News
IOC president: Olympic values oppose discrimination
Thomas Bach made comments before lighting of Olympic torch in Greece
Members of All Out and Athlete Ally on August 7 presented a petition with more than 300,000 signatures to the International Olympic Committee that urges it to pressure Russia to end its gay crackdown. (Photo courtesy of All Out)
“The flame lit today by the Greek sun takes on this responsibility for a peaceful celebration here and now; the torches will carry it into the Olympic future,” Bach said in a speech he delivered before the lighting of the Olympic flame in Ancient Olympia, Greece. “Thus the Olympic Torch Relay will be a messenger for the Olympic values of excellence, friendship and respect without any form of discrimination.”
Russian National Olympic Committee President Vitaly Smirnov, 2014 Winter Olympics Organizing Committee CEO Dmitry Chernyshenko and Sochi Mayor Anatoly Pakhomov are among those who attended the ceremony. The torch will travel across Russia before it arrives in Sochi for the start of the games on February 7.
“The Olympic message sees the global diversity of cultures, societies and life choices as a source of enrichment,” Bach said. “It accuses no one and it excludes no one. But it does require us all to defend and uphold the Olympic values in all the sports competitions; among all those taking part and at all the Olympic venues.”
“Only then can we use our positive message of tolerance and respect through fair play in sport to set an example for the harmonious development of humanity,” he added.
Bach’s comments come against the backdrop of growing outrage over Russia’s LGBT rights record that threatens to overshadow the Sochi games.
Actor and playwright Harvey Fierstein is among those who have called for a boycott of the Olympics. Author Dan Savage, Cleve Jones and other LGBT rights advocates have called for a boycott of Russian vodka.
Members of Queer Nation NY on September 23 interrupted the Metropolitan Opera’s opening night gala to protest Russian President Vladimir Putin and his government’s LGBT rights record that includes a law that bans gay propaganda to minors. They also targeted soprano Anna Netrebko and conductor Valery Gergiev for supporting Putin.
LGBT rights advocates in the U.S. and around the world last week expressed outrage over IOC Coordination Commission Chair Jean-Claude Killy’s comments over Russia’s gay propaganda law.
The Associated Press initially reported that Killy said during a Sochi press conference the IOC is “fully satisfied” the statute does not violate the Olympic Charter. An IOC spokesperson later told the Washington Blade that Killy said “as long as the Olympic Charter is respected, we are satisfied.”
“That is clearly not expressing any view on the law itself,” the Olympic body said. “Mr. Killy made it abundantly clear that the IOC never comments on national legislation.”
The Human Rights Campaign and COC Nederland, a Dutch LGBT advocacy group, are among the organizations that blasted Killy and the IOC.
Spanish IOC member Juan Antonio Samaranch Salisachs last week acknowledged during an interview with the news agency EFE that he shares LGBT advocates’ concerns over Russia’s gay propaganda law. He stressed, however, the Olympic body does not comment on any specific statute in a host country.
“The Olympic Charter is against any type of discrimination, and this includes without a doubt sexual orientation,” Samaranch told EFE. “I understand and share how the gay community may be concerned, but it is too harsh to ask us as the IOC to try and modify the laws of a country.”
Maryland
Steny Hoyer, the longest-serving House Democrat, to retire from Congress
Md. congressman served for years in party leadership
By ASSOCIATED PRESS and LISA MASCARO | Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the longest-serving Democrat in Congress and once a rival to become House speaker, will announce Thursday he is set to retire at the end of his term.
Hoyer, who served for years in party leadership and helped steer Democrats through some of their most significant legislative victories, is set to deliver a House floor speech about his decision, according to a person familiar with the situation and granted anonymity to discuss it.
“Tune in,” Hoyer said on social media. He confirmed his retirement plans in an interview with the Washington Post.
The rest of this article can be found on the Baltimore Banner’s website.
Colombia
Colombians protest against Trump after he threatened country’s president
Tens of thousands protested the US president in Bogotá
BOGOTÁ, Colombia — Tens of thousands of people on Wednesday gathered in the Colombian capital to protest against President Donald Trump after he threatened Colombian President Gustavo Petro.
The protesters who gathered in Plaza Bolívar in Bogotá held signs that read, among other things, “Yankees go home” and “Petro is not alone.” Petro is among those who spoke.
