News
LGBT advocates from Kyrgyzstan visit D.C.
Anti-gay propaganda bill remains before lawmakers
Two LGBT rights advocates from Kyrgyzstan traveled to D.C. and New York last week. (Photo by torbakhopper; courtesy Flickr)
Aizhan Kadralieva of Labrys Kyrgyzstan and Ruslan Kim of Kyrgyz Indigo met with Special U.S. Envoy for the Human Rights of LGBTI Persons Randy Berry at the State Department. The advocates also sat down with Rhode Island Congressman David Cicilline, Arcus Foundation Executive Director Kevin Jennings and representatives of the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Kadralieva and Kim met with U.N. officials in New York before they traveled to the nation’s capital on Feb. 24.
The advocates returned to Kyrgyzstan on Sunday.
U.S. ‘good example’ of equality and tolerance
The advocates’ trip coincides with mounting concern over a bill that would ban the promotion of so-called gay propaganda.
The measure has passed twice in the Kyrgyz Parliament. Lawmakers must approve it a third time before it goes to President Almazbek Atambayev for his signature.
“I’m hopeful that he will veto this,” Kim told the Washington Blade on Feb. 25 during an interview at Human Rights First’s offices in Northwest Washington.
Cicilline and U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) are among the members of Congress who have urged Kyrgyz lawmakers to vote against the propaganda bill. The Kyrgyz Ministry of Justice, the European Parliament and the U.N. Office for the High Commissioner for Human Rights have also indicated their opposition to the measure.
Secretary of State John Kerry last fall did not publicly discuss the bill during his trip to Kyrgyzstan.
“He was really careful,” Kim told the Blade.
Kadralieva made a similar point, noting the U.S. government supports LGBT-specific efforts and human rights in general in Kyrgyzstan.
“The U.S. is a really good example of nondiscrimination and equality and tolerance,” she told the Blade.
Advocates face discrimination, violence
Kyrgyzstan borders Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and China. The Central Asian country declared its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
Kadralieva and Kim told the Blade that nationalists and conservative religious and societal attitudes are among the challenges they and other LGBT advocates face.
Molotov cocktails were thrown into Labrys Kyrgyzstan’s office in Bishkek, the Kyrgyz capital, last year.
Kadralieva told the Blade that a group of nationalists a few weeks later attacked an International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia event that was taking place at a local cafe. She said the police officers who responded placed the victims in the same room as those who attacked them.
Kadralieva said they were inside the police station for seven hours. Kim told the blade that the officers were “having tea and nice conversation with the homophobes.”
“They were drinking tea at the same time our activists were sitting scared somewhere without access to water,” he said.
Kim told the Blade that he was attacked when he tried to help another advocate. He said the police officers who responded described Kyrgyz Indigo as a “fag organization” and pressured him to report the activist as a “pedophile.”
“I said I would never do this,” said Kim.
Kim and Kadralieva throughout the interview highlighted other examples of anti-LGBT violence and discrimination.
One such case involves a gay man who hanged himself after his parents found out he had a boyfriend and pressured him to marry a woman. Kim said the parents blamed their son’s boyfriend for his death and attacked him with a knife.
“We helped that guy,” he told the Blade. “Right now he’s in a safe place and he’s still alive.”
Kim said the family of an activist blamed him for the fire that damaged their apartment. Kyrgyz Indigo was able to find housing for the advocate through the summer.
“After this he will be on the street because of his activities,” said Kim.
Secretary of State John Kerry speaks with Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambaev in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, on Oct. 31, 2015. (Photo courtesy of the State Department)
District of Columbia
Mayor Bowser signs bill requiring insurers to cover PrEP
‘This is a win in the fight against HIV/AIDS’
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser on March 20 signed a bill approved by the D.C. Council that requires health insurance companies to cover the costs of HIV prevention or PrEP drugs for D.C. residents at risk for HIV infection.
Like all legislation approved by the Council and signed by the mayor, the bill, called the PrEP D.C. Amendment Act, was sent to Capitol Hill for a required 30-day congressional review period before it takes effect as D.C. law.
Gay D.C. Council member Zachary Parker (D-Ward 5) last year introduced the bill.
