Russian police on Thursday arrested a prominent British LGBTI rights advocate ahead of the opening of the 2018 World Cup in MoscowA picture the Peter Tatchell Foundation released shows Peter Tatchell holding a sign while standing near the Kremlin that highlighted the ongoing crackdown against gay men in Chechnya. Tatchell was speaking with a police officer as two reporters with microphones stood behind him.
A second picture shows a group of police officers standing around Tatchell before they put him into a police car.
Tatchell said on Twitter after his release from a Moscow police station that he has been charged with violating a Russian law and a presidential degree that “prohibit all protests near the Kremlin” during the World Cup, which began on Thursday. Tatchell said he has been ordered to appear in court on June 26.
“Glad to stand in solidarity with Russian and Chechen LGBTs,” he tweeted.
“Our staff in Moscow are assisting Peter Tatchell who was arrested, and subsequently released, in Russia earlier today,” it said. “We have spoken to the local authorities and are pleased to confirm that he is well and has now been released.”
The World Cup will take place in Russia through July 15.
The 2014 Winter Olympics took place in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi. Russia’s LGBTI rights record — including a 2013 law that bans the promotion of so-called gay propaganda to minors — overshadowed the games.
The Washington Blade will provide additional updates as they become available.
Russian police on June 14, 2018, arrested Peter Tatchell near the Kremlin as he was protesting against the country’s human rights record. The arrest coincided with the first day of the 2018 World Cup that Russia is hosting. (P
June 12 marks two years since a gunman killed 49 people inside the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla.Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer and Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs are expected to attend a ceremony at an interim memorial that opened last month at the nightclub. Equality Florida, a statewide LGBT advocacy group, and the Florida Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence on June 11 will hold a rally at Orlando City Hall in support of gun control.
Organizers of the annual Pride parade in the Puerto Rican capital of San Juan on June 3 held a moment of silence for the victims at the U.S. commonwealth’s first LGBT-specific monument that Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz formally unveiled two weeks after the massacre.
Nearly half of those who were killed inside Pulse were LGBT Puerto Ricans. The June 3 ceremony took place less than nine months after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico.
A monument to LGBT Puerto Ricans in Third Millennium Park in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Organizers of the city’s annual Pride parade on June 3, 2018, held a moment of silence for the victims of the Pulse nightclub massacre. (Washington Blade photo by Michael K. Lavers)
Christine Leinonen, whose son, Christopher “Drew” Leinonen, was killed inside Pulse alongside his partner, Juan Guerrero, does not plan to participate in any of the commemoration events. Christine Leinonen described her son as “definitely one of the good guys” when she spoke with the Blade on Tuesday.“He made life easy,” she said. “He made life easy for everyone around him.”
Axel Rodríguez, an Orlando resident who was born in Puerto Rico, was friends with Xavier Serrano Rosado, who was killed inside Pulse.
“I have not forgotten any of the 49 souls that died,” Rodríguez told the Blade on Tuesday. “I will never, ever forget my friend Xavier.”
Rodríguez said he has visited Serrano’s grave in the Puerto Rican city of Ponce. Rodríguez told the Blade he is “still not able to visit” Pulse.
Gun control ‘part of LGBTQ conversation’ in Fla.
The Associated Press reported the onePULSE Foundation, of which Pulse owner Barbara Poma is executive director, will begin its search for architects who will design a permanent memorial next month. This year’s commemorations are also taking place against the backdrop of renewed calls for gun control.
A gunman on Valentine’s Day killed 17 students and faculty at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. The Pulse nightclub massacre had been the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history until a gunman killed 58 people and injured more than 500 others when he opened fire during a country music festival in Las Vegas on Oct. 1, 2017.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott — who, along with state Attorney General Pam Bondi, faced widespread criticism in the days after the Pulse nightclub massacre when they did not specifically mention the LGBT community — after the Marjory Douglas shooting signed into a law a $400 million bill that, among other things, banned the sale of bump stocks and raised the minimum age to buy a gun in Florida from 18 to 21.
