by Michael K. Lavers, Washington Blade
The president of Log Cabin Republicans on April 27 met with representatives of the U.S. Mission to the United Nations to discuss the arrest of more than 100 gay men in Chechnya.
Gregory T. Angelo told the Washington Blade he met with Senior Policy Advisor Kelly Razzouk in New York. He said he also "had the opportunity to briefly meet with" Stefanie Amadeo, who is the deputy U.S. representative to the U.N. Economic and Social Council.
"We discussed a range of topics, including work Log Cabin Republicans done to encourage GOP elected officials in Congress to speak out against the reported atrocities in Chechnya, as well as ways the private sector might assist in this human rights crisis," said Angelo.
U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley and Vitit Muntarbhorn, who is the first-ever U.N. LGBT rights watchdog, are among those who have publicly condemned the arrests and reported torture and killings of gay men in the semi-autonomous Russian republic in the North Caucuses. OutRight Action International has urged British Petroleum, ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch Shell – three oil companies that have made significant investments with state-owned Russian oil and gas companies – to comment.
"We should use our voice on the global stage to call attention to these horrifying acts and to ensure that they are condemned in an appropriate way, ultimately in the hopes that they will be stopped," said U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) on Monday during a speech on the U.S. Senate floor.
U.S. Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), Charlie Dent (R-Pa.) and Carlos Curbelo (R-Fla.) are among the 50 members of Congress who urged Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who is the former CEO of ExxonMobil, to criticize the arrests in a letter they sent to him earlier this month.
Tillerson – who met with Russian President Vladimir Putin and other Kremlin officials in Moscow on April 12 – and President Trump have yet to publicly comment. The State Department a few days earlier said it is "increasingly concerned" over the arrests.
A reporter from Novaya Gazeta, an independent Russian newspaper that broke the story, has gone into hiding after she received death threats. Chechen and Russian officials continue to dismiss the arrests and the growing international outrage over them.
"This is not my field," Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova told Yahoo Global News Anchor Katie Couric on April 27 during an interview in which she was asked about the reports.
