More than a dozen LGBTQ athletes won medals at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics that ended on Sunday.

Cayla Barnes, Hilary Knight, and Alex Carpenter are LGBTQ members of the U.S. women’s hockey team that won a gold medal after they defeated Canada in overtime. Knight the day before the Feb. 19 match proposed to her girlfriend, Brittany Bowe, an Olympic speed skater.

French ice dancer Guillaume Cizeron, who is gay, and his partner Laurence Fournier Beaudry won gold. American alpine skier Breezy Johnson, who is bisexual, won gold in the women’s downhill. Amber Glenn, who identifies as bisexual and pansexual, was part of the American figure skating team that won gold in the team event.

Swiss freestyle skier Mathilde Gremaud, who is in a relationship with Vali Höll, an Austrian mountain biker, won gold in women’s freeski slopestyle.

Bruce Mouat, who is the captain of the British curling team that won a silver medal, is gay. Six members of the Canadian women’s hockey team — Emily Clark, Erin Ambrose, Emerance Maschmeyer, Brianne Jenner, Laura Stacey, and Marie-Philip Poulin — that won silver are LGBTQ.

Swedish freestyle skier Sandra Naeslund, who is a lesbian, won a bronze medal in ski cross.

Belgian speed skater Tineke den Dulk, who is bisexual, was part of her country’s mixed 2000-meter relay that won bronze. Canadian ice dancer Paul Poirier, who is gay, and his partner, Piper Gilles, won bronze.

Laura Zimmermann, who is queer, is a member of the Swiss women’s hockey team that won bronze when they defeated Sweden.

Outsports.com notes all of the LGBTQ Olympians who competed at the games and who medaled.

Rob Jetten on Monday became the Netherland’s first openly gay prime minister.

Jetten’s centrist D66 party won the country’s elections last October, narrowly defeating Geert Wilders’ far-right Party for Freedom.

King Willem-Alexander on Monday swore in Jetten, who is also the country’s youngest-ever prime minister. The Associated Press notes Jetten’s coalition government includes the center-right Christian Democrats and the center-right People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy.

“Proud to be able to do this together,” said Jetten in an X post before Willem-Alexander swore him in.

COC Nederland, a Dutch LGBTQ advocacy group, in a statement said Jetten “becoming prime minister shows that your sexual orientation doesn’t have to matter.”

“You can become a construction worker, a doctor, a lawyer, and even prime minister,” said COC Nederland.

The advocacy group noted Jetten has said his government will implement its “Rainbow Agreement” that include calls for strengthening nondiscrimination laws “to better protect transgender and intersex people,” appointing more “discrimination investigators … to address violence against LGBTQ+ people and other minorities,” and introducing measures “to promote acceptance in schools.”

“COC will hold the Cabinet to that promise,” said COC Nederland.

Jetten’s fiancé is Nicolás Keenen, an Argentine field hockey player who competed in the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.

Jetten is one of two openly gay heads of government: Andorran Prime Minister Xavier Espot Zamora came out in 2023. Gay Latvian President Edgars Rinkēvičs, who is the country’s head of state, took office in 2023.

Leo Varadkar, who was Ireland’s prime minister from 2017-2020 and from 2022-2024, and Xavier Bettel, who was Luxembourg’s prime minister from 2013-2023, are gay. Ana Brnabić, who was Serbia’s prime minister from 2017-2024, is a lesbian.

Former Icelandic Prime Minister Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir in 2009 became the world’s first openly lesbian head of government. Former Belgian Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo, former San Marino Captain Regent Paolo Rondelli, and former French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal are also openly gay.

Colombian presidential candidate Claudia López, who is the former mayor of Bogotá, the Colombian capital, would become her country’s first female and first lesbian president if she wins the country’s presidential election that is taking place later this year.

The U.S. Embassy in Mexico on Sunday urged Americans in the resort city of Puerto Vallarta to shelter in place after Mexican authorities killed a powerful cartel leader.

The Washington Post reported Mexican soldiers on Sunday killed Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, the head of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel known as “El Mencho,” in Tapalpa, a town south of Guadalajara, the capital of Mexico’s Jalisco state.

Puerto Vallarta is in Jalisco, but is roughly five hours away from Tapalpa.

Local media reports indicate cartel members in response to Oseguera’s killing have set fire to cars and buses in Puerto Vallarta and elsewhere in Jalisco and in other cities across Mexico. The U.S. Embassy’s shelter in place directive also includes Baja California and Quintana Roo states and parts of Guanajuato, Guerrero, Michoacán, Oaxaca, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas states.

The Mexican border cities of Tijuana and Tecate are in Baja California. The resort cities of Cancún, Playa del Carmen, Tulum, and Cozumel are located in Quintana Roo in the Yucatán Peninsula.

Security Alert – Update: Ongoing Security Operations – U.S. Mission Mexico (February 22, 2026)

Locations: Widespread, including Jalisco State (including Puerto Vallarta, Chapala, and Guadalajara), Baja California State (including Tijuana, Tecate, and Ensenada), Quintana Roo… pic.twitter.com/vwxfOSF6iJ

— Embajada de EE.UU. en México (@USEmbassyMEX) February 22, 2026

“While no airports have been closed, roadblocks have impacted airline operations, with some domestic and international flights cancelled in both Guadalajara and Puerto Vallarta,” reads the advisory. “All taxis and ride shares are suspended in Puerto Vallarta. Some businesses have suspended operations.”

Mantamar Beach Club in Puerto Vallarta’s Zona Romántica, an area in which several gay bars, hotels, and nightclubs are located, is among the businesses that closed on Sunday.

“Due to circumstances beyond our control and road blockages currently affecting the city of Puerto Vallarta, Mantamar Beach Club will remain closed today,” said Mantamar Beach Club on its Facebook page. “This decision has been made in order to prioritize the safety and mobility of our guests, staff, and visitors.”

Giovanni Rocco, a member of the Capital Pride Alliance board of directors, and his partner were in their Airbnb near Zona Romántica at around 10:30 a.m. local time (11:30 a.m. ET) when a friend texted them and asked if they were “okay.” They went up to the roof of their building and saw “fires all across the city.”

“The day’s been pretty wild,” Rocco told the Washington Blade during a FaceTime interview that took place shortly after 7 p.m. local time (8 p.m. ET.) “[We] did not expect to wake up to fires and explosions and gunfire across the city.”

Rocco said he and his partner saw fires from cars that had been set ablaze from their building. Rocco said at one point he saw one of the “big pharmacies here that was set on fire,” but he was uncertain whether someone deliberately set it on fire or whether a car in flames did.

Here’s a look at Puerto Vallarta today. We woke up to find smoke rising from different parts of Zona Romántica. As the afternoon went on, we started to hear more explosions and gunfire. About an hour and a half ago, a Navy helicopter circled the area for a few minutes. pic.twitter.com/T9vwlzdnq3

— Giovanni Rocco (@GRoccooo) February 23, 2026

“We’ve been in our building the entire day — entire in our unit or up on the rooftop to check things out, but we’ve been following that local and State Department guidance and sheltering in place,” Rocco told the Blade.

He said it was “a beautiful week, wonderful weather, sunny. It’s been in the 70s all week. It’s just perfect weather.” Rocco told the Blade that he and his partner on Saturday had dinner on the beach before they went to a couple of bars.

“Everything was fine and normal and great,” he said. “To wake up to this reality, it (definitely) shook (us) up a bit.”

Rocco and his partner are scheduled to fly back to D.C. on Monday.