Equality Florida CEO Nadine Smith — who is a vocal critic of Scott and U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) over gun control and other issues — on Tuesday told the Blade the fact that Scott signed the bill the National Rifle Association opposed “tells you there’s a loosening of” the organization’s “grip.”
Scott’s press secretary, Ashley Cook, in a statement to the Blade noted Scott, who is running against U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), in the aftermath of the Pulse nightclub massacre met with survivors and victims’ families “and saw Floridians show their resilience, strength and love for each other.”
“The horrific terror attack at Pulse was heartbreaking,” said Cook. “Governor Scott will always honor the memory of the victims and the loss suffered by their families.”
Cook’s statement did not specifically mention the LGBT community. Rubio’s office did not respond to the Blade’s request for comment.
“We have made the gun violence conversation part of the LGBTQ conversation in our state,” said Smith.
Christine Leinonen also remains a vocal gun control advocate.
She and Dru Project Vice President Brandon Wolf, who was with Christopher “Drew” Leinonen and Guerrero when they were killed inside Pulse, marched with a Human Rights Campaign contingent at the “March for Our Lives” that took place in D.C. after the Marjory Stoneman massacre. Christine Leinonen on Tuesday said electing “strong Democrats” and encouraging parents not to keep guns in their homes are among what she described as her seven “practical steps to make us safer from mass shootings.”
“Our homes have been robbed because of gun violence,” Wolf told the Blade on Tuesday.
Christine Leinonen attends the “Disarm Hate” rally at Potomac Park in Southwest D.C. on Aug. 13, 2016. She has become a vocal gun control supporter since her son, Christopher “Drew” Leinonen, and 48 others were killed inside the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
High-ranking diplomats who implement U.S. foreign policy this week attended Pride month celebrations.Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan and U.S. Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.) on Tuesday delivered remarks at GLIFAA’s annual Pride month reception at the State Department. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo did not attend the event, but he issued a Pride month statement on June 1.
“The United States joins people around the world in celebrating lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) Pride month and reaffirms its commitment to protecting and defending the human rights of all, including LGBTI persons,” said Pompeo.
U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Mark Green and former Arizona Congressman Jim Kolbe on Wednesday spoke at USAID’s annual Pride month reception.
“I want to say thank you to all of my LGBTI colleagues who are here today,” said Green, who in his remarks specifically acknowledged Xulhaz Mannan, a prominent LGBTI activist and former USAID employee in Bangladesh who was murdered in 2016. “Your voice is important individually, but also together. Your advocacy and your voice individually and all together makes us a stronger agency and it makes us a better agency, and I think makes us a more responsive agency.”
U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley on Wednesday acknowledged Pride month in a statement.
“This June, we join our friends in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) community around the world who are celebrating Pride month,” said Haley. “At the U.N. we see the importance of defending freedoms of LGBTI persons from governments that violate their own people’s human rights.”
“The United States embraces personal freedom, rejects discrimination and supports the global LGBTI community in standing up for their human rights,” she added.
U.S. embassies and consulates in Paraguay, Cuba and other countries have publicly acknowledged Pride month and the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia by raising the rainbow flag and holding receptions with LGBTI rights advocates.
“It was an honor to preside over the first public ceremony of the raising of the rainbow flag during LGBTI Pride month today at the embassy,” said U.S. Ambassador to Paraguay Lee McClenny on his Twitter page on Wednesday. “The fight to protect the rights, dignity and equity of all people is a task that we must undertake together.”
The Trump administration continues to promote LGBTI rights abroad. This year’s Pride month is nevertheless taking place against the backdrop of growing criticism over the White House’s domestic LGBT rights record and its overall foreign policy.
Newly installed U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell, who is openly gay, has sparked controversy with comments that include his desire to “empower” European conservatives. U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) on Monday said Grenell “should be recalled immediately” if he “is unwilling to refrain from political statements.”
