Finally, four months after the U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passed a nearly bipartisan resolution in June condemning the violence and persecution against gay men in Chechnya, last night, the U.S. Senate adopted the resolution by voice vote.

The bipartisan Senate Resolution (S. Res.) 211, which was introduced by Senators Pat Toomey (R-PA) and Ed Markey (D-MA), is nearly identical to the U.S. House of Representatives resolution

S. Res. 211 “calls on Chechen officials to immediately cease the abduction, detention, and torture of individuals on the basis of their actual or suspected sexual orientation, and hold accountable all those involved in perpetrating such abuses.” It also calls on the U.S. government to “continue to condemn the violence and persecution in Chechnya,” something that President Trump and Secretary Tillerson have failed to do publicly

For three months, the Canadian federal government has been secretly spiriting gay Chechen men from Russia to Canada, under a clandestine program. About a third of those who were being sheltered in Russian safe houses – are now in Toronto and other Canadian cities

Sources estimate that Chechen authorities have rounded up and detained, tortured and in some cases have murdered more than 100 gay men in secret prisons including the recent revelation that Russian pop-singer Zelimkhan Bakaev was arrested, tortured and then murdered for being gay. His body at the writing of this post has still not been found.

Other than the long awaited U.S .resolution America has done nothing to help save the persecuted gay men of Chechnya.

*******************

Since you’re here …

We have a small favor to ask. Unlike many other LGBT blogs and news sites, we haven’t put up a paywall or installed intrusive ads– we want to keep our journalism and historical reporting as open as we can. So you can see why we need to ask for your help. Back2Stonewall’s independent voice takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce. But we do it because we believe our perspective matters – because it might well be your perspective, too.

f you can please help us with a small donation to cover the sites expenses and evolution it would be greatly appreciated. Just go to our GoFundMe page by CLICKING HERE. Any donation no matter how small will help us continue our important work.

Thank you.

Will Kohler

Back2Stonewall.com