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.
National
Long-time DignityUSA executive director announces retirement
Marianne Duddy-Burke has been with LGBTQ Catholic group for decades
The executive director of the world’s oldest LGBTQ Catholic organization has announced she will retire once her successor has been chosen.
Marianne Duddy-Burke has been with DignityUSA for more than four decades. She has been the group’s executive director since 2007.
DignityUSA announced Duddy-Burke’s retirement on Sept. 17.
Duddy-Burke during her tenure has urged the Vatican to do more to welcome LGBTQ Catholics. She has also, among other things, championed marriage equality and advised the State Department on LGBTQ-specific issues. (The Trump-Vance administration’s decision to freeze nearly all U.S. foreign aid shortly after it took office in January 2025 has had a devastating impact on the global LGBTQ and intersex rights movement and efforts to fight HIV/AIDS around the world. A report that Outright International released earlier this month notes 90 percent of LGBTQ and intersex rights groups around the world have lost funding since 2025.)
Duddy-Burke met with Pope Francis in 2023.
She traveled to Rome in 2025 for the papal conclave to choose the Argentine-born pope’s successor. Pope Leo XIV, who was born in Chicago, succeeded Francis.
DignityUSA in the press release that announced Duddy-Burke’s retirement notes she expressed “particular appreciation to people who spoke honestly about the reality of being a queer Catholic or family member.”
“I have been inspired every day by your stories and have done my best to lift them up,” said Duddy-Burke. “It is your lives, your faith, your struggles, your hopes that I have strived to reflect in my work, and doing this has been a great honor.”
DignityUSA President Meli Barber praised Duddy-Burke.
“It is almost impossible to sum up the scope and depth of Marianne’s achievements and contributions to DignityUSA over her more than four decades of service,” said Barber. “Under her wisdom and leadership, DignityUSA has only grown in stature as an advocate for LGBTQIA+ Catholics and as a visionary thought leader for LGBTQIA+ ministry and spirituality.
“Marianne has been more than an extremely able executive director,” added Barber. “Her care for and ministry to chapters, her deep personal relationships with countless Dignity members, her connections to LGBTQIA+ Catholics around the world, the relationships she has built with other progressive Catholic organizations, her skill as a public representative, the respect with which she is universally regarded, and her tireless devotion to service all leave an indelible mark. It is not an exaggeration to say that she has shaped not only Dignity but a generation of LGBTQIA+ Catholics.”
Barber said DignityUSA will “soon begin a search for a new executive director.” Barber added Duddy-Burke “will assist with the transition.”
District of Columbia
Over 2,000 turn out for Hands Around the Kennedy Center protest
Drag performer Tara Hoot serves as MC, Gay Men’s Chorus of DC performs, attendees shout for Trump to keep ‘hands off’ Kennedy Center
More than 2,000 supporters of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts turned out on Sept. 18, for a rally in support of the performing arts center and a vocal protest against President Donald Trump’s threats to permanently close the center and possibly demolish it.
The event was organized by a group called Hands Off the Arts, which initially called for participants to form a “human chain” around the Kennedy Center’s main building following a rally on the plaza in front of the building.
However, due to a decision by the Trump-controlled Kennedy Center’s board of trustees to close the center earlier in the week and install fencing around part of the building, participants could only form the chain around part of the building, according to organizers.
Drag performer Tara Hoot, who co-organized the event and served as master of ceremonies for the rally preceding the “human chain,” said the large turnout could have fully surrounded the building at least twice had the fencing not prevented a full encirclement.
Among the musicians and singing groups that performed at the rally was the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, which, like other rally performers, had performed at the Kennedy Center in past years. They drew loud applause after singing one of their favorite songs from the Broadway musical show Ragtime, which includes the lyrics, “Will justice be demanded by 10 million men? Make them hear you. When they hear you, I’ll be near you again.”
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Prior to their performance, Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington’s artistic director, Thea Kano, spoke at the rally, reminding participants that shortly after the Trump takeover of the center last year, Kennedy Center officials cancelled a concert the chorus was scheduled to perform there for World Pride 2025.
A Kennedy Center spokesperson said the cancellation was due to a scheduling conflict, but chorus members and LGBTQ activists believe it resulted from policies put in place by Trump and his leadership team at the Kennedy Center following Trump’s statements that he would end controversial “woke” performances that he claimed the majority of Americans disapprove of.
“Now this building sits empty in silence,” Kano told the crowd at the rally. “Let us raise our voices together and bring back the Kennedy Center as it was intended, a place where American culture could be celebrated and elevated, embracing the vibrancy with the spectrum of identify without censure and without politics,” she said.
Among the others who spoke at the rally were U.S. Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.), U.S. Rep. Jonathan Jackson (D-Ill.), and D.C. Councilmember Robert White (D-At-Large).
Most speakers, along with LGBTQ participants in the hands-around-the-building event expressed strong opposition to Trump’s demand that the Kennedy Center name be changed from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to the Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
At Trump’s request, his appointed board initially made that name change and placed Trump’s name on the front wall of the building along with the Kennedy name. But following legal action taken by opponents who pointed out that Congress must approve such a name change, a judge ordered the removal of Trump’s name from the building. Trump has said he will take steps to reverse that order and has said he will stop plans to renovate the Kennedy Center building and possibly demolish it if his name is not restored in the Kennedy’s Center’s official name.
Throughout the Sept. 18 rally, LGBTQ participants repeatedly responded to the Trump threats by shouting, “Hands Off!”
Chris Raleigh, one of the founders of Hands Off the Arts and a lead organizer of the Sept. 18 event at the Kennedy Center who spoke at the event told the Washington Blade that more similar events are being planned and he welcomes the support the event has received from the LGBTQ community.
“The LGBTQ community was here first, and we’re following them,” he said. “They’ve been the spearhead; they’ve been the vanguard. And I’m so thankful for heroes like Tara Hoot,” he said, adding, “It’s because they know what it means and how this is a safe place – the theater – for many LGBTQ people.”
The DMV’s own furry group was on full display on the Metro on Sept. 12.
Shutterpaws is a volunteer-led 501(c)(3) non-profit organization located in Maryland.
The furry group has been doing the FurRide event since 2024 and has blown up in popularity for furries around DMV. They showcased themselves on the Silver and Blue Lines near the Smithsonian on Sept. 12.
“A lot of careful planning goes into running these events, with the goal being a seamless and enjoyable experience for everyone who attends,” says Zayre, a Shutterpaws staff member. “There’s a lot that you learn just by trial and error, and as Shutterpaws hosts more and more events, our team of event organizers continues to learn and refine our approach to keep things running smoothly and finding new ways to engage with our community.”
With a larger growth of participation in the community comes many challenges with the group, especially when it comes to the Metro rides and organizing.
“The biggest challenge that we face as organizers is keeping things fresh and finding new and engaging venues to host events,” says Zayre. “Recently we saw a lot of success hosting a meet at On Target Battlezone, an indoor NERF gun battle arena where our crew was welcome to show up and play both with and without a fur suit.”
Nevertheless, Shutterpaws receive overwhelming support from the community and partners.
“Across the DMV there are so many amazing places to host a Shutterpaws event so we can pursue our mission of helping connect fur suiters and photographers, and we’re blown away with the amount of support we’ve received from our community partners,” says Zayre.
Shutterpaws plans to do more events for anyone in the DMV who is interested.
Their next event in collaboration with DC Fur Meet will take place at Pitchers (2317 18th St., N.W.) on Saturday. Visit Shutterpaws’ website for more information.
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