News
LGBT sports groups oppose Olympics boycott
Organizations urge U.S., media to highlight Russia’s gay rights record


Protesters gathered outside of the Russian embassy in Northwest D.C. on July 31. (Washington Blade photo by Damien Salas)
The LGBT Sports Coalition – which includes the National Center for Lesbian Rights, Athlete Ally, Outsports.com, the Federation of Gay Games and former George Washington University basketball player Kye Allums – said in a statement they “stand united against the new onslaught of anti-gay laws adopted by Russia” that include a statute that bans so-called gay propaganda to minors. The group also urged the International Olympic Committee, the Russian government and officials of countries that will send athletes to Sochi to “guarantee the safety of every Olympic attendee before, during and long after” the games.
The LGBT Sports Coalition called upon the Obama administration and particularly Secretary of State John Kerry to “create a plan with other LGBT-friendly nations” to ensure Russia and the more than 70 other countries with anti-gay laws that include the criminalization of homosexuality to repeal them. It urged corporations that do business in Russia to pressure President Vladimir Putin to repeal the statutes.
The LGBT Sports Coalition also said NBC and other media outlets have an obligation to discuss Russia’s anti-gay laws during their coverage of the Sochi games.
The group further recommends that U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Rosemary DiCarlo should petition the United Nations to consider sanctions against Russia and other country that criminalize homosexuality.
“Inviting participation is the spirit of the Olympic games,” the LGBT Sports Coalition said. “It is incumbent upon all of these people to ensure that all LGBT Olympians are able to compete openly, proudly and without any negative repercussion.”
The LGBT Sports Coalition released its statement less than a day after Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko told the Russian sports website R-Support that athletes and others who travel to Sochi will be subject to the country’s anti-gay propaganda law. His comments come in spite of the International Olympic Committee’s assurances it said it received from “the highest level” of the Russian government that authorities would exempt foreigners from the statute while in the country for the games.
Those charged under the anti-gay propaganda law that Putin signed in late June will face a fine of between 4,000 and 5,000 rubles ($124-$155.) Government officials would face a fine of between 40,000 and 50,000 rubles ($1,241-$1,551.)
Organizations will face a fine of up to 1 million rubles ($31,000) or suspension of their activities for up to 90 days, while foreigners will face up to 15 days in jail and deportation.
Putin last month signed a second law that bans foreign same-sex couples and those from countries that allow gays and lesbians to marry from adopting Russian children.
LGBT rights groups are among those that face fines under a 2012 law that requires non-governmental organizations that receive funding from outside Russia to register as a “foreign agent.”
LGBT activists remain divided over boycott calls
Actor and playwright Harvey Fierstein, author Dan Savage and activist Cleve Jones are among the growing number of LGBT rights advocates who have called for a boycott of the Sochi games and Russian vodka.
State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki on July 26 said the U.S. opposes any effort to boycott the Olympics.
Gay Olympic diver Greg Louganis, who was unable to compete in the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow because then-President Jimmy Carter boycotted them over the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan the year before, told Frank Bruni of the New York Times on July 28 that athletes should have the opportunity to compete in the Sochi games. Retired tennis champion Martina Navratilova; Russian LGBT rights advocate Nikolai Alekseev and gay New Zealand speed skater Blake Skejellerup, who plans to wear a rainbow pin during the Olympics, are among those who also oppose a boycott.
“It’s more effective to get in people’s faces and prove them wrong rather than run away,” Navratilova told the Washington Blade during an interview in June after the Russian lawmakers approved the gay propaganda ban in a unanimous vote. “To me a boycott kind of runs away from the problem.”
Cyd Zeigler, Jr., co-founder of Outsports.com, referred to Louganis’ inability to compete in the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow as he discussed his opposition to a boycott of the Sochi games with the Blade earlier this summer.
“The Olympics are supposed to be apolitical,” he said. “To start playing politics by removing an opportunity for these athletes to participate — something they’ve been working for all their lives would be a disgrace.”
Delaware
Flight attendants union endorses Sarah McBride
Del. lawmaker would be first transgender member of Congress

