Obama cancels Moscow trip amid human rights concerns

WASHINGTON – In an interview Tuesday with Jay Leno on NBC’s The Tonight Show, President Obama condemned a new Russian law that criminalizes even the most modest gestures of support for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people. The president stated that such laws violate “the basic morality that I think should transcend every country, and…

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Lady Gaga - MTV - LGBT Weekly

Russian official launches visa investigation against Lady Gaga, Madonna

Russian anti-gay lawmaker Vitaly Milonov appears to be sending a message to performing artists coming to Russia: speak out in favor of gay rights and be investigated. Milonov appears to have triggered an investigation into visits to the country by Lady Gaga and Madonna, both of whom made spectacles of Russia’s anti-gay laws during their performances. The…

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Russian minister to IOC: international LGBT Olympians at risk

WASHINGTON – Claims made by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that international LGBT visitors to Russia would be safe during the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi appear to be coming apart at the seams today as Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko declared that all LGBT athletes within Russian borders will be very much at risk…

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Russian government states anti-gay legislation ‘will not affect those attending or taking part in the Games’

WASHINGTON – Friday, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) released a statement to Russian news outlets responding to growing international fear about the safety of LGBT individuals and allies living in Russia or traveling to Russia for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia.  The fear and outrage is rooted in the recent crackdown on…

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Openly gay Olympic figure skater Johnny Weir urges no Olympic boycott

FALLS CHURCH, Va. — Two-time Olympic figure skating competitor, openly gay Johnny Weir urged in his weekly column today that there be no boycott of the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia next February to protest the recent escalation of Russian anti-gay measures. Weir, a three-time U.S. men’s figure skating champion who competed for the United States in the 2006 Winter games…

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Russian LGBT film festival – ‘Side by Side’ – charged as ‘foreign agent’

Despite incontrovertible evidence to the contrary, Russia’s LGBT film festival Side by Side (Bok o Bok) was found guilty of and fined $10,000 for failing to register as a ‘foreign agent.’ The fledgling organization, which was established in 2007, met the new guidelines according to prosecutor V.V Stepanchenko despite the fact that the law, established…

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Russia’s anti-gay propaganda laws take dark, deadly turn

Since the enactment of anti-gay ‘propaganda’ laws that have overwhelmingly passed in some of Russia’s largest cities, the LGBT community is seeing a discernible rise in violent crimes. Recently, a young gay man, Vladislav Tornovoi, was brutally attacked then killed after he admitted to his drinking buddies that he was gay. In Volgograd, the 23-year-old…

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