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Ros-Lehtinen meets LGBT activists from Russia, former Soviet republics

Florida Republican sat down with three advocates on Wednesday

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Taras Karasiichuk, Gay Alliance Ukraine, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Republican Party, Florida, United States House of Representatives, Ana Rekhviashvili, Georgia, Identoba, gay rights, gay news, Washington Blade, Russia, Vladimir Putin
Taras Karasiichuk, Gay Alliance Ukraine, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Republican Party, Florida, United States House of Representatives, Ana Rekhviashvili, Georgia, Identoba, gay rights, gay news, Washington Blade, Russia, Vladimir Putin, Igor Kochetkov, Sphere

Florida Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (left) meets with LGBT rights advocates from Russia, Ukraine and Georgia in D.C. on Sept. 18. (Photo courtesy of Alex Cruz)

Florida Congresswoman and pro-LGBT Republican Ileana Ros-Lehtinen on Wednesday met with gay rights advocates from Russia, Ukraine and Georgia.

Igor Kochetkov of the Russian LGBT rights group Sphere, Gay Alliance Ukraine Director Taras Karasiichuk and Anna Rekhviashvili of the Georgian advocacy organization Identoba met with the lawmaker in the Rayburn Room of the U.S. Capitol. The three activists, who traveled to the United States for the first time, were in D.C. to take part in an LGBT civil and human rights training sponsored by the State Department’s International Visitor Leadership Program.

“During my meetings with these brave LGBT activists, I impressed upon them my firm belief that they must continue their work for equal rights and that I have supported them every step of the way,” Ros-Lehtinen told the Washington Blade on Friday.

Kochetkov was one of the LGBT advocates who met with President Obama earlier this month during the G-20 summit in St. Petersburg. The activist told the Blade he was pleased the meeting took place, but claimed Obama said he couldn’t make human rights a priority in U.S.-Russia relations.

Kochetkov said he disagreed with that sentiment.

Countries’ LGBT rights records sparks concern

Ros-Lehtinen’s meeting with the three activists comes against the backdrop of ongoing concern and outrage over anti-LGBT discrimination and persecution Russia, Georgia and Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin in June signed a bill into law that bans gay propaganda to minors. A second statute that prohibits same-sex couples and anyone else from a country in which same-sex couples are allowed to marry from adopting Russian children took effect in July.

The aforementioned laws and growing outrage over the Kremlin’s ongoing LGBT crackdown threatens to overshadow the 2014 Winter Olympics that will take place in Sochi, Russia, in February.

Thousands of people in May attacked a few dozen Georgian LGBT rights advocates who tried to stage a rally in Tbilisi the country’s capital, to commemorate the annual International Day Against Homophobia. Identoba Executive Director Irakli Vacharadze told the Washington Blade before the IDAHO march that violence against gays and lesbians in the former Soviet republic remains a serious concern.

Russian police on May 25 arrested 30 LGBT rights advocates who tried to stage a Pride celebration outside Moscow City Hall.

Dozens of advocates on the same day held Ukraine’s first gay rights rally in the country’s capital, Kiev, in spite of an earlier court ruling that banned it. U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine John Tefft is among those who supported the march.

“It’s increasingly difficult for LGBT individuals in Russia, Georgia and Ukraine to live openly and authentically due to the repressive governments that continue to advance policies that are hostile and discriminatory,” Ros-Lehtinen told the Blade. “These folks just want to live normal lives with their loved ones, but the governments of these nations are either physically harassing them or intimidating them through the legislative process. Responsible nations should condemn these actions and relate to these governments that equality should be for all their citizens and that these human rights abuses will not be tolerated.”

Ros-Lehtinen’s meeting with Kochetkov, Karasiichuk and Rekhviashvili also took place less than two months after she met with Cuban LGBT rights advocates Wendy Iriepa Díaz and Ignacio Estrada Cepero in her Capitol Hill office. The Cuban-born Republican who supports marriage rights for same-sex couples also co-sponsored a bill that Wisconsin Congressman Mark Pocan and U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.) introduced on Thursday that would ensure gay federal employees would have access to employee benefits for their same-sex partners even if they are not legally married.

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PHOTOS: Helen Hayes Awards

Gay Men’s Chorus, local drag artists have featured performance at ceremony

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Members of the Gay Men's Chorus of Washington as well as local drag artists joined hosts Mike Millan and Felicia Curry with other performers for a WorldPride dance number at the Helen Hayes Awards on Monday. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

The 41st Helen Hayes Awards were held at The Anthem on Monday, May 19. Felicia Curry and Mike Millan served as the hosts.

