Early international pressure was leveraged to compel the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to move the Olympics to another country, as well as pressure on Olympic sponsors to take a stand for LGBT equality. The implications of the law on the then-upcoming Winter Olympics were a major concern among athletes and the Western media, as the Olympic Charter contains language explicitly denouncing all forms of discrimination. The law itself was also considered to have caused an increase in homophobic violence, and an increase in the arrest of pro-LGBT protesters. The propaganda law had been characterized by the Western media and other critics as a ban on "gay propaganda", arguing that it was broad enough to ban any public display of LGBT symbols and suppress LGBT culture. During the lead-up to the 2014 Winter Olympics, protests and campaigns arose surrounding the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender ( LGBT) people in Russia.Ĭoncerns for LGBT athletes and supporters during the Games began as early as March 2012, when a Russian judge blocked the establishment of a Pride House in Sochi, ruling that "propaganda of non-traditional sexual relationships" would "undermine the security of Russian society", and that it conflicted with public morality and the country's policies "in the area of family motherhood and childhood protection." The majority of protests, however, centred on the passing of a law in June 2013, which banned the distribution of "propaganda of non-traditional sexual relationships" among minors.