviet Union. If Putin were to realize how beneficial it was to have same-sex marriage legal in his country, he would change his laws in a heartbeat.
