After more than 100 days, President Trump refuses to answer GLAAD’s call to condemn attacks on LGBTQ community in Chechnya

NEW YORK – GLAAD, the world’s largest LGBTQ media advocacy organization, today expressed outrage over President Trump’s continued silence on the attacks against LGBTQ men in Chechnya even as new reports indicate that members of the Chechen LGBTQ community could face terrorism charges if these men attempt to escape the country and attacks on them based on their perceived sexual orientation.

President Trump and his administration have displayed clear negligence to a humanitarian crisis happening in Russia-controlled Chechnya where more than 100 LGBTQ men are said to have been detained and attacked simply because of their perceived sexual orientation. Additionally, about 27 men have reportedly been killed by Chechen government officials. It has been over 100 days since GLAAD has called on President Trump to use the power of the presidency and denounce this anti-LGBTQ violence happening in Chechnya, but this call has been treated with silence.

Politicians and human rights activists across the globe, including British Prime Minister Theresa May, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and former Vice President of the United States Joe Biden, have all condemned the horrific violence in Chechnya. Yet still, President Trump has chosen to remain silent.

GLAAD has led the charge in calling on the Trump Administration to recognize this humanitarian crisis since the news broke about the anti-LGBTQ attacks and reported concentration camps. Before the White House informed The Washington Blade the attacks did not come up in a meeting between Presidents Trump and Vladimir Putin during the G20 Summit in Germany, GLAAD joined The Council for Global Equality and many others in releasing a letter calling on the Trump Administration to address the anti-LGBTQ attacks in Chechnya. Prior to the letter, GLAAD also called on Nikki Haley, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, to recognize the attacks and use the United States’ presence in the United Nations to condemn the attacks. After a week-long online campaign where thousands of supporters joined GLAAD’s voice, Haley denounced the violence in Chechnya. However, President Trump – the leader of the United States of America – remains silent.

The full story by Russian publication Crime Russia is below.

ICYMI: Crime Russia: No escape from Russia: Chechen gays are accused of terrorism so they cannot flee country

The authorities of Chechnya have found a new way of persecuting Chechen homosexuals following they cannot leave Russia. Gay men are charged with terrorism and are wanted as supporters of the Islamic State (an organization banned on the territory of the Russian Federation).

Chechen security forces visit homosexuals’ relatives and demand to write statements about the departure of their children to Syria, employees of two human rights organizations told Kavkaz.Realii edition.

“The policy of the Chechen law enforcement agencies is such: it is easier for them to immediately state that the person was recruited and he left for Syria. Most likely, this is designed to ensure that people, who do not want to live in those conditions, did not go anywhere. Because this one message about leaving for Syria is not the end. His entire family will have a monkey on their back, Kadyrovtsy (Head of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov’s special forces officers – Ed.) will impose pressure on them,” the interlocutor of Kavkaz.Realii explained.

According to the edition, the police of Chechnya have already announced the search for several homosexuals on suspicion of terrorism.

Recall that previously BBC journalists reported that the relatives of the disappeared residents of the Republic were forced to write statements about leaving for Syria. As the CrimeRussia previously wrote, the Chechens disappeared after mass arrests in December-January 2016-2017, which began after the attack on policemen in Grozny on the night of December 17. Novaya Gazeta reported that at least 27 detainees were shot to death.

Information about the hard oppression of gays in Chechnya appeared in Novaya Gazeta in April this year. According to the press, mass purges among homosexuals were held in the Republic. It was also pointed out that secret prisons, where men were held and tortured, operated in the region. In connection with these publications, Tatyana Moskalkova, the Human Rights Ombudswoman in the Russian Federation, applied to law enforcement agencies to verify this information. At the end of June, the Ombudswoman once again stated that she did not receive a single appeal about violations of the rights of LGBT community representatives in Chechnya. Despite this, media publish new stories from gay refugees, who managed to leave the Republic. They talk about tortures and murders, which began in 2009.