Pompeo earlier this year during his confirmation hearing sparked widespread criticism among LGBTI rights advocates when he did not specifically say whether he thinks “being gay is a perversion.” Pompeo’s opposition to marriage rights for same-sex couples and the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” also came under scrutiny before the U.S. Senate confirmed him to succeed Rex Tillerson.
“In many parts of the world, LGBTI individuals and their supporters continue to face violence, arrest, harassment and intimidation for standing up for their human rights, participating in peaceful marches and rallies, expressing their views, and simply being who they are,” said Pompeo in his Pride month statement. “LGBTI persons — like all persons — must be free to enjoy their human rights and fundamental freedoms, including freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, and association, without fear of reprisal. As Americans, we place a high value on these rights and freedoms, which all persons deserve to enjoy fully and equally.”
Neither President Trump nor Vice President Pence have yet to publicly acknowledge Pride month.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau raises the rainbow flag over the Canadian Parliament on June 1, 2016. Canada is the latest country to join the Global Equality Fund, a U.S. public-private partnership that promotes LGBTI rights abroad. (Photo courtesy of Pam Lambo/Canadian Embassy in the U.S.)
Canada is the latest country to join a U.S. initiative that seeks to promote LGBTI rights around the world.The State Department and the Canadian government in a May 17 press release that announced Canada joined the Global Equality Fund said both countries “recognize that protecting and respecting human rights is the responsibility of all governments, and that the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) persons are not different or separate from the human rights of anyone else.” The press release also notes Canada’s contribution to the fund will specifically provide “emergency assistance to LGBTI persons under threat of violence.”
“Through the Global Equality Fund, like-minded governments, foundations and corporations provide support to civil society organizations working to promote the inclusion of and respect for all persons, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity or expression or sex characteristics,” it reads.
The fund — which is a public-private partnership — have given tens of millions of dollars to LGBTI advocacy groups since its 2011 launch.
Argentina, Australia, Chile, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Uruguay are the other countries that contribute to the fund. The Arcus Foundation, the Human Rights Campaign and the Royal Bank of Canada are among the non-governmental organizations and foundations that are among the other contributors.
The announcement that Canada has joined the fund coincided with the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia that commemorates the World Health Organization’s decision to declassify homosexuality as a mental disorder. The U.S. continues to promote LGBTI rights abroad, even though the Trump administration’s record on these issues domestically and its overall foreign policy has come under intense criticism.
Mike Pompeo on Thursday during his confirmation hearing to become the next secretary of state faced questions about his previous anti-LGBT statements.Pompeo reaffirmed his opposition to marriage rights for same-sex couples when U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) asked about a 2015 speech in which he cited a prayer from an anti-gay preacher that described homosexuality as a “perversion” and an “alternative lifestyle.” Pompeo also did not directly answer Booker’s question about whether he thinks “being gay is a perversion.”
“My respect for every individual, regardless of their sexual orientation, is the same,” Pompeo told Booker and other members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
President Trump last month nominated Pompeo — who is the current CIA director — to succeed then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson after he fired him. Pompeo represented Kansas’ 4th Congressional District from 2011-2017.
The Human Rights Campaign and Lambda Legal are among the dozens of LGBT and civil rights organizations that have come out against Pompeo’s nomination because of his previous statements against homosexuality, marriage rights for same-sex couples, Muslims and other issues.
“We had a terrible fellow in Kansas named Fred Phelps,” Pompeo told Booker in response to a question about his previous statements against Muslims. “I called him out.”
Pompeo told Booker that he treated married gay couples at the CIA “with the exact same set of rights.” Pompeo also said to U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen that he has “honored and valued every CIA officer, regardless” of their sexual orientation, race, religion, etc.
“I treat each and everyone of our officers with respect,” Pompeo told Shaheen. “I promise I will do that as secretary of state.”
