News
Dutch activist recalls arrest under anti-gay Russian law
Claims police used anti-gay slurs, accused him of spying
Kris van der Veen (Photo courtesy of Kris van der Veen)
One of the four Dutch LGBT rights advocates whom Russian authorities arrested in July told the Washington Blade he feels they wanted to use them as an example of what could happen to anyone who challenges the country’s gay propaganda to minors ban.
“They thought that we came there to make the Russian law or Russian authorities [look] ridiculous,” Kris van der Veen said during an interview from his home in the Dutch city of Groningen on Sept. 27. “It was not the case, but they think we were doing that.”
Van der Veen, 33, and three other Dutch LGBT rights advocates traveled to Murmansk to film a documentary about LGBT life in Russia. They interviewed members of Coming Out and the Russian LGBT Network and organizers of an LGBT film festival in St. Petersburg before they arrived in the city.
Groningen and Murmansk have been sister cities for nearly 25 years, and the coordinator of the program helped van der Veen and his colleagues secure a cultural visa that he said allowed them “start a dialogue about any subject with” the city’s residents. Van der Veen said it also permitted him and his fellow advocates to discuss homosexuality while in Russia because “it’s not specified.”
The trip also coincided with a year-long series of events that commemorated the 400th anniversary of friendship between Russia and the Netherlands.
“I thought, well I will go there, I will ask them about their lives and if the anti-gay law has any effect on their lives,” van der Veen told the Blade. “So that’s what I did.”
Van der Veen said he and a group of up to 20 others that included his fellow activists and their crew arrived at a summer camp in Murmansk on July 20.
He said he discussed Dutch LGBT advocacy efforts during a lecture he gave on human rights. Van der Veen said he also filmed some of the other seminars on the same topic – and interviewed a Russian teenager and her girlfriend.
Van der Veen said authorities detained him and his colleagues on July 21 as they tried to leave the camp and return to Murmansk to get footage of the city.
“I walked into this hallway and then when I turned the corner I saw about 15 police officers — men, women in uniforms, without uniforms — coming towards me,” he recalled. “They were also spreading into other hallways and rooms.”
Van der Veen said the officers told him in Russian that he had to return to the room “where the rest of the people were.” He said the Russian activists who had organized the human rights lectures “stood up for us” and began to speak with the authorities. In spite of these efforts, Van der Veen said immigration officials requested to see his and his colleagues’ passports and told them to go with them into another room.
Van der Veen told the Blade they interrogated him and the three other Dutch LGBT rights advocates for three hours. They subsequently received a fine of 3,000 rubles or roughly $93.
“We thought, OK we get a fine, it’s now over,” Van der Veen said. “Then they said there are also police officers [who] want to talk to you.”
He said uniformed police officers and others whom he described as KGB agents questioned them for another five hours. Van der Veen categorized one of the officials as “very provocative.”
“The first thing he said was, this is a police hat. You can wear it and I can take a picture of you,” he said, noting the officer was standing less than a foot in front of him. “I couldn’t say no, but I had to say no because I think otherwise I would make fun of the Russian authorities if I would take the hat and put it on my head. He also said I can take a picture of you.”
Van der Veen said the authorities referred to him as a spy and used unspecified anti-gay slurs against him while in custody. He told the Blade they said the teenager whom he interviewed for his documentary was a minor.
“She was already a part of the LGBT community in Murmansk,” van der Veen said. “They were already out of the closet… so I wasn’t doing any propaganda towards minors.”
Van der Veen said authorities also asked him whether he told people to “become gay because it’s good to be gay.”
“I was laughing because I thought it was a ridiculous question,” he said.
Van der Veen said the authorities released him and his fellow advocates at 11 p.m. on July 21 — eight hours after they initially detained them. He told the Blade they ordered them to go to court the next morning, even though they did not obtain a warrant to arrest them.
