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West Vancouver calls for gay friendly Games

The District of West Vancouver is using its status as a former host of Olympic competition to make a stand for gay rights.
DWV
West Vancouver municipal hall.

The District of West Vancouver is using its status as a former host of Olympic competition to make a stand for gay rights.

Council passed a motion Monday night calling on the International Olympic Committee to update its charter to explicitly include non-discrimination of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people - a response to the crackdown on LGBT people in Russia leading up to the 2014 games in Sochi.

The motion came at the request of the Vancouver city council, which sent Coun. Tim Stevenson, who is gay, to Sochi to lobby the IOC.

"We see a lot of people in this world that get downtrodden for whatever reason and what's going on now in Russia is abusive to human beings, no matter what walk of life they're coming from. It has nothing to do with sports. This is a human rights issue. No person should be put under the gun by any country in the world. Period," said Coun. Bill Soprovich.

Passing the motion will "better the framework" for the LGBT community, he added.

"It's something that we should support and not turn away from them," he said.

Coun. Craig Cameron agreed. Even though it was too late for council's motion to arrive in Sochi in time for Stevenson's delegation to the IOC and too late to see a Pride House established in Russia, Cameron said the motion still carried "tremendous symbolic importance."

The motion carried 7-0.