“We are doing everything, both the organizers and our athletes and fans, so that participants and guests feel comfortable in Sochi, regardless of nationality, race or sexual orientation.”
— President Vladimir Putin, addressing the head of the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach, ahead of the Winter Olympics in the Russian Black Sea Resort of Sochi in February 2014. A federal bill banning “gay propoganda” in Russia imposes fines on any individual or organization that provides information on homosexuality to Russian citizens under the age of 18.
Moscow's Tagansky District Court has fined the international hotel reservation service Booking.com a total of 6 million rubles, or approximately $71,365, for allegedly promoting "LGBT propaganda" and failing to remove banned content.
The charges stemmed from a newsletter sent to foreign partner hotels that referenced "accommodating LGBT guests during Pride Month" and included a photo that Russian censors deemed objectionable, according to Ostorozhno, Novosti, an independent Russian news outlet on Telegram.
About 100 members of Taipei's LGBTQ community protested outside a local police station on October 4 after officers raided a gay bar, taking 51 people in for questioning and arresting its owner.
The raid on Commander D, a gay bar in Taipei's Wanhua district, took place on the afternoon of October 3, reports Reuters.
Police precinct spokesman Chen Yu-cheng said officers executed a search warrant for suspected "offenses against public morality." He said the people taken in for questioning were suspected of violating a law prohibiting "wantonly exposing one's naked body or presenting a lascivious posture in a public place or publicly accessible place."
Joseph LoGiudice, the founder and clinical director of Manhattan's Liberation Psychotherapy, an LGBTQ-centered practice, has been indicted on charges of sexually assaulting two patients, including allegedly raping a man in his 30s in his office.
According to prosecutors, the patient -- who was attending therapy to cope with a sexual assault -- told LoGiudice he did not want to have sex because he was recovering from anal surgery.
At an October 1 bail hearing, Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Claudia Khoury-Yacoub alleged that LoGiudice began sexually exploiting the patient shortly after he joined the therapy group in fall 2022.
