The Biden administration declined to commit to challenging Vladimir Putin on Russia’s terrible civil rights record when it comes to LGBTQ+ citizens.
The question arose at a press briefing last week, when the LGBTQ+ newspaper Washington Blade asked Press Secretary Jen Psaki about the issue, following reports of the abduction of two gay men in Russia, 20-year-old Salekh Magomadov and 17-year-old Ismail Isteyev. Last week, the advocacy group Russian LGBT Network alleged that men, who fled persecution in Chechnya, were kidnapped by security forces and returned to the semi-autonomous Russian republic.
Psaki dodged the question. “Well, the president is not afraid to make clear to President Putin the areas where he has disagreement, areas where he is concerned,” she said.
The whereabouts of Magomadov and Isteyev are currently unknown. After news of their abduction made international headlines, the U.S.-based advocacy groups RUSA LGBT and Voices4 urged Biden — along with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer — to denounce the Russian government’s role in the ongoing violence. Since 2019, the organizations claim that over 200 Chechens have been arrested, beaten, and tortured under suspicion of being LGBTQ+.
“We call on you to issue an emergency declaration and publicly condemn this gross violation of human rights when two individuals face sure death at the hands of the Russian government,” RUSA LGBT and Voices4 said in a series of letters.
During the previous administration, President Donald Trump failed to condemn human rights abuses aimed at LGBTQ+ people under Putin’s watch. When Trump met with his closest ally back in 2017, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders admitted that she didn’t know if they discussed the treatment of LGBTQ+ people in Russia — or if the president was even aware of the issue. After Russia passed a “propaganda” law in 2013 banning the spread of information on homosexuality to minors in 2013, hate crimes have since doubled.
A spokesperson later confirmed that the topic was not broached.
While the U.S. levied some personal sanctions against Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov during Trump’s tenure, the White House’s larger failure to censure Putin fit in with its larger pattern on LGBTQ+ rights. The administration claimed to have an initiative dedicated to the decriminalization of homosexuality, but Trump seemed to know nothing about the supposed campaign when asked. When he was in Congress, Vice President Mike Pence defended countries that execute people for being gay, saying that the U.S. should not pressure such nations to reform their laws.
That’s in sharp contrast to the Obama administration’s defense of LGBTQ+ equality. When Uganda proposed a law in 2010 that would mandate the death penalty for homosexuality, President Barack Obama referred to the draft bill as “odious” and said that it is “unconscionable to target gays and lesbians for who they are.” According to Reuters, former Secretary of State Clinton personally lobbied against the bill in a phone call with former Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni.
But Psaki declined to say whether the new administration would follow suit. “There’s a review that’s ongoing about a range of problematic actions that have been taken by the Russians,” she told the Blade, referring to a State Department initiative that is still ongoing. “And I’m not going to get ahead of that process.”
In addition, Psaki noted that Biden campaigned on a promise to fight for LGBTQ+ people around the world and said that it was the administration’s policy “to stand up for and to defend the rights of LGBTQI people.” Earlier this month, Biden signed a memo affirming the administration’s commitment to advocating for queer and trans equality abroad, but that statement was largely symbolic.
Get the best of what’s queer. Sign up for them.’s weekly newsletter here.
