National
Post-Olympic concerns over Russia LGBT rights record remain
Russian brothers and sisters ‘will not be forgotten’
Several gay rights advocates gathered at Dupont Circle on Feb. 22 to bring attention to the treatment of LGBT people in Russia. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
More than 20 activists gathered in Dupont Circle on Feb. 22 to protest anti-LGBT violence and discrimination in Russia. Nearly three dozen Queer Nation members protested the U.S. Olympic Committee’s final “Road to Sochi Tour” event at New York City’s Grand Central Terminal on the same day the games ended.
Bob Costas criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin over his government’s gay rights record and a host of other issues during NBC’s primetime coverage of the Olympics on Feb. 21. These include the Kremlin’s support of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych who remains in hiding after pro-government snipers last week killed dozens of protesters in Kiev, the country’s capital.
“The Sochi games are Vladimir Putin’s games from their inception to their conclusion and all points in between,” said Costas. “If they are successful on their own as appears to be the case, than at least in some corners it will help to burnish the image of a regime with much of the world takes significant issue. No amount of Olympic glory can mask those realities; any more than a biathlon gold medal, hard-earned and deeply satisfying as it is, can put out the fires in Kiev.”
Anti-gay lawmakers disrupt Moscow gay games
A number of Russian LGBT rights advocates with whom the Blade has spoken in recent weeks remain concerned authorities will expand their enforcement of the country’s controversial law banning gay propaganda to minors now that the Olympics have ended.
Elena Kostynchenko is among the 10 LGBT activists who were detained just before the games’ Feb. 7 opening ceremony as they tried to sing the Russian national anthem holding rainbow flags near Moscow’s Red Square. She told the Blade during a brief interview from the Russian capital on Tuesday she is “sure” the Kremlin will further crackdown on LGBT rights now that the games are over.
“I’m sure of it,” said Kostynchenko, adding she feels authorities will also target others who speak out against the Russian government. “They are all going to have to [worry] about something after the Olympics.”
More than 300 people from across Russia and 11 other countries are expected to take part in the Russian Open Games that are scheduled to take place in Moscow through March 2.
Elvina Yuvakaeva of the Russian LGBT Sports Federation, which organized the event alongside other Russian LGBT advocacy groups, said four venues that had agreed to host the games suddenly cancelled their agreements. The hotel where the Russian LGBT Network had planned to hold a forum also abruptly cancelled the scheduled event.
St. Petersburg Legislative Assemblyman Vitaly Milonov, who spearheaded his city’s gay propaganda ban that inspired the law Putin signed last June, denounced the Russian Open Games. The lawmaker also urged Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin to cancel the event.
Retired Olympic diver Greg Louganis is among those who attended the opening of the Russian Open Games on Wednesday, but reports indicate a bomb threat disrupted them. Moscow police reportedly refused to investigate the incident and local restaurants refused to serve the participants.
“It is far beyond attempts to disrupt events by homophobic groups, but a targeted and strong decision of the authorities to not let public LGBT events happen through exerting pressure on venue owners,” said Anastasia Smirnova, an LGBT activist whom St. Petersburg police arrested alongside three others on Feb. 7 as they tried to march with a banner in support of a campaign to add sexual orientation to the Olympic charter’s anti-discrimination clause.
The Federation of Gay Games has posted a petition to Change.org that urges Sir Philip Craven, president of the International Paralympic Committee, not to attend next month’s 2014 Sochi Paralympic Games if authorities do not allow the Russian Open Games to take place.
“The Russian Open Games do not violate the [gay propaganda] law in any way,” Marc Naimark of the Federation of Gay Games told the Blade on Tuesday. “But there is clearly pressure from political sources to prevent the event from happening.”
Shawn Gaylord of Human Rights First told the Blade earlier this month during an interview from Sochi that Russian LGBT advocates also remain concerned lawmakers will once again consider a proposal that would allow authorities to take children away from their gay parents because of their sexual orientation. He met with Smirnova, Russian LGBT Network Chair Igor Kochetkov and Maria Kozlovskaya of “Coming Out” on Feb. 6 before traveling to the Black Sea resort city.
