Opening Ceremonies

I was ready to hate the opening ceremony of The Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics on principal alone.
Taking it a step further, I had committed myself to boycotting the broadcast all together.
Nevertheless, I found myself bored and curious as I sat in my hotel room last night (on the road for work) so I decided to switch over to NBC-
After all, who was going to find out?!
I clicked over just in time to see the US Olympic Team make their entrance into the stadium; I felt pride, excitement for the athletes and I felt like someone needed to call Joan Rivers ASAP. ...I mean those outfits?! Come on Ralph Lauren, they're athletes not senior citizens.
As I continued to watch, I noticed a vibrancy and colorful tone throughout the telecast.  Not just with the Olympians from all of the other countries, but from Russia, too.
Russia is known for their brilliant ballerinas, naturally dance played a huge part in the production.  It was gorgeous, all be it, a little slow.
I couldn't help but notice how many of the male Russian ballet dancers moved with pride and confidence.  All at once I felt sorry for them-
Clearly they love to dance, and it's doubtful they're all heterosexual (judging from the amount of make-up they wore, most of them are gay.)  How painful it must be to live in a country where your leaders condemn homosexuality on global level, and still expect you to perform for your country in the opening ceremony.
Then, one of the Russian speakers (I forget his name, and I didn't want to Google search it because I don't want to give him the hits) made a speech about every country celebrating their Olympians, and (I'm paraphrasing) leave the controversies off their backs, so they can focus on what they do best.
I loved that.
Don't get me wrong, I think Russia is wrong on their stance and how they approached the equality issue-
But they won me over with their opening ceremony, and I will support Team USA.  The only way to fight homophobia, is to have a few of our top gays go over and kick their asses!