News
Russian journalist says domestic politics behind anti-gay crackdown
Putin trying to retain grip on power
Protesters gathered outside of the Russian Embassy on Wednesday, July 31, 2013. (Washington Blade photo by Damien Salas)
A veteran Russian journalist said the Kremlin’s LGBT rights crackdown stems from President Vladimir Putin’s efforts to maintain his grip on power.
Masha Lipman, who was previously the deputy editor of the Russian weeklies Ezhenedelny Zhurnal (“Weekly Journal” in English) and Itogi, said during a briefing at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Northwest D.C. on Nov. 15 that then-President Dmitry Medvedev’s September 2011 suggestion that Putin, who was then prime minister, succeed him sparked criticism within the country. Putin faced “direct discontent from the people” later that year over allegations of fraud during parliamentary elections.
Tens of thousands of people in Moscow, St. Petersburg and other Russian cities protested the contested vote.
“Putin realizes he needs to respond to that,” said Lipman, who edits the Pro et Contra journal the Carnegie Moscow Center publishes.
Russian voters in March 2012 elected Putin for a third term as president. Medvedev became prime minister.
Putin soon began to harass and repress his critics and propose measures that Lipman said were designed to send a message to the country that those who challenged him are “bad Russians, unpatriotic” and “immoral.” She added Putin also sought to define his critics as “undermining our traditional values.”
“He has to define what good Russians stand for because his adversaries, his enemies are modernized,” she said. “Of course good Russians are defined as conservative. It is political conservatism, but increasingly social conservatism as well.”
Lipman said the Kremlin in the middle of 2012 began to focus more on sex, faith, culture, art and school curriculum.
A law that requires groups that receive funding from outside the country to register as “foreign agents” took effect at the end of 2012.
Putin in June signed a broadly worded statute banning gay propaganda to minors that mirrors similar laws that had taken effect in St. Petersburg, Arkhangelsk and other Russian regions. A second law that prohibits same-sex couples and any couple from a country in which gays and lesbians can legally from adopting Russian children took effect in July.
“Of course the anti-gay legislation comes as a natural element because it is the epitome of social conservatism,” said Lipman.
The Duma passed the anti-gay propaganda ban unanimously, while polls indicate nearly 90 percent of Russians support the law.
“This campaign, this shift to social conservatism, has worked well for Putin consolidating a conservative majority,” said Lipman.
Russian LGBT rights advocates with whom the Washington Blade has spoken in previous months shared similar observations.
Polina Andrianova of Coming Out, a St. Petersburg-based advocacy group, said during an August interview she feels the ongoing anti-LGBT crackdown is part of a “much wider campaign” for the Kremlin to showcase its opposition to Europe and the United States.
“Gay people, non-Christian orthodox people, all of them are viewed as kind of dangerous to the traditional values of Russia,” Andrianova told the Blade. “So they’re viewed as non-Russian and [have] imported values from the West.”
Oleg Klyuenkov of the Arkhangelsk-based LGBT advocacy group Rakurs (“Perspective” in Russian) told the Blade earlier this month during his trip to D.C. that “interest groups” within the Russian government have “persuaded” Putin to sign the gay propaganda law and other measures.
“The government is simply trying to distract the public’s attention from our societal problems, our economic problems,” Kluyenkov told the Blade.
Lipman said it is not surprising that some Russian LGBT rights advocates seek to publicly downplay Putin’s role in the country’s LGBT rights crackdown.
“The gay community is very weak as is, enduring basically little or no sympathy from the Russian people,” she said. “Challenging Putin in and of itself is not a safe thing to do.”
The Kremlin’s LGBT rights record continues to overshadow final preparations for the 2014 Winter Olympics that will take place in Sochi, Russia, in February.
U.S. Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), David Cicilline (D-R.I.), Mike Michaud (D-Maine) and 46 other members of Congress concluded in a Nov. 21 letter to International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach that Russia’s LGBT rights crackdown violates the Olympic charter. The Florida Republican and more than three dozen other lawmakers last month asked U.S. Olympic Committee CEO Scott Blackmun to explain how he plans to ensure the safety of American athletes who compete in the Sochi games.
The Moscow Times reported Putin on Nov. 20 spoke out against discrimination toward “people of non-traditional sexual orientations.” He said last month during a Sochi press conference with Bach that gays and lesbians will not suffer discrimination during the games.
The IOC has repeatedly said it has received assurances from the Kremlin that gays and lesbians would be welcome to attend the Sochi games, even though Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko and other officials have said authorities plan to enforce the propaganda law. The Associated Press on Nov. 18 reported that Mutko told a Russian newspaper that lawmakers should have waited until after the Olympics to pass the controversial statute.
“When the Olympic committee asks for clarifications [on] just how this legislation will be enforced during the Olympics, the government is forced to respond,” said Lipman.
District of Columbia
Laverne Cox, Reneé Rapp, Deacon Maccubbin named WorldPride grand marshals
Three LGBTQ icons to lead parade
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.
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.
Congress
House passes reconciliation with gender-affirming care funding ban
‘Big Beautiful Bill’ now heads to the Senate
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.
2025 D.C. Trans Pride was held at Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library on Saturday, May 17. The day was filled with panel discussions, art, social events, speakers, a resource fair and the Engendered Spirit Awards. Awardees included Lyra McMillan, Pip Baitinger, Steph Niaupari and Hayden Gise. The keynote address was delivered by athlete and advocate Schuyler Bailar.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
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