“Everyone’s always anticipated that coming back after the Olympics,” Gaylord told the Blade from Sochi. “We haven’t really heard much about that specifically. We’re still operating under the assumption it’s still something we go to be thinking about.”
LGBT Russians ‘will not be forgotten’
Gaylord told the Blade the Russian LGBT rights advocates with whom he and his Human Rights First colleagues have met remain “worried” their U.S. and European counterparts will forget about their plight because the Olympics are over. Ulrika Westerlund of the Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights, who was detained alongside Kostynchenko and other activists in Moscow on Feb. 7, said she has “also heard this concern from many of our Russian contacts.”
The Human Rights Campaign last December announced a $100,000 donation to the Russia Freedom Fund. HRC also raised money for the Russian LGBT Sports Federation during an opening ceremony viewing party it hosted in Northwest Washington.
“Our plan is to proceed in conjunction with the activists on the ground in Russia with whom we’ve been working,” HRC spokesperson Michael Cole-Schwartz told the Blade on Monday.
COC Nederland, a Dutch LGBT advocacy group, has organized a number of events over the last year to highlight the Kremlin’s gay rights record. These include a protest against Putin that took place outside his meeting with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte in Amsterdam last April.
The organization was also critical of the International Olympic Committee’s decision to award the 2014 Winter Olympics to Russia in spite of the Kremlin’s controversial human rights record.
“We have been able to generate a lot of support in the solidarity actions we have organized in the run up to Sochi,” COC Nederland Executive Director Koen van Dijk told the Blade on Wednesday. “We are confident that the plight of our brothers and sisters in Russia will not be forgotten.”
State Department
State Department implements anti-trans bathroom policy
Memo notes directive corresponds with White House executive order
The State Department on April 20 announced employees cannot use bathrooms that correspond with their gender identity.
The Daily Signal, a conservative news website, reported the State Department announced the new policy in a memo titled “Updates Regarding Biological Sex and Intimate Spaces, Including Restrooms.”
The State Department has not responded to the Washington Blade’s request for comment on the directive.
“The administration affirms that there are two sexes — male and female — and that federal facilities should operate on this objective and longstanding basis to ensure consistency, privacy, and safety in shared spaces,” State Department spokesperson Tommy Piggot told the Daily Signal. “In line with President Trump’s executive order this provides clear, uniform guidance to the department by grounding policy in biological sex as determined at birth.”
President Donald Trump shortly after he took office in January 2025 issued an executive order that directed the federal government to only recognize two genders: male and female. The sweeping directive also ordered federal government agencies to “effectuate this policy by taking appropriate action to ensure that intimate spaces designated for women, girls, or females (or for men, boys, or males) are designated by sex and not identity.”
The Daily Signal notes the new State Department policy “does not prohibit single-occupancy restrooms.”
National
I’m telling the scared little girl I once was it’s okay to feel free
This week is Lesbian Visibility Week
Uncloseted Media published this article on April 23.
By SOPHIE HOLLAND | At 13 years old, I remember looking in the mirror in my Toronto bathroom and thinking, “Yeah, I’m a lesbian.” At the time, I thought it was a dirty word. Thinking back, it could be because the first time I heard it was when a family member said, “I don’t know what a lesbian is, they are like aliens.”
And although I walked around in camouflage Crocs with a rainbow My Little Pony charm, plaid knee-length shorts and a shark tooth necklace (yes, these are all, in my opinion, stereotypically lesbian apparel!), I didn’t feel like I fit the mold. The longer I thought about it, the worse I felt, so I buried my feelings deep inside.
Now I am 25, and I have been out since I was 22. Three years ago, I never could have imagined that I’d be working for a queer news publication and celebrating Lesbian Visibility Week, an annual event meant to honor and uplift lesbian perspectives and highlight the hardships our community faces. To me, LVW is so important because, frankly, it has been an absolute shit show getting here, to a place where I feel love and joy most days.
I think back to the frustration of constantly being asked, “Do you have a boyfriend?” Of watching princess movies and seeing a broken girl only find herself when her prince charming arrives. I remember listening to music that was always about heterosexual relationships. I remember feeling left out in high school when, one by one, my friends got boyfriends.