The Bogotá protest took place four days after American forces seized now former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, at their home in Caracas, the Venezuelan capital, during an overnight operation.
The Venezuelan National Assembly on Sunday swore in Delcy Rodríguez, who was Maduro’s vice president, as the country’s acting president. Maduro and Flores on Monday pleaded not guilty to federal drug charges in New York.
Trump on Sunday suggested the U.S. will target Petro, a former Bogotá mayor and senator who was once a member of the M-19 guerrilla movement that disbanded in the 1990s. Claudia López, a former senator who would become the country’s first female and first lesbian president if she wins Colombia’s presidential election that will take place later this year, is among those who criticized Trump’s comments.
The Bogotá protest is among hundreds against Trump that took place across Colombia on Wednesday.
Petro on Wednesday night said he and Trump spoke on the phone. Trump in a Truth Social post confirmed he and his Colombian counterpart had spoken.
“It was a great honor to speak with the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, who called to explain the situation of drugs and other disagreements that we have had,” wrote Trump. “I appreciated his call and tone, and look forward to meeting him in the near future. Arrangements are being made between Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the foreign minister of Colombia. The meeting will take place in the White House in Washington, D.C.”
District of Columbia
Kennedy Center renaming triggers backlash
Artists who cancel shows threatened; calls for funding boycott grow
Efforts to rename the Kennedy Center to add President Trump’s name to the D.C. arts institution continue to spark backlash.
A new petition from Qommittee , a national network of drag artists and allies led by survivors of hate crimes, calls on Kennedy Center donors to suspend funding to the center until “artistic independence is restored, and to redirect support to banned or censored artists.”
“While Trump won’t back down, the donors who contribute nearly $100 million annually to the Kennedy Center can afford to take a stand,” the petition reads. “Money talks. When donors fund censorship, they don’t just harm one institution – they tell marginalized communities their stories don’t deserve to be told.”
The petition can be found here.
Meanwhile, a decision by several prominent musicians and jazz performers to cancel their shows at the recently renamed Trump-Kennedy Center in D.C. planned for Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve has drawn the ire of the Center’s president, Richard Grenell.
Grenell, a gay supporter of President Donald Trump who served as U.S. ambassador to Germany during Trump’s first term as president, was named Kennedy Center president last year by its board of directors that had been appointed by Trump.
Last month the board voted to change the official name of the center from the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center For The Performing Arts to the Donald J. Trump And The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center For The Performing Arts. The revised name has been installed on the outside wall of the center’s building but is not official because any name change would require congressional action.
According to a report by the New York Times, Grenell informed jazz musician Chuck Redd, who cancelled a 2025 Christmas Eve concert that he has hosted at the Kennedy Center for nearly 20 years in response to the name change, that Grenell planned to arrange for the center to file a lawsuit against him for the cancellation.
“Your decision to withdraw at the last moment — explicitly in response to the Center’s recent renaming, which honors President Trump’s extraordinary efforts to save this national treasure — is classic intolerance and very costly to a non-profit arts institution,” the Times quoted Grenell as saying in a letter to Redd.
“This is your official notice that we will seek $1 million in damages from you for this political stunt,” the Times quoted Grenell’s letter as saying.
A spokesperson for the Trump-Kennedy Center did not immediately respond to an inquiry from the Washington Blade asking if the center still planned to file that lawsuit and whether it planned to file suits against some of the other musicians who recently cancelled their performances following the name change.
In a follow-up story published on Dec. 29, the New York Times reported that a prominent jazz ensemble and a New York dance company had canceled performances scheduled to take place on New Year’s Eve at the Kennedy Center.
The Times reported the jazz ensemble called The Cookers did not give a reason for the cancellation in a statement it released, but its drummer, Billy Hart, told the Times the center’s name change “evidently” played a role in the decision to cancel the performance.
Grenell released a statement on Dec. 29 calling these and other performers who cancelled their shows “far left political activists” who he said had been booked by the Kennedy Center’s previous leadership.
“Boycotting the arts to show you support the arts is a form of derangement syndrome,” the Times quoted him as saying in his statement.
Steny Hoyer, the longest-serving House Democrat, to retire from Congress
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‘Hedda’ brings queer visibility to Golden Globes
Colombians protest against Trump after he threatened country’s president
Kennedy Center renaming triggers backlash
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