News
IOC president responds to LGBT group’s campaign
All Out criticizes Olympic body over letter to executive director
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)
International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach on Monday told the head of an LGBT advocacy group that his organization “will do everything it can to ensure” the 2014 Winter Olympics and any future games “will be free of any form of discrimination.”
Bach made the comments in a letter to All Out Executive Director Andre Banks in response to the organization’s campaign asking the IOC to clarify whether the Olympic Charter explicitly opposes discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity and expression.
Bach said during his speech before the lighting of the Olympic flame in Greece on September 29 that Olympic values include “respect without any form of discrimination.” He referenced his remarks in the letter he sent to Banks.
“Our task at the IOC is to ensure that the charter is fully applied at the Olympic games and is fully accepted at all venues for all participants from athletes and officials to media and spectators,” Bach wrote.
Bach told Banks the IOC last week once again received “assurances” from the Kremlin that “this will be the case” during the Sochi games “and clearly, this is what the IOC demands and expects.” The letter also said the IOC received “written confirmation” from Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak on the issue.
“Russia has committed itself to comply strictly with the provision of the Olympic Charter and its fundamental principles, according to item 6 of which any form of discrimination with regard to a country or a person on grounds of race, religion, politics, gender or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic movement,” Kozak said as Bach noted in his letter to Banks.
Bach’s latest comments come against the backdrop of growing outrage over Russia’s LGBT rights record and calls to boycott the Sochi games over it.
All Out and Athlete Ally in August presented IOC officials a petition with more than 300,000 signatures that urged the Russian government to protect the rights of their LGBT citizens. It also called upon the Olympic body to support activists within Russia who continue to urge the Kremlin to stop its anti-LGBT crackdown ahead of the Sochi games.
The IOC has repeatedly said the Russian government has assured it the gay propaganda to minors ban that President Vladimir Putin signed in June will not affect athletes and others who plan to travel to the Olympics. These assurances come even though officials have said the statute will apply to those who attend the games in February.
Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin, U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) and the Dutch LGBT advocacy group COC Nederland are among those who have expressed concern over the safety of gay athletes who will compete in Sochi and others who will travel to the games. President Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry, retired tennis champion Martina Navratilova and U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) have also publicly criticized Putin over his government’s LGBT rights record.
Bach told Banks in his letter the IOC’s “remit does not extend to the internal affairs of sovereign nations, no matter how we may feel about them.”
“We are not a supra-national Parliament or government and we must leave such deliberations to the competent authorities,” Bach wrote. “The IOC cannot hope to influence national legislation outside the scope of the games and has to respect the law of each host country.”
Bach further reiterated the Associated Press misquoted IOC Coordination Commission Chair Jean-Claude Killy when it reported he said during a Sochi press conference last month that the Olympic body is “fully satisfied” Russia’s gay propaganda law does not violate the Olympic charter.
“What we do know is that the games, the Olympic athletes and, above all, the Olympic Village can be a powerful symbol that sets an example for peaceful co-existence and mutual respect,” Bach wrote. “This is what we are striving for at each edition of the games.”
Banks said Bach’s letter did not go far enough to address his organization’s request.
“Bach should encourage Olympians in Sochi to speak out against discrimination faced by gay athletes and citizens in Russia, because that’s what the Olympic charter says is right,” Banks said in a statement his group released after he received Koch’s letter. “But the IOC is bending its own rules to obscure the obvious conflict with unjust Russian laws, which seek to silence discussion of gay people.”
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.
District of Columbia
New interim D.C. police chief played lead role in security for WorldPride
Capital Pride says Jeffery Carroll had ‘good working relationship’ with organizers
Jeffery Carroll, who was named by D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser on Dec. 17 as the city’s Interim Chief of Police, played a lead role in working with local LGBTQ community leaders in addressing public safety issues related to WorldPride 2025, which took place in D.C. last May and June
“We had a good working relationship with him, and he did his job in relation to how best the events would go around safety and security,” said Ryan Bos, executive director of Capital Pride Alliance.
Bos said Carroll has met with Capital Pride officials in past years to address security issues related to the city’s annual Capital Pride parade and festival and has been supportive of those events.
At the time Bowser named him Interim Chief, Carroll had been serving since 2023 as Executive Assistant Chief of Specialized Operations, overseeing the day-to-day operation of four of the department’s bureaus. He first joined the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department in 2002 and advanced to multiple leadership positions across various divisions and bureaus, according to a statement released by the mayor’s office.
“I know Chief Carroll is the right person to build on the momentum of the past two years so that we can continue driving down crime across the city,” Bowser said in a statement released on the day she announced his appointment as Interim Chief.
“He has led through some of our city’s most significant public safety challenges of the past decade, he is familiar with D.C. residents and well respected and trusted by members of the Metropolitan Police Department as well as our federal and regional public safety partners,” Bowser said.
“We have the best police department in the nation, and I am confident that Chief Carroll will meet this moment for the department and the city,” Bowser added.
But Bowser has so far declined to say if she plans to nominate Carroll to become the permanent police chief, which requires the approval of the D.C. City Council. Bowser, who announced she is not running for re-election, will remain in office as mayor until January 2027.
Carroll is replacing outgoing Chief Pamela Smith, who announced she was resigning after two years of service as chief to spend more time with her family. She has been credited with overseeing the department at a time when violent crime and homicides declined to an eight-year low.
She has also expressed support for the LGBTQ community and joined LGBTQ officers in marching in the WorldPride parade last year.
But Smith has also come under criticism by members of Congress, who have accused the department of manipulating crime data allegedly showing lower reported crime numbers than actually occurred. The allegations came from the Republican-controlled U.S. House Oversight Committee and the U.S. Justice Department
Bowser has questioned the accuracy of the allegations and said she has asked the city’s Inspector General to look into the allegations.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the D.C. police Office of Public Affairs did not immediately respond to a question from the Washington Blade about the status of the department’s LGBT Liaison Unit. Sources familiar with the department have said a decline in the number of officers currently working at the department, said to be at a 50-year low, has resulted in a decline in the number of officers assigned to all of the liaison units, including the LGBT unit.
Among other things, the LGBT Liaison Unit has played a role in helping to investigate hate crimes targeting the LGBTQ community. As of early Wednesday an MPD spokesperson did not respond to a question by the Blade asking how many officers are currently assigned to the LGBT Liaison Unit.
Colombians protest against Trump after he threatened country’s president
Kennedy Center renaming triggers backlash
New interim D.C. police chief played lead role in security for WorldPride
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Gay Venezuelan man who fled to Colombia uncertain about homeland’s future
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