Jacques Rogge, the International Olympic Committee's (IOC's) outgoing president, has admitted he is powerless to stop the anti-gay laws during the upcoming Winter Olympics in Sochi, according to Gay Star News. Speaking in Buenos Aires, he said, "One should not forget that we are staging the games in a sovereign state and the IOC cannot be expected to have an influence on the sovereign affairs of a country." While it is unknown whether Russia will charge any athlete or tourist for promoting gay rights at Sochi Olympics, the IOC bans "political propaganda," which could lead to athletes being disqualified from the competition. (Incidentally, Thomas Bach, a German, was elected to succeed Rogge Sept. 11, CNN reported.)
In India, police raided a party that gay individuals attended, arresting three men for allowing "obscene acts," Gay Star News noted. Authorities discovered the management were violating rules and shut down the premises at the Country Club's Pulse Lounge in Begumpet, near the southern city of Hyderabad. Deputy Commissioner of Police Satyanarayana said the venue was not raided because the patrons were all gay, but because it had violated rules by serving guests and allowing them to stay after hours.
Kate Walsh and Helen Richardson, a couple whose British hockey team won a bronze at the London 2012 Olympics, will get a civil partnership Sept. 14, according to Gay Star News. The couple have been engaged since January and will have their ceremony in Henley-on-Thames, near Reading, where they live. The couple is getting a civil partnership before same-sex couples will be able to officially marry. While they were made legal earlier this year, the first same-sex weddings are expected by summer 2014.
Canadian speedskater Anastasia Bucsis, who is likely headed for a spot on her Olympic team this winter, says she is "proud to be gay," according to an Advocate.com item. Bucsis, 24, told the Globe and Mail that she came out two years ago to family and friends, but felt compelled to speak publicly as tensions rise over Russia's so-called gay propaganda law. Buscis joins U.S. figure skater Johnny Weir, New Zealand speedskater Blake Skjellerup and Australian snowboarder Belle Brockhoff as openly gay athletes preparing to compete for a spot on their respective teams.
A member of Russian President Vladimir Putin's ruling party presented a draft law to take children away from gay and lesbian parents, the UK Guardian reported. The draft law, which follows legislation banning gay "propaganda," would add homosexuality to a list of conditions (including drug and child abuse) that can lead to parents being stripped of custody over their children. Putin has claimed that Russia's love for composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky, who was gay, was proof the country appreciated its LGBT population.
In the United Kingdom, ex-soldier Lucy Vallender (formerly Laurens Vallender) has converted to Islam—and is also now a transgender woman, according to the Huffington Post. Vallender is now married to a Muslim man, Murad, she met on an online dating site. She has faced some resistance; her local mosque in Swindon, Wiltshire, barred her from praying with the women and asked her many personal questions. However, she has said, "I felt happy and relieved at last—the happiest I've ever felt in my life."
In Mexico, Colima state legislator Rafael Mendoza has stirred controversy by asking authorities to prohibit gay weddings from public spaces, arguing it confuses children in a state that just approved same-sex civil unions, ABC News reported. Mendoza claimed mothers complained to him after a wedding took place between a U.S. man and a Mexican man in the main plaza in the city of Cuauhtemoc. A rival political group plans to file a human-rights complaint, charging Mendoza with discrimination. His own party, the Democratic Revolution Party, asked him to retract the comments, since the leftist political organization has championed marriage equality in Mexico.
There may be a chance marriage equality will be discussed in Australia despite conservative candidate Tony Abbott's win for the prime minister's seat, according to Gay Star News. Abbott, who has "deeply religious" Catholic views, has been a vocal critic of same-sex marriage—even though he has a lesbian sister. However, both parties that Abbott will most likely have to negotiate with will allow their senators a conscience vote on the issue, although it would still probably fail in the House of Representatives. Outgoing Prime Minister Kevin Rudd had promised that, if re-elected, he would have introduced a vote on same-sex marriage within the first 100 days of his new term.
In London, gay and straight people staged a mass kiss-in Sept. 7 at Trafalgar Square to raise awareness of LGBT-rights abuses around the world, Gay Star News reported. The event, which the International Day of Solidarity for LGBT Equality organized, was one of many kiss-ins being held worldwide in countries from the United States and Canada to Australia and the Philippines. Organizers said the event was "an international response to the International Olympic Committee statement that they consider the matter of LGBT Rights in Russia not to be a matter of their concern."
Civil-rights activist Sunila Abeysekera passed away in Sri Lanka at age 61, according to the UK Mirror. Secretary General of the UN Kofi Annan presented Abeysekera with a UN human rights award in 1999, and she was also honored for her work by the Human Rights Watch. In a statement, International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission paid tribute to Abeysekera, using some of the activist's own words but adding that her "contributions to human rights created an everlasting legacy."
LGBT activists who last week met with President Obama shortly before he left Russia after the G-20 Summit said that they feel "let down" after the meeting. According to Euronews, Obama told the activists that he has to consider his overall relationship with the Russian Federation. One of the activists, Igor Kotchetkov of LGBT network, told Euronews Sept. 7, "The President said that he can't prioritize human rights in his relationship with Russia because there are other issues (to consider) as well. I disagree with the President because, in my view, by doing so, we narrow our chances of cooperation in other areas."
A Sept. 8 New York Times article that featured SPI Group CEO affirming the Russian roots of Stolichnaya Vodka shows that the brand is indeed a legitimate target for a boycott, said the New York City-based activist groups Queer Nation and #DumpRussianVodka in a statement. In the article, Val Mendeleev, CEO of SPI Group, said that "SPI Group is 'not trying to hide' its Russian roots—Stolichnaya's formula, basic ingredients and name, which means capital, all come from Russia." Some commentators had previously argued that since much of the production of exported Stolichnaya Vodka was centered in Latvia that a boycott was both misguided and harmful to the Latvian population.