I tried the boyfriend, and I tried really hard for it to work at a large detriment to my wellbeing. I brainwashed myself into thinking I was probably bisexual, which I told my closest friends around 16 and unsuccessfully told my parents at the same age. I was probably subconsciously using this as a litmus test of their acceptance and to soothe the anxiety I felt around my sexuality.
Learning to love who I am did not only come from me unraveling my internalized lesbophobia and dissecting the oppressive societal messages of heteronormativity. It came from meeting an awesome community of lesbians and queers. I found people who understood my worldview and who showed me the ropes. I no longer had to stutter over concepts like lesbian loneliness or my frustration with misogynistic straight men.
They all just got it.
Without this community, I am not sure if I could be as warm and confident in myself as I am today.
And while I still experience homophobia, like being spat on while walking with an ex in downtown Toronto or having a stranger yell in my face “Are you fucking lesbians?” in Kensington Market, the joy and love still outweighs the nasty.
So, as the sentimental dyke that I have become, I decided to ask a set of lesbians in my orbit — including my friends as well as Uncloseted staffers, board members and followers — if they would share a little bit about what makes them love being a lesbian. And now, I can share it with all of you. Here they are. Happy LVW!
Timi Sotire
Falling in love with her was a reset. I felt like a kid again, hopeful about the future. We’ve had to overcome many obstacles to be together, but I’d choose her in every lifetime. I was sick with a long-term health condition when we met, and hanging out with Sophia really helped me with my recovery after my surgery.
Bella Sayegh
Being a lesbian is one of the most beautiful things in the world. To be authentically yourself in resistance and joy is so special within the lesbian community.
Parker Wales
When I met Liv, I finally understood why almost every song is about love.
Gillian Kilgour
There is no connection quite as perfect as between lesbians, no one sees me like my lesbians do.
Chyna Price
There’s many things I love about being a lesbian. But here are my top three:
- There’s just a deeper understanding when it comes to being loved by another woman.
- The next one would be the sense of community, especially being a POC masculine-presenting lesbian. I don’t feel like I’m cosplaying as someone else like I felt like I was doing before I came out.
- There’s so much history going back to the 1800s on how we found and fought for our love. That fight makes me proud because it shows me … that we’ve [found] ways to express our love even when it was misunderstood, illegal and deemed as madness.
Hope Pisoni
Before I knew I was a lesbian, romantic relationships seemed suffocating — it felt like everyone would expect me to act my part in the meticulous performance that is heterosexuality. But meeting my spouse and discovering our identities together showed me just how freeing it could be to love without a script to follow.
Leital Molad
It was the joy of watching the New York Sirens defeat the Toronto Sceptres at our first professional women’s hockey game — surrounded by hundreds (maybe thousands?) of cheering lesbians.
Angela Earl
I spent years building a life that looked right. But I never felt settled, and eventually I started asking what would actually make me happy. Coming out was about more than who I love, it was letting go of everything I was told to be. The last few years have felt like coming home to a life that had been waiting for me.
Tali Bray
What I love about being a lesbian is what I love about being in love … the wonder and joy of “oh, this is what it’s supposed to feel like.” I love moving through the world with women.
Izzy Stokes
I didn’t fall in love until I realized that queerness was an option. My queer friends have helped me see so much more than I grew up seeing. I’m so proud of us, and I’m so grateful for my lesbian community.
Nandika Chatterjee
When I met my fiancée is when I started to feel most like myself. That meant loving myself for who I am and embracing my identity as a lesbian. I felt free in a way I have never before. That’s the long and short of it.
Liz Lucking
The love and joy of being a lesbian is getting to live the life I dreamed of but never thought I would get to have!
Reflections
As I read these beautiful entries, it’s not lost on me that we’re still living in a world where lesbians are more likely to struggle with maternity problems, fetishization, and compulsory heterosexuality — not to mention the intersectional pressures of racism from both inside and outside the queer community. That’s part of why, according to a 2024 survey, 22 percent of LGBTQ women have attempted suicide, and 66 percent have sought treatment for trauma.