Van der Veen said he and his colleagues thought they could leave the city and return to the Netherlands after 5 p.m. on July 22 because a judge had yet to hear their case. He said Russian police officers who had called him 20 times told them they had to go to a Murmansk hotel and explain the contents of the hard drive that had been taken from them at the summer camp the previous day.
Van der Veen told the Blade the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs told him and his colleagues to leave the country as soon as possible. The six police officers whom he said met them at the airport told them to go to “a certain address in Murmansk” the next day.
“They wanted to keep us there, but we didn’t sign anything because the consulate said we have rights, we have the right to talk to a lawyer and to have a translator in our own language,” van der Veen said. “We pressed and pressed on that. It was very scary because of the look in their eyes… there’s no dialogue.”
Van der Veen said the Dutch consulate in St. Petersburg received a letter upon his return to the Netherlands that he and his colleagues could not return to Russia for three years. He added police spoke with the Murmansk-based coordinator of the sister city program with Groningen on several occasions.
Van der Veen described these visits as “very provocative.”
“Police officers were very angry that we came there,” he said. “They were telling us on Sunday [July 21] that our government should tell us about Russian laws and about the anti-gay laws and that we can’t do this like we were 7-year-olds.”
The Murmansk incident coincided with mounting outrage over the gay propaganda law that President Vladimir Putin signed less than a month before van der Veen and his colleagues traveled to the city.
The Dutch LGBT advocacy group COC Nederland, President Obama and retired tennis champion Martina Navratilova are among those who have publicly criticized the Kremlin over the statute and its overall gay rights record. Others, including actor and playwright Harvey Fierstein, have called for a boycott of the 2014 Winter Olympics that will take place in Sochi, Russia, in February.
Van der Veen told the Blade he does not support a boycott of the Sochi games.
“If there’s an opportunity to go [to Russia] I think we should go there, use our influence, our contacts to give a global stage to the topic of equal rights and also LGBT people in Russia,” he said.
He said he plans to finish the documentary by the end of November.
Dutch LGBT rights advocate Kris van der Veen in Murmansk, Russia, in July. (Photo courtesy of Kris van der Veen)
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.
Turkey
Activists protest outside Turkish Embassy in D.C.
Dozens detained during anti-LGBTQ ‘My Family Is Safe’ campaign raids
A group of activists on Friday gathered in front of the Turkish Embassy in D.C. to protest the country’s anti-LGBTQ crackdown.
The protest — which the Council for Global Equality, Amnesty International USA, Outright International, and Health GAP organized — took place less than a week after Turkish authorities detained dozens of people during raids that targeted the country’s LGBTQ community and advocacy groups and HIV/AIDS service organizations.
Authorities in Istanbul on Sept. 15 detained more than 150 people who gathered outside a courthouse to protest the raids that are part of the government’s “My Family Is Safe” campaign. Journalists are among those who were taken into custody.
“This crackdown is not making families safer,” said Amnesty International USA Executive Director Nadia Daar, speaking in front of the Turkish Embassy.
Council for Global Equality Managing Director Keifer Buckingham stressed that “homosexuality is not a crime in Turkey.” Health GAP Executive Director Asia Russell and Outright International Senior Director of Law, Policy, and Research Neela Ghoshal also spoke.
View on Threads
Activists in Madrid and in other cities around the world held similar protests on Friday.
Delaware
Republican challenger misgenders McBride during forum, forced to leave
Jewish Federation of Delaware hosted event on Thursday
Republican “Dr. Joe” Arminio, the Republican nominee for the First State’s at-large U.S. House of Representatives seat, attempted to misgender the the country’s first and only transgender member of Congress while at a forum on Thursday.
This story was first broken by WDEL out of Wilmington, Del.
Arminio used the terms “his” and later “gentleman” when referring to U.S. Rep. Sarah McBride (D-Del.) during his time on the mic before he was asked to leave the forum, hosted by the Jewish Federation of Delaware at the Siegel Jewish Community Center in Talleyville on Thursday night.