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Texas anti-LGBTQ activists have worked with hate-group the Family Research Council (FRC), called the HIV and AIDS epidemic “God’s judgment as a result of an immoral act” 

NEW YORK – GLAAD, the world’s largest LGBTQ media advocacy organization, today released background information on Texas Pastors Council Action, Texas Values, Vision America Action, and Texas Right to Life – anti-LGBTQ groups behind this morning’s rally in support of Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s anti-trans “special discrimination session.” The session includes Abbott’s call to pass anti-transgender legislation including Senate Bill 3, a bill which would bar transgender and gender non-conforming Texans from access to restrooms and students from participating in athletics in accordance with their gender identity.  

Gov. Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick have a record of turning to anti-LGBTQ hate groups to publicly promote their anti-transgender agenda, even at a time when a majority of Texans oppose such harmful measures. The Texas Pastors Council Action, for instance, has worked closely with anti-LGBTQ hate group the Family Research Council (FRC) and once claimed LGBTQ rights are as “equally offensive” to God as slavery. Vision America Action once claimed the HIV and AIDS epidemic was “God’s judgment as a result of an immoral act.” Anti-trans groups like the Texas Pastors Council Action and the Vision America Action have fueled a debate that has already put the safety of trans Texans and the economic well-being of the state in jeopardy.  

Just last month, Gov. Abbott himself showed the true intentions of his “special discrimination session” when he described SB 3 as “Transgender Bathrooms” in a tweet. Abbott’s agenda is in direct opposition with Texas House Speaker Joe Straus, a Republican, who voiced his opposition to the anti-trans bills by saying he was “disgusted by all this” and did not “a suicide of a single Texan on [his] hands.” If an anti-trans bill like SB 3 is signed into law, it could drain about $3 billion from the state’s economy while also putting the safety of transgender Texans in jeopardy.  

Take a look below to see the full anti-LGBTQ history of today’s anti-trans event organizers.  

BACKGROUND INFORMATION: The Anti-LGBTQ Record of Texas Pastors Council Action, Texas Values, Vision America Action, and Texas Right to Life 

Texas Pastors Council Action: 

• President is Dave Welsh; who claims LGBTQ rights are “equally offensive” to God as slavery and refers to LGBTQ equality advocates as “purveyors of perversion” while equating LGBTQ rights with demolition. 
• Works closely with the Family Research Council, a group the Southern Poverty Law Center lists as an anti-LGBTQ hate group. 
• Believes and teaches that homosexuality is “contrary to natural law,” “contrary to Darwinism,” “contrary to the beliefs of Western Civilization,” and “contrary to the morality and laws throughout the history of America” 
• Website hosts a commentary from a member pastor declaring that “homosexual lifestyle is genocide”: “As People living in this lifestyle have convinced themselves that they can raise up a child in this culture and it would be healthy, even if by example, it is reinforcing an infectious cancer, a life promoting a continuous conduct of Genocide. This is child abuse in one of the most despicable forms of child abuse. To impose this lifestyle upon innocent children is a crime against humanity, a crime against morality, a crime against God.” 

Texas Values:

• President is Jonathan Saenz who defends dangerous and debunked practice of so-called “conversion therapy” as valid science, claims marriage equality will lead to people marrying their own stepchildren and was a major opponent of inclusive Boy Scouts.
• Works closely with the Family Research Council (FRC), a group the Southern Poverty Law Center lists as an anti-LGBTQ hate group. Saenz is a regular guest on Tony Perkins’ anti-LGBTQ radio show Washington Watch. 
• Publicly supports so-called “conversion therapy” and argues that “the reality is that people can leave the homosexual lifestyle behind.” 

• Currently running fear-mongering anti-trans radio ads in Texas. 

Vision America Action: 

• Founded by Rick Scarborough who calls the AIDS epidemic God’s “judgement as a result of an immoral act” and has suggested the filing of a class action lawsuit against homosexuality. 
• Current President John Graves serves on the board of Jack Hayford Ministries, an organization that sells an anti-LGBTQ book (penned by Jack Hayford himself) teaching people “How to Live in a Perverted World.” 
• Website hosts anti-LGBTQ content calling LGBTQ rights “evil,” linking Sandusky’s behavior to homosexuality, and attempting to reduce transgender identity to a “currently chic label,” and equating transgender rights to the “triumph of evil.” 

Texas Right to Life: 

• They have lobbied against same-sex adoption in the state. 

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