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Putin: Gays will not suffer discrimination during Olympics

Russian LGBT rights advocate dismissed comments

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Queer Nation, Vladimir Putin, Russia, Sochi, Olympics, Times Square, gay news, Washington Blade
Queer Nation, Vladimir Putin, Russia, Sochi, Olympics, Times Square, gay news, Washington Blade

Queer Nation members protest outside a U.S. Olympic Committee press conference in Times Square on Oct. 29. (Photo by Scott Wooledge)

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Oct. 28 said gays and lesbians will not suffer discrimination during the upcoming Winter Olympics in Sochi.

“On my own and on your behalf, I have assured Mr. (International Olympic Committee) President (Thomas Bach) that we will do our best, and our athletes and fans will do their best too, so that both participants and guests feel themselves comfortable at [the] Sochi Olympics regardless of their ethnicity, race or sexual orientation,” Putin said during a Sochi press conference that Bach attended, as the Associated Press reported. “I would like to underline that.” 

Putin’s comments come amid lingering outrage over Russia’s LGBT rights record that threatens to overshadow the Sochi games that will take place in February.

Putin in June signed a bill into law that bans gay propaganda to minors. A second statute that bans foreign same-sex couples and any couple from a country in which gays and lesbians can legally marry from adopting Russian children.

LGBT advocacy 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.”

“It is hard to imagine how people can be welcomed equally regardless of sexual orientation when such a law… is in place,” Russian LGBT rights advocate Anastasia Smirnova said during an Oct. 29 conference call with reporters that All Out hosted as she discussed Putin’s comments and the gay propaganda law he signed.

U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) and more than three dozen other members of Congress earlier in October asked U.S. Olympic Committee CEO Scott Blackmun to outline how he plans to ensure the safety of gay American athletes who plan to compete in the Sochi games

Author Dan Savage and playwright Harvey Fierstein are among those who have called for a boycott of the Sochi games over Russia’s LGBT rights record.

Two dozen members of Queer Nation, an LGBT advocacy group, on Tuesday protested outside a Times Square press conference at which the U.S. Olympic Committee officially launched a 100-day countdown to the Sochi games. Activists with the same organization in September interrupted the Metropolitan Opera’s opening night gala to protest Russia’s gay rights record.

“The USOC and the international community should not legitimize Russia’s violations of fundamental human rights by holding the games in that country,” Queer Nation member Duncan Osborne said.

Blackmun on Oct. 11 said Russia’s gay propaganda law is “inconsistent with the fundamental principles of the Olympics and Paraolympic movements.” The USOC Board of Directors the day before voted to add sexual orientation to its non-discrimination policy.

The IOC has repeatedly maintained it has received assurances from the Kremlin that the gay propaganda ban will not affect athletes and others who plan to travel to Sochi, even though Russian officials have previously said the statute will apply to those who go to the games. Bach in September stressed during a speech he delivered in Greece before the lighting of the Olympic flame that Olympic values include “respect without any form of discrimination.”

Bach is scheduled to meet with Russian LGBT rights activists at the IOC’s headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland, this week. Smirnova said he declined to meet with them during his most recent trip to the Olympic host city.

“It is a shame that despite the advanced notice, the president couldn’t find the time to meet with representatives of the coalition of LGBT organizations,” she said.

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World Pride 2025

D.C. liquor board extends drinking hours for WorldPride

Gay bars, other liquor-serving establishments can stay open 24 hours

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Sasha Colby performs at Pitchers in 2023. Liquor-serving establishments in D.C. will be able to remain open for 24 hours during WorldPride. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

D.C.’s Alcoholic Beverage and Cannabis Board, which regulates liquor sales for the city’s bars, restaurants, nightclubs, and other establishments licensed to serve alcoholic beverages, has approved extended hours for alcohol service and sales during the days when most WorldPride events will be held in the nation’s capital.

In a May 2 announcement, the Alcoholic Beverage and Cannabis Administration, which works with the board, said the extended liquor serving and sales hours for WorldPride will take place beginning Friday, May 30, through 4 a.m. Monday, June 9.

Although the official schedule for WorldPride events shows the events will take place May 17-June 8, most of the large events, including a two-day Pride street festival, parade, and concert, were expected to take place between May 30 and June 8.