Delaware congressional candidate Sarah McBride has earned the support of the Association of Flight Attendants, the nation’s most prominent flight attendant union.
It’s the second big labor endorsement for McBride after the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 27’s endorsement. The Association of Flight Attendants praised her for spearheading efforts to bring paid family and medical leave to Delaware, which will take effect in 2026.
“Sarah’s record in the Delaware Senate shows that she understands how to work collaboratively, build power and make big things happen,” the union’s president, Sara Nelson, wrote in a press release shared exclusively with the Washington Blade. “That’s the kind of leader we need in Congress, and we’re proud to endorse her candidacy.”
McBride also announced her support for creating a list of abusive passengers and banning them from flying. Each airline has a list of passengers banned from flying, but airlines don’t share the lists with each other, though Delta Air Lines has asked them, because of “legal and operational challenges,” as a representative for the airline industry trade group Airlines of America told a House committee in September 2021.
“Right now, someone can be violent towards a flight attendant or another passenger and walk directly off of that flight and onto one with a different airline to endanger more people,” an Association of Flight Attendants spokesperson wrote in a statement.
The Protection from Abusive Passengers Act would put the Transportation Security Administration in charge of building the database of passengers fined or convicted of abuse and has bipartisan support but has sat idly in committee since March. It failed to pass last year, and civil rights groups including the American Civil Liberties Union have charged that the list would disproportionately target people of color and strip and a better step to reducing hostility would be making flights more comfortable. Reports of defiant and unruly passengers have more than doubled between 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic, and 2022.
“I thank the Association of Flight Attendants for endorsing our campaign,” McBride wrote in the press release. “It’s important that we recognize and celebrate the symbiotic relationship between strong, unionized workforces and the continued growth of employers here in our state.”
The union representing 50,000 flight attendants across 19 airlines is putting pressure on airlines to grant union demands in contract negotiations. At American Airlines, unionized flight attendants voted to authorize a strike — putting pressure on the airline to accede to its demands. Flight attendants at Alaska Airlines say they are ready to strike but have not voted to authorize one yet. United Airlines flight attendants picketed at 19 airports around the country in August, ratcheting up the pressure.
The union’s endorsement adds to a growing list of McBride endorsements, including 21 Delaware legislators, the United Food and Commercial Workers, the Human Rights Campaign, EMILY’s List, and Delaware Stonewall PAC. McBride, who would be the first openly transgender politician in Congress, has powerful connections in Washington — including with the White House — and is favored to win Delaware’s lone House seat.
A poll commissioned by HRC shows her leading the pack of three candidates vying for the seat — 44 percent of “likely Democratic voters” told pollster company Change Research, which works with liberal organizations. The poll of 531 likely Delaware Democratic primary voters, though, was conducted only online — meaning those with less familiarity or access to the internet may not have been counted — and Change Research’s methodology for screening likely voters is unclear. The company also did not provide a breakdown of respondents by age, gender, and race, but says it uses an algorithm to make the results representative.
Nelson said McBride’s time in Delaware’s state Senate shows her prowess in building power and working collaboratively.
“That’s the kind of leader we need in Congress, and we’re proud to endorse her candidacy,” she wrote.
The White House
Biden, Harris, deliver remarks for White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention
Pulse survivor Brandon Wolf among those who spoke

President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) addressed an audience from the Rose Garden of the White House on Friday to honor the establishment of a first-ever White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention.
In a press release Thursday announcing the move, the administration said its aim is to implement and expand the provisions of last year’s Bipartisan Safer Communities Act along with those contained in the president’s executive orders targeting issues of gun violence.
Additionally, Biden explained in his remarks, the office will coordinate more support for survivors, families and communities, including mental health services and financial aid; identify new avenues for executive action; and “expand our coalition of partners in states and cities across America” given the need for legislative solutions on the local and state level.
Harris, who will oversee the office, pledged to “use the full power of the federal government to strengthen the coalition of survivors and advocates and students and teachers and elected leaders to save lives and fight for the right of all people to be safe from fear and to be able to live a life where they understand that they are supported in that desire and that right.”
The vice president noted her close experiences with the devastating consequences of gun violence in her work as a federal prosecutor, San Francisco district attorney, California attorney general and in her current role.
Biden’s comments also included highlights of his administration’s accomplishments combatting gun violence and a call to action for Congress to do more. “It’s time again to ban assault weapons and high capacity magazines,” he told lawmakers.
The president also credited the the work of advocates including those who were gathered at the White House on Friday: “all of you here today, all across the country, survivors, families, advocates — especially young people who demand our nation do better to protect all; who protested, organized, voted, and ran for office, and, yes, marched for their lives.”
Taking the stage before introducing Biden, Frost noted that “Right before I was elected to Congress, I served as the national organizing director for March for Our Lives, a movement that inspired young people across the nation to demand safe communities.”
“The president understands that this issue especially for young people, especially for marginalized communities, is a matter of survival,” the congressman said. And the formation of this office, “comes from Pulse to Parkland,” he said, adding, “we fight because we love.”
Human Rights Campaign National Press Secretary Brandon Wolf, a survivor of the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting, which was America’s second deadliest mass shooting and the deadliest against the LGBTQ community, shared a comment with the Washington Blade after Friday’s ceremony:
“Seven years ago, when my best friends and 47 others were murdered at our safe place — Pulse Nightclub — we promised to honor them with action. This is what that looks like. This deep investment in the fight to end gun violence matters, and I cannot wait to see Vice President Harris lead these efforts. We can blaze the path toward a future free of gun violence. And today marked an important step in that direction.”
Virginia
Lawsuit seeks to force Virginia Beach schools to implement state guidelines for trans, nonbinary students
Va. Department of Education released new regulations in July

Two parents in Virginia Beach have filed a lawsuit that seeks to force the city’s school district to implement the state’s new guidelines for transgender and nonbinary students.
NBC Washington on Friday reported Cooper and Kirk, a D.C.-based law firm, filed the lawsuit in Virginia Beach Circuit Court.
The Virginia Department of Education in July announced the new guidelines for which Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin asked. Arlington County Public Schools, Fairfax County Public Schools and Prince William County Schools are among the school districts that have refused to implement them.
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