Lawyers representing a gay married “Dreamer” who was denied a green card have filed a federal lawsuit that seeks his return to the U.S.
The lawsuit — which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California on Tuesday — notes Marco Villada Garibay came to the U.S. from Mexico when he was 6 years old. The lawsuit states Villada graduated from Morningside High School in Inglewood, Calif., and later enrolled at El Camino Community College and Harbor College in Los Angeles.
“Mr. Villada Garibay has spent virtually his entire life in the United States,” reads the lawsuit.
Villada in 2013 became a recipient of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that allows young undocumented immigrants to remain in the U.S. and obtain work permits. Villada in 2014 married Israel Serrato after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a portion of the Defense of Marriage Act and dismissed an appeal of a ruling against California’s Proposition 8.
The lawsuit states the couple subsequently filed “the necessary petition and obtained a provisional waiver” from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service that would allow Villada to obtain his green card “by virtue of his marriage to a U.S. citizen.” The couple on Jan. 14 traveled to Mexico in order “to take the next step in (Villada)’s process to obtain U.S. residency,” which was his appointment at the U.S. Consulate in Ciudad Juárez.
Villada had been able to legally work in the U.S. and was protected from deportation under DACA until 2019, but the lawsuit notes his “status was automatically terminated” once he left the country.
The lawsuit notes Villada traveled to Mexico “only because” the USCIS approved the provisional waiver that allowed him to apply for a green card through the State Department in his country of origin and promptly return to the U.S. with Serrato.
The consulate on Jan. 17 denied Villada’s application and banned him from returning to the U.S. “because it found that he was permanently inadmissible” on the grounds that he left the U.S. more than a year after he entered the country without documents and returned to the U.S. “without admission after more than one year of unlawful presence.”
The lawsuit notes Villada in 2000 returned to Mexico for “a few weeks” after his grandfather died. Villada, who was 17-years-old at the time, was allowed back into the U.S. after he showed his high school ID card to an immigration officer at the San Ysidro border crossing south of San Diego.
The lawsuit states Villada disclosed during his green card interview that he had traveled to Mexico in 2000. The consulate earlier this month affirmed its decision to deny Villada’s application.
Israel Serrato holds a picture of him and his husband, Marco Villada Garibay. The two men have filed a federal lawsuit after Villada was prevented from returning to the U.S. from Mexico after he traveled to the U.S. Consulate in Ciudad Juárez to apply for a green card. (Photo courtesy of National Immigration Law Center)
“Mr. Villada Garibay and Mr. Serrato continue to be separated because Mr. Villada Garibay is unable to return to the United States,” reads the lawsuit. “As a result, they are suffering emotionally and financially, and are experiencing great anxiety because Mr. Villada Garibay is unable to return to the United States for at least 10 years. The threat of prolonged separation impairs Mr. Villada Garibay’s and Mr. Serrato’s ability to live together as a married couple, form a family and plan for the future.”
The National Immigration Law Center, an immigration advocacy group that is representing Villada and Serrato in their lawsuit, on Tuesday held a conference call with reporters.
Villada said he and Serrato “did everything by the books.”
“Right now all I can think about is going back home,” said Villada. “I miss my husband, my home, family.”
Villada told the Washington Blade he traveled to Mexico’s Jalisco state from Ciudad Juárez after his husband returned to California. Villada said in response to a question about whether he feels safe as an openly gay man that he is “in constant fear of even going down the street for a soda.”
“I’m still living in fear, even right now,” he told the Blade. “It is not a place that is safe, even in my eyes.”
Serrato told reporters he met Villada before he became a DACA recipient.
“I loved my husband before he had DACA,” said Serrato. “I love my husband as a documented person. I’m going to fight for my husband and I to be together.”
The lawsuit names Acting Secretary of State John Sullivan, the USCIS, USCIS Director L. Francis Cissna, USCIS National Benefits Center Director Robert Cowan and U.S. Consul General for Ciudad Juárez Daria L. Darnell as defendants in their official capacities.