According to the ABCA announcement and an ABCA spokesperson, liquor servicing establishments with the appropriate license can stay open for 24 hours and serve alcoholic beverages from 6 a.m. through the day and evening until 4 a.m., with no liquor sales allowed from 4 a.m. to 6 a.m. during the May 30-June 9 period.

The ABCA announcement says liquor serving establishments must apply for the extended hours option and pay a $100 registration fee by a deadline on May 27.

Sources familiar with the liquor board have said the board has for many years approved the extension of liquor serving and sales hours for important events and for certain holidays such as New Year’s Eve.

At the time it approved the extended hours for WorldPride the liquor board also approved extended hours during the time when games for a World Cup soccer tournament will be held in the city on June 18, June 22, and June 26.

It couldn’t immediately be determined how many of D.C.’s 22 LGBTQ bars plan to apply for the extended drinking hours. David Perruzza, owner of the Adams Morgan gay bar Pitchers and its adjoining lesbian bar A League of Her Own, said he will apply for the 4 a.m. extended hours option but he does not intend to keep the two bars open for the full 23 hours.

Under the city’s current alcoholic beverage regulations, licensed liquor serving establishments may serve alcoholic beverages until 2 a.m. on weekdays and 3 a.m. on weekends.

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The Vatican

Executive director of LGBTQ Catholic group to travel to Rome for conclave

Marianne Duddy-Burke met Pope Francis in 2023

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DignityUSA Executive Director Marianne Duddy-Burke, middle, greets Pope Francis in 2023. (Photo courtesy of Marianne Duddy-Burke)

The executive director of a group that represents LGBTQ Catholics will travel to Rome next week for the papal conclave that starts on May 7.

DignityUSA Executive Director Marianne Duddy-Burke on Thursday told the Washington Blade she will arrive in Rome on May 6. Duddy-Burke said she plans to spend time in St. Peter’s Square “and have conversations with people.”

“I will wear Dignity insignia, have rainbow flags,” she said.

Pope Francis died on April 21. His funeral took place five days later.

The Vatican’s tone on LGBTQ and intersex issues softened under the Argentine-born pope’s papacy, even though church teachings on homosexuality did not change.

Francis, among other things, described laws that criminalize consensual same-sex sexual relations as “unjust” and supported civil unions for gays and lesbians. Transgender people were among those who greeted Francis’s coffin at Rome’s St. Mary Major Basilica before his burial on April 26.

Duddy-Burke and two others from the Global Network of Rainbow Catholics met with Francis in October 2023 during a meeting that focused on the Catholic Church’s future. Duddy-Burke noted Francis “invited” her and her colleagues as his “special guests for the audience and then had a conversation with him afterwards.”

“For me the sort of visibility that he (Francis) brought to our community and to our concerns feels irreversible,” said Duddy-Burke. “He empowered so many people and so many new ministries.”

Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu — the archbishop of Kinshasa in Congo who has described homosexuality as an “abomination” — is among the cardinals who are reportedly in the running to succeed Francis.

“I really don’t know,” said Duddy-Burke when the Blade asked her who the next pope will be. “Of course, I am hoping and praying hard that it will be someone who will continue to lead the church on responsiveness of human need and greater inclusivity.”

“What happens in that room is such a mystery,” she added.

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World Pride 2025

Episcopal bishop to speak at WorldPride human rights conference

Trump demanded apology from Mariann Edgar Budde over post-Inauguration sermon

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The Right Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde. (Screen capture via PBS NewsHour/YouTube)

The Right Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde is among those who are scheduled to speak at the WorldPride 2025 Human Rights Conference that will take place from June 4-6.

Budde, who is the bishop of the Diocese of Washington, in January urged President Donald Trump “to have mercy” on LGBTQ people, immigrants, and others “who are scared right now” during a post-Inauguration service that he and Vice President JD Vance attended at the Washington National Cathedral. Trump criticized Budde’s comments and demanded an apology.

The Right Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde speaks at the Washington National Cathedral on Jan. 21, 2025. (PBS NewsHour clip)

A press release the Washington Blade received notes Icelandic Industries Minister Hanna Katrín Friðriksson, UK Black Pride founder Phyll Opoku-Gyimah, and Bob the Drag Queen are among those who are also expected to participate in the conference.

The conference will take place at the JW Marriott (1331 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W.) and registration is open here.

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