At that point, the crowd of about 100 people largely started booing Arminio, who then finished, “I would like to show respect to the speaker, that would be nice.”
The first time Republican US House candidate “Dr. Joe” Arminio referred to Rep. Sarah McBride (D) as a man during Thursday’s debate at the Siegel Jewish Community Center in Talleyville. He was warned for his comment. #netde https://t.co/j4EaMOL84W
— Sean Greene (@SeanGreeneWDEL) September 18, 2026
Moderator Ken Grant waited until Arminio was finished, then said, “this is your final warning, if you fail to show respect to anyone else on this stage, you’ll be asked to leave.”
During the answer to his next question at the forum, Arminio responded to what he called an “error.”
“I committed an error before, and I do acknowledge it,” Arminio said. “It’s not the first error I’ve made in this campaign, or at any point in my future life.”
Despite the apology and acknowledgement that he had committed what was, at the very least, a social taboo, he did it again 12 minutes later.
While talking about rising healthcare costs being a “catastrophe,” Arminio pointed to U.S. Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) and McBride.
“The reason it is is because gentlemen like the two up here with me in the Democratic Party, and the Republican Party … ” Arminio said.
Despite his direct attacks on McBride’s gender identity, she responded to the situation with grace, attempting to intervene to allow Arminio to still have a chance to speak despite not heeding the moderator’s warnings.
“I don’t want this gentleman to not have the ability … ,” McBride began.
However, Republican Senate candidate Michael Katz interrupted her shortly before Arminio was removed from the forum, which was meant to inform the Delaware electorate on the candidates’ issues.
Katz had his opening statement next and directly condemned Arminio’s comments.
“I would like to apologize to everybody here and everybody else on this stage. As a physician, I believe in our common humanity and respect for each other. I feel that pain over those comments, and my apologies.”
Following the forum, Katz called for Arminio to exit the race via social media.
“Those who seek to represent Delaware must demonstrate integrity, judgment, decency, and respect — even toward people with whom they profoundly disagree,” Katz’s post read on Facebook. “For these reasons, I am calling on Joseph Arminio to withdraw his candidacy for the United States House of Representatives.”
This is not the first time McBride has been the victim of misgendering.
In 2025, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Rep. Keith Self (R-Texas) introduced the sole representative from Delaware as “Mr. McBride” during a meeting.
This is also not the first time McBride has faced vitriol from the other side of the aisle — both in terms of personal and legislative attacks on her trans identity.
In 2025, the House voted to ban trans girls and women from playing school sports with other girls, while U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) pushed for legislation barring trans women from using women’s bathrooms.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) instituted a similar rule barring McBride — and all other trans women — from women’s restrooms on Capitol Hill.
McBride has also been a vocal opponent of Executive Order 14168, “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” signed by President Donald Trump on his first day in office. The directive prohibits the federal government from recognizing the gender identity of trans people.
She has criticized Executive Order 14183, “Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness,” which would ban trans service members from serving in the Armed Forces. The directive is still being challenged in the courts to determine its constitutional legitimacy, but it has been allowed to remain in effect as the judicial system considers its legality.
The Washington Blade sat down with McBride in May to reflect on a tense year for LGBTQ politics, where she, in typical McBride fashion, answered questions about the hate she has received.
“Our politics are too often defined by hate,” McBride told the Blade. “I’m glad Delaware and Delawareans are showing that a different kind of politics is possible.”
Furries take over the Metro
A roundup of fall events not to be missed
Activists protest outside Turkish Embassy in D.C.
Republican challenger misgenders McBride during forum, forced to leave
Queer mega stars coming to D.C. this fall
Dolly Parton biography puts her hardships into context
PHOTOS: SMYAL Fall Brunch
Fashion icon Bob Mackie dead at 87
Dozens detained after Turkish authorities raid LGBTQ groups, businesses