The State Department on Tuesday declined to comment on the lawsuit.
‘Immigrant rights are an LGBTQ issue’
The lawsuit was filed against the backdrop of mounting concern over the Trump administration’s immigration policy.
“Our anti-LGBT immigration policy just doesn’t hurt immigrants,” National Immigration Law Center Executive Director Marielena Hincapié told reporters during the conference call. “It hurts all of us.”
Immigrants rights advocates gather in front of the White House on Jan. 8, 2018, to protest President Trump’s decision to end the Temporary Protected Status program for Salvadorans. (Washington Blade photo by Michael K. Lavers)
Stacy Tolchin — one of the attorneys who is representing Villada and Serrato — said there were cases of immigrants during the Obama administration who were denied green cards, even though they had received provisional waivers from USCIS that allowed them to leave the U.S. in order to apply for them in their countries of origin. Crissel Rodríguez of the California Immigrant Youth Justice Alliance told reporters that Villada’s case “is an example of how the Trump administration’s policy continues to tear families apart.”
“Immigrant rights are an LGBTQ issue,” added Human Rights Campaign Legal Director Sarah Warbelow.
Advocacy groups in Colombia have launched a campaign ahead of the country’s national elections that seeks to educate voters about candidates’ positions on LGBT-specific issues.Colombia Diversa, Caribe Afirmativo, Santamaría Fundación, EgoCity and Sentiido last month launched the Vote for Equality campaign — Voto por la Igualdad in Spanish — that ranks each candidate on whether they support issues relating to non-discrimination and equality for LGBT Colombians. The Gay and Lesbian Victory Institute, the National Democratic Institute, the Netherlands Institution for Multiparty Democracy, the Latin American and Caribbean Network for Democracy, the Observatory for Political Participation of LGBTI People in Colombia and the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung foundation have provided support to the Colombian advocacy groups that are behind the effort.
“The Vote for Equality (campaign) has an objective to promote the free, transparent and informed vote of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex people of Colombia, as well as that of allies and people who stand in solidarity to protect the rights of this population in the 2018 elections,” reads a press release the campaign released.
Congressional elections will take place on Sunday.
Congresswoman Angélica Lozano, a bisexual woman who is the first openly LGBT person elected to the Colombian Congress, is running for the Colombian Senate. Tatiana Piñeros, a trans woman who was a member of former Bogotá Mayor Gustavo Petro’s cabinet, is also running for the Senate.
Caribe Afirmativo, which is based in the Colombian city of Barranquilla, notes there are 14 openly LGBT candidates who are running in Sunday’s elections. Senator Claudia López, who is Lozano’s partner, is running for president as a candidate for the centrist Green Alliance.
The elections to succeed President Juan Manuel Santos will take place on May 27. A run-off will take place on June 17 if none of the candidates receives a majority of the votes.
Colombia is among the Latin American countries in which same-sex couples can legally marry.
A 2015 decree to notaries and registrars said trans people could legally change their name and gender on identification cards and other government documents without surgery. The Colombian Congress last year rejected a proposed referendum on whether to rescind adoption rights for same-sex couples.
Discrimination and violence based on sexual orientation and gender identity remains commonplace in Colombia in spite of the aforementioned advances. This year’s elections are also taking place against the ongoing implementation of the peace agreement between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia that ended a decades-long war.
Colombia Diversa and Caribe Afirmativo took part in the peace talks that began in Havana in 2012.
The agreement, which Santos and FARC Commander Rodrigo “Timochenko” Londoño announced in 2016, specifically acknowledges the conflict’s LGBT victims. Former President Álvaro Uribe and other opponents ahead of a referendum on it argued it “put the stability of the family” at risk and promoted so-called “gender ideology.”
Voters in October 2016 narrowly rejected the agreement. The Colombian Congress a few weeks later ratified it after Santos and Londoño renegotiated it.
