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Olivia Timeline: From Grassroots to World’s Largest Lesbian Travel Company

1975: Meg Christian records the first album under the Olivia label, Meg Christian: I Know You Know . That same year, Cris Williamson’s recording The Changer and the Changed launches her to prominence as a female recording artist. The album is among the best-selling independent albums of all time.

1977: Olivia produces a groundbreaking album called Lesbian Concentrate in response to Anita Bryant’s anti-homosexual campaign in Florida. It is the first anthology of music by lesbian recording artists.

1982 : For Olivia’s 10th anniversary, Williamson and Christian perform two sold-out shows for 5,600 women at Carnegie Hall. At the time, the concert is the largest single-grossing event since the hall’s creation in 1891.

1983: Successful Olivia recording artist Meg Christian retires from women’s music. She does not play another public concert until August 2002, aboard an Olivia cruise.

1983: Judy Dlugacz evolves as the sole remaining partner of Olivia as she celebrates her 30th birthday.

1990: With the dream of producing concerts on the water, Judy Dlugacz puts down a $50,000 deposit to charter a cruise ship. She writes to Olivia fans announcing the trip, and more than 600 women sign up. Because the cruise sold out in just a few weeks, organizers added a second sailing to meet demand. Olivia Cruises & Resorts is born.

2000: Olivia Cruises & Resorts celebrates its 10-year anniversary with more trips and entertainers than ever, and adds Australia as a destination.

2000: All four major newspapers in Istanbul celebrate the arrival of the women of Olivia with front-page articles. The newspapers report that lesbians on an Olivia Cruise rescued the lagging Turkish economy by spending more than half a million dollars in three ports of call in just three days.

2000: Olivia President Judy Dlugacz calls for the government of the Bahamas to make official statements condemning a group of anti-gay protesters who meet an Olivia Cruise in Nassau. The next day, the government holds a press conference asking Olivia and other gay and lesbian travelers to return to the island nation. The Bahamas’ Minister of Tourism comes aboard the ship to offer an official apology for the protesters’ actions.

2001: Olivia receives a groundswell of support following the events of September 11. Olivia’s 30th anniversary cruise sells out within two months, and the company announces a second 1,250-person cruise to celebrate Olivia’s anniversary in January 2003. Anniversary trips are also scheduled for Scandinavia and Cancun.

2002: For the first time since the Carnegie Hall concert, Meg Christian and Cris Williamson reunite on Olivia’s Scandinavia Cruise (August 14–22, 2002). More than 800 travelers are aboard to share in the magic.

2003: A group of 1,250 lesbians help Olivia celebrate three decades of providing the best in women’s travel, entertainment and music with a 30th Anniversary Cancun Resort Celebration and a 30th Anniversary Eastern Caribbean Cruise Celebration.

2003: Olivia announces a kids and family trip at Floridian Club Med Resort, becoming the industry’s first to offer a family vacation for lesbian and gay families.

2004: Olivia’s new logo, brand identity and website are unveiled.

2004 : Olivia partners with Showtime to feature a special pre-premiere screening of the new series The L-Word . The show’s creator and members of the cast join Olivia guests aboard a Mexican Riviera cruise.

2004: Olivia hosts a landmark wedding and honeymoon cruise with optional legal wedding ceremony in Boston. k.d. lang performs two special concerts.

2005: Olivia brands its newest offering of niche upscale, off-the-beaten-path trips catering to smaller-scale guest capacities (47 to 600 guests) as Olivia’s Ultimate Escapes. Olivia now offers three diverse types of trips: cruises, resort vacations and ultimate escapes. Ultimate Escapes are 5–7 star cruises, land and adventure vacations to once-in-a-lifetime destinations like Africa, the Galapagos, Scandinavia & Russia and Tahiti.

2005: Two-time Grammy winner Melissa Etheridge performs onboard Olivia’s Eastern Caribbean Cruise. Five-time Grammy winner Mary Chapin Carpenter performs onboard Olivia’s Alaska Discovery Cruise.

2006: The 1,800 passengers on Olivia’s Grand Caribbean Cruise enjoy onboard entertainment by Whoopi Goldberg and tennis instruction from athletic great Martina Navratilova.

2006: Olivia announces record annual revenues of $20 million and debuts an Olivia Visa rewards credit card. Founder Judy Dlugacz receives the 2006 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award.

2007: The LGBT television network Logo films and airs Cruising the Caribbean with Olivia , a one-hour variety special.

2007: Renowned celebrity chefs Elizabeth Falkner, Josie Smith-Malave and Tiffani Faison join Olivia’s Greek Isles Culinary Cruise in May.

2008: Olivia’s 35th anniversary year kicks off with two Caribbean cruises, a Russian riverboat adventure and resort vacations in Cancun, Hawaii, the Mexican Riviera and Australia.