A performance featuring members of the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington and local drag artists was held at the end of the first act of the program to celebrate WorldPride 2025.

The annual awards ceremony honors achievement in D.C.-area theater productions and is produced by Theatre Washington.

(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)

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District of Columbia

Laverne Cox, Reneé Rapp, Deacon Maccubbin named WorldPride grand marshals

Three LGBTQ icons to lead parade

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Deacon Maccubbin attends the 2024 Capital Pride Parade. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

WorldPride organizers announced Thursday that actress and trans activist Laverne Cox, powerhouse performer Reneé Rapp, and LGBTQ trailblazer Deacon Maccubbin will serve as grand marshals for this year’s WorldPride parade.

The Capital Pride Alliance, which is organizing WorldPride 2025 in Washington, D.C., revealed the honorees in a press release, noting that each has made a unique contribution to the fabric of the LGBTQ community.

Laverne Cox (Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)

Cox made history in 2014 as the first openly transgender person nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award in an acting category for her role in Netflix’s “Orange Is the New Black.” She went on to win a Daytime Emmy in 2015 for her documentary “Laverne Cox Presents: The T Word,” which followed seven young trans people as they navigated coming out.

Rapp, a singer and actress who identifies as a lesbian, rose to prominence as Regina George in the Broadway musical “Mean Girls.” She reprised the role in the 2024 film adaptation and also stars in Max’s “The Sex Lives of College Girls,” portraying a character coming to terms with her sexuality. Rapp has released an EP, “Everything to Everyone,” and an album, “Snow Angel.” She announced her sophomore album, “Bite Me,” on May 21 and is slated to perform at the WorldPride Music Festival at the RFK Festival Grounds.

Deacon Maccubbin, widely regarded as a cornerstone of Washington’s LGBTQ+ history, helped organize D.C.’s first Gay Pride Party in 1975. The event took place outside Lambda Rising, one of the first LGBTQ bookstores in the nation, which Maccubbin founded. For his decades of advocacy and activism, he is often referred to as “the patriarch of D.C. Pride.”

“I am so honored to serve as one of the grand marshals for WorldPride this year. This has been one of the most difficult times in recent history for queer and trans people globally,” Cox said. “But in the face of all the rhetorical, legislative and physical attacks, we continue to have the courage to embrace who we truly are, to celebrate our beauty, resilience and bravery as a community. We refuse to allow fear to keep us from ourselves and each other. We remain out loud and proud.”

“Pride is everything. It is protection, it is visibility, it is intersectional. But most importantly, it is a celebration of existence and protest,” Rapp said.

The three will march down 14th Street for the WorldPride Parade in Washington on June 7.

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Congress

House passes reconciliation with gender-affirming care funding ban

‘Big Beautiful Bill’ now heads to the Senate

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U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) (Washington Blade photo by Michael. Key)

The Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday voted 215-214 for passage of the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” reconciliation package, which includes provisions that would prohibit the use of federal funds to support gender-affirming care.

But for an 11th hour revision of the bill late Wednesday night by conservative lawmakers, Medicaid and CHIP would have been restricted only from covering treatments and interventions administered to patients younger than 18.

The legislation would also drop requirements that some health insurers must cover gender-affirming care as an “essential health benefit” and force states that currently mandate such coverage to find it independently. Plans could still offer coverage for transgender care but without the EHB classification patients will likely pay higher out of pocket costs.

To offset the cost of extending tax cuts from 2017 that disproportionately benefited the wealthiest Americans, the reconciliation bill contains significant cuts to spending for federal programs like Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

The Human Rights Campaign criticized House Republicans in a press release and statement by the group’s president, Kelley Robinson:

“People in this country want policies and solutions that make life better and expand access to the American Dream. Instead, anti-equality lawmakers voted to give  handouts to billionaires built on the backs of hardworking people — with devastating consequences for the LGBTQ+ community.

“If the cuts to programs like Medicaid and SNAP or resources like Planned Parenthood clinics weren’t devastating enough, House Republicans added a last minute provision that expands its attacks on access to best practice health care to transgender adults.

“This cruel addition shows their priorities have never been about lowering costs or expanding health care access–but in targeting people simply for who they are. These lawmakers have abandoned their constituents, and as they head back to their districts, know this: they will hear from us.”

Senate Republicans are expected to pass the bill with the budget reconciliation process, which would allow them to bypass the filibuster and clear the spending package with a simple majority vote.

Changes are expected as the bill will be reviewed and amended by committees, particularly the Finance Committee, and then brought to the floor for debate — though modifications are expected to focus on Medicaid reductions and debate over state and local tax deductions.

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