So if you are a lesbian who isn’t out or doesn’t feel safe, I hope you read this and can glean some hope from these messages. So when you look in the mirror, you know that it’s okay to release the weight — which can feel so heavy — of a heteronormative world.
We still have a long fight until all lesbians can feel safe to be themselves, but this is a community that does not back away from the tough, from the joy, from being loud and from all the other things that it takes to start a small revolution.
Hell yeah, lesbians! Here’s to you.
*I am signing off with my cat on my lap and a pride flag over my head <3.
Cuba
Trans parent charged with kidnapping, allegedly fled to Cuba with child
Cuban authorities helped locate Rose Inessa-Ethington
Federal authorities have charged a transgender woman with kidnapping after she allegedly fled to Cuba with her 10-year-old child.
An affidavit that Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Jennifer Waterfield filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Utah on April 16 notes the child is a “biological male who identifies as a female” and “splits time living with divorced parents who share custody” in Cache County, Utah.
Waterfield notes the child on March 28 “was supposed to be traveling by car to” Calgary, Alberta, “for a planned camping trip with his transgender mother, Rose Inessa-Ethington, Rose’s partner, Blue Inessa-Ethington, and Blue’s 3-year-old child.”
The affidavit notes the group instead flew from Vancouver, British Columbia, to Mexico City on March 29. Waterfield writes the Inessa-Ethingtons and the two children then flew from Mérida, Mexico, to Havana on April 1.
The 10-year-old child called her biological mother on March 28 after they arrived in Canada. The custody agreement, according to the affidavit, required Rose Inessa-Ethington to return the child to her former spouse on April 3.
“Interviews of MV [Minor Victim] 1’s family members provided significant concerns for MV 1’s well-being, as MV 1 was born a male, however, identifies as a female child, which is largely believed to be due to manipulation by Rose Inessa-Ethington,” reads the affidavit. “Concerns exist that MV 1 was transported to Cuba for gender reassignment surgery prior to puberty.”
The affidavit indicates authorities found a note in the Inessa-Ethingtons’ home with “instruction from a mental health therapist located in Washington, D.C., including instruction to send the therapist the $10,000.00 and instructions on gender-affirming medical care for children.”
The affidavit does not identify the specific “mental health therapist” in D.C.
A Utah judge on April 13 ordered Rose Inessa-Ethington to “immediately” return the child to her former spouse. The former spouse also received sole custody.
“Your affiant believes that due to the extensive planning and preparation exhibited by both Rose Inessa-Ethington and Blue Inessa-Ethington to isolate MV 1 and take MV 1 to Havana, Cuba, without notifying or requesting permission from MV 1’s mother indicates they are likely not planning to return to the United States,” wrote Waterfield.
The affidavit notes Cuban authorities found the Inessa-Ethingtons and the child.
A press release the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Utah issued notes the Inessa-Ethingtons “were deported from Cuba” on Monday “with the assistance of the FBI.”
The couple has been charged with International Parental Kidnapping. The Inessa-Ethingtons were arraigned in Richmond, Va., on Monday. The press release notes a federal court in Salt Lake City will soon handle the case.
The New York Times reported the child is now back with their biological mother.
“We are grateful to law enforcement for working swiftly to return the child to the biological mother,” said First Assistant U.S. Attorney Melissa Holyoak of the District of Utah in the press release.
The case is unfolding against the backdrop of increased tensions between Washington and Havana after U.S. forces on Jan. 3 seized now former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.
President Donald Trump shortly after he took office in January 2025 issued an executive order that directed the federal government to only recognize two genders: male and female. A second White House directive banned federally-funded gender-affirming care for anyone under 19.
The U.S. Supreme Court last year in the Skrmetti decision upheld a Tennessee law that bans gender-affirming care for minors.
Cuba’s national health care system has offered free sex-reassignment surgeries since 2008.
Activists who are critical of Mariela Castro, the daughter of former President Raúl Castro who spearheads LGBTQ issues as director of Cuba’s National Center for Sexual Education, have previously told the Washington Blade that access to these procedures is limited. The Blade on Wednesday asked a contact in Havana to clarify whether Cuban law currently allows minors to undergo sex-reassignment surgery.
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