American families all over the country crowded around their televisions, desperate to get a glance at who would win the next medal in this year’s Winter Olympics held in Sochi, Russia. These games, perhaps a sign of the times in which we live, have made history because of the exceptional athletes who compete.

Talk of terrorism, poor accommodations, and gay rights protests continued to be a hot topic in the 2014 Olympics. That, for some, took away from the games themselves.

One of the more controversial topics this year was country’s policies on gay rights. The protests including gay atheletes and whether they would affect Russia’s Anti-Gay law, which bans homosexual propaganda, were up for debate.

The school’s students and teachers were invested in the problem as well.

“International protests are not going to sway another government’s legislature, especially the Russian one,” World History teacher Chip Traub said.

As the Olympics started, athletes began to protest, such as the German team who wore rainbow uniforms. Then, on Thursday, Google even updated their logo to athletes featured on a rainbow banner.

“Other citizens from other countries aren’t going to have an effect, because Russians are going to look at it as meddling in their affairs,” Traub said.

Russia’s government stated that they welcomed “gay” athletes. However, according to CBSnews.com, four gay rights activists were arrested on opening day for taking  a picture with a banner that was against sexual discrimination. Whether other countries should get involved was being questioned as well.

“We are hypocrites. The US is against gay rights for its own people, but they are for it at the Olympics. It sounds like they are trying to show off for other countries,” sophomore Jonnie Bissell said.