FARC rebels disarmed as part of the agreement. They also formed a political party, which is known as the Common Alternative Revolutionary Force (FARC) in English.
Several FARC candidates are running in Sunday’s elections. FARC on Thursday announced it had withdrawn Londoño as a presidential candidate after he underwent heart surgery.
Tatiana Piñeros is a transgender woman who was a member of former Bogotá Mayor Gustavo Petro’s cabinet. She spoke with the Washington Blade at her home in Bogotá, Colombia, on Sept. 27, 2017. (Washington Blade photo by Michael K. Lavers)
State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert on Feb. 22, 2018, said LGBT and intersex issues will remain in the State Department’s annual human rights report that it will release later this year.
State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert on Thursday said LGBTI-specific issues will remain in its annual human rights report.
“Nothing has been stripped with regards to LGBT rights at all,” Nauert told reporters during a press briefing.
Politico on Tuesday cited five current and former State Department officials who said one of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s top aides “ordered pared down” a section of the report that documents discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, ethnicity and race. Politico also reported the directive calls for the removal of references to “societal views on family planning” that includes women’s access to abortion and contraception.
“This year, we are changing some of the terms that are being used in the report, but not our commitment to women’s rights, women’s health or to human rights whatsoever,” said Nauert. “Make no mistake: Human rights is a top priority here. This is something that the secretary finds to be incredibly important, and it’s a value that my State Department colleagues value here as well.”
Congress requires the State Department to release the report each year.
The most recent report, which the State Department released last March, notes discrimination and violence based on sexual orientation and gender identity were commonplace throughout many parts of the world in 2016.
The report notes several prominent LGBTI rights advocates — including René Martínez of San Pedro Sula, Honduras, and Hande Kader of Istanbul — were killed in 2016. It also points out the so-called Islamic State executed men in Iraq and Syria who had been accused of committing sodomy.
The 2017 report has not been published.
“It’s not complete just yet,” Nauert told reporters. “The secretary has not signed off on the human rights report at this point, so I’m not going to have a ton of information that I’m able to provide until the secretary gets a final report and then signs off on a final report.”
Tillerson last summer in a letter to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov expressed concern about the ongoing anti-gay crackdown in Chechnya. The State Department in 2017 also criticized the arrests of LGBT people in Azerbaijan and Egypt.
The U.S. late last year sanctioned Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov and Ayub Kataev of the Chechen Internal Affairs Ministry under the 2012 Magnitsky Act that freezes the assets of Russian citizens who commit human rights abuses and bans them from entering the U.S. The White House in 2017 also sanctioned former Gambian President Yahya Jammeh under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, a 2016 law that expands the Magnitsky Act.
Yahya in 2015 signed a law that sought to impose a life sentence upon anyone found guilty of “aggravated homosexuality.” The former Gambian president, who stepped down in January 2016 after he lost his re-election bid, also threatened gay men and used homophobic slurs to describe them.
The U.S., France and Brazil last fall blocked Russian and Egyptian efforts to remove a gay-inclusive reference to discrimination from an Olympics resolution the U.N. General Assembly later approved unanimously.
Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Scott Busby is currently carrying out the “role and responsibilities” of the special U.S. envoy for the promotion of LGBTI rights abroad. The State Department and U.S. diplomats have continued to support these issues overseas since President Trump took office.
Human Rights Campaign Global Director Ty Cobb on Thursday in a statement on the Politico article specifically noted Chechnya, Egypt and the ongoing anti-LGBTI crackdown in Indonesia. Cobb also said it is “unconscionable that Trump-Pence political appointees are ordering State Department officials to roll back language on anti-LGBTQ discrimination and women’s rights in the annual human rights report.”
“This shameful move is yet another indication of Secretary Tillerson’s dangerously negligent indifference toward LGBTQ people around the globe,” said Cobb. “Make no mistake, this November at the polls, the fair-minded people of the United States will hold this administration accountable.”