Insurance coverage for PrEP drugs has been provided through coverage standards included in the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare. But AIDS advocacy organizations have called on states and D.C. to pass their own legislation requiring insurance coverage of PrEP as a safeguard in case federal policies are weakened or removed by the Trump administration, which has already reduced federal funding for HIV/AIDS-related programs.
Like legislation passed by other states, the PrEP D.C. Amendment Act requires insurers to cover all PrEP drugs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Studies have shown that PrEP drugs, which can be taken as pills or by injection just twice a year, are highly effective in preventing HIV infection.
“I think this is a win for our community,” Parker said after the D.C. Council voted unanimously to approve the bill on its first vote on the measure in February. “And this is a win in the fight against HIV/AIDS.”
Vice President JD Vance and his wife, second lady Usha Vance, will visit Hungary next week.
An announcement the White House released on Thursday said the Vances will be in Budapest, the Hungarian capital, from April 7-8.
JD Vance “will hold bilateral meetings with” Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. The announcement further indicates the vice president “will also deliver remarks on the rich partnership between the United States and Hungary.”
The Vances will travel to Hungary less than a week before the country’s parliamentary elections take place on April 12.
Orbán, who has been in office since 2010, and his Fidesz-KDNP coalition government have faced widespread criticism over its anti-LGBTQ crackdown.
The Associated Press notes polls indicate Orbán is trailing Péter Magyar and his center-right Tisza party.
President Donald Trump removed Attorney General Pam Bondi from her post Thursday, following growing criticism over how she and the Department of Justice handled a range of issues, including matters related to sex offender and Trump ally Jeffrey Epstein.
Trump announced Bondi’s removal on Truth Social, where he also said Todd Blanche will serve as acting head of the Justice Department.
“Pam Bondi is a great American patriot and a loyal friend, who faithfully served as my attorney general over the past year,” Trump wrote on the platform. “Pam did a tremendous job overseeing a massive crackdown on crime across our country, with murders plummeting to their lowest level since 1900.”
Trump was seen as recently as Wednesday with the now-former attorney general at a Supreme Court hearing on citizenship.
The decision contrasts with Trump’s previous public praise of Bondi, the 87th U.S. attorney general and former 37th attorney general of Florida, who served in that role from 2011-2019 before joining the Trump-Vance administration. He has frequently lauded her loyalty and said he speaks with her often. Bondi was also one of president’s defense lawyers during his first impeachment trial.
Privately, however, Trump had grown frustrated that Bondi was not “moving quickly enough” to prosecute critics and political adversaries he wanted to face criminal charges, according to multiple sources. The New York Times reported that her inability to charge former FBI Director James B. Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James with any crimes is a large factor in the president’s choice to fire her from the government’s primary law enforcement agency.
The move comes as Trump has sought to minimize public turmoil within his administration, avoiding the perception of a revolving-door Cabinet that defined his first term.
Lee Zeldin, a former Republican congressman from New York who unsuccessfully ran for governor, has emerged as a leading contender to lead the Justice Department. He has been one of Trump’s most reliable allies.
“He’s our secret weapon,” Trump said of Zeldin in February during a White House event promoting the coal industry, adding, “He’s getting those approvals done in record-setting time.”
Bondi has also growing faced scrutiny from Congress.
The House Oversight Committee recently subpoenaed her to testify about the department’s handling of certain files, where she declined to answer key questions during a contentious House Judiciary Committee hearing in February.
The Tampa native has a long history of opposing LGBTQ rights through her roles in government. As Florida attorney general, she fought against the legalization of same-sex marriage, arguing it would cause “serious public harm,” pushing forward a legal battle that cost taxpayers nearly half a million dollars. She also asked the Florida Supreme Court to overturn a lower court ruling that found the state’s same-sex marriage ban unconstitutional.
More recently, Bondi established a “Title IX Special Investigations Team” within the Justice Department focused on restricting transgender women and girls from participating in women’s and girls’ sports teams and accessing facilities aligned with their gender identity. She also told Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia to turn over the medical records of anyone under 19 who received gender-affirming care.
Her removal follows Trump’s decision last month to oust another controversial female Cabinet figure, Kristi Noem.
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