2008: An onboard auction of items donated by celebrities, including Melissa Etheridge, Wynonna Judd, Indigo Girls, Billie Jean King and k.d. lang, raises funds for breast cancer, women’s health and research funding.

2009: Olivia announces that recording artist Meg Christian and L-Word actor Leisha Hailey will help celebrate the 20-year anniversary of Olivia Travel by making guest appearances aboard the 2010 Western Caribbean cruise.

2010: Guests on the 2010 Caribbean Sun and Mexican Riviera cruises enjoy private performances by newly out singer-songwriter Chely Wright and popular comedian Wanda Sykes, respectively.

2010: Olivia partners with gay travel companies Atlantis Events and RSVP Cruises to form the American Red Cross LGBT Haiti Relief Fund. The LGBT community donates more than $250,000 through the fund to aid the earthquake-stricken Haitians.

2011: Olivia’s 2011 Mexican Riviera cruise celebrates the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell by bestowing the Olivia Ovation Award (lifetime achievement) on Colonel Grethe Cammermeyer.

2011: Judy Dlugacz is featured in Curve Magazine ’s October “Powerful Women” issue.

2012: Olivia announces a 2013 Southern Caribbean cruise to celebrate the company’s 40th anniversary. The trip, which is Olivia’s largest to date at 2,100 passengers, sells out quickly and a second celebratory cruise is added. The company also announces two Punta Cana resort trips in honor of the 40th anniversary, each accommodating 1,100 and representing Olivia’s biggest Music & Comedy Festivals to date.

2012: Judy Dlugacz receives the prestigious Mautner Project Chair’s Award in acknowledgement of her contributions to lesbian and bisexual women’s health.

2012: Olivia sponsors 63-year-old distance swimmer Diana Nyad’s impressive attempted swim from Cuba to Florida.

2012: Judy Dlugacz is appointed to President Obama’s LGBT Leadership Council for his re-election campaign.

2013: Olivia celebrates its 40th anniversary with back-to-back cruises, featuring a reunion concert from Meg Christian and Cris Williamson, sports icon, Billie Jean King, and performances from over 20 lesbian musicians and comediennes.

2013: Guests enjoy a discussion from best-selling author and talk show host, Suze Orman, on the Buenos Aires to Rio de Janeiro Cruise.

2013: Olivia continues its 40th anniversary celebration with back-to-back music and comedy festivals at Club Med’s Punta Cana Resort. Guests enjoy performances by Wanda Sykes, Suzanne Westenhoefer, Vicci Martinez, and Toshi Reagon.

2013: Olivia closes 2013 with a special 40th anniversary Virgin Isles New Year’s Eve Cruise, celebrating five “sheroes” of our lifetime—Billie Jean King, Edie Windsor, Col. Grethe Cammermeyer, Cris Williamson, and Tammy Smith.

2014: Olivia holds its first-ever Women’s Leadership Summit on board the Caribbean Equality & Leadership Cruise. Special guests include Edie Windsor, Col. Grethe Cammermeyer, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Meredith Baxter, Kate Kendell, Elizabeth Birch, Kris Perry & Sandy Stier, Karen Williams, and C.C. Carter. Guests enjoy a special performance from Indigo Girls.

2014: Maya Angelou is the keynote speaker at the Women’s Leadership Summit, just four months before her death.

2014: Olivia partners with the Nepal Youth Foundation (NYF), and raises over $150,000 to help save young Nepalese girls from the practice of Kamlari, the enslaving of young girls. An ongoing partnership is established.

2014: Guests enjoy a special in-port performance from Bonnie Raitt on the Thanksgiving Caribbean Cruise.

2015: Olivia celebrates its 25th anniversary as a travel company with 1,900 lesbians on its first-ever 12 day/11-night cruise to Australia and New Zealand. Olivia Newton-John kicks off the cruise with an in-port concert, and guests enjoy entertainment from Australian country music singer, Beccy Cole; New Zealand national treasures, The Topp Twins; and DJ Ruby Rose.

2015: Judy Dlugacz is awarded the Hanns Ebensten Hall of Fame Award from the International Gay & Lesbian Travel Association (IGLTA).

2015: Judy Dlugacz wins the popular vote for 2015 San Francisco Pride Grand Marshal.

2016: Olivia’s Pacific Coast Cruise aboard Holland America ms Zaandam makes first ever port of call visit to San Francisco.

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Olivia Revolutionized Travel for Lesbians: Here's How

How the Women of Olivia Changed The World of Travel

In 1990, when Olivia — then a venerable lesbian music company — chartered its very first ocean voyage, only one cruise line would lease a ship to a bunch of queer women. “On so many levels we were seen as scary,” Olivia’s founder Judy Dlugacz recalls. “First homophobia, then not believing women could charter a ship, and they were also afraid about what the religious community would think of their companies chartering to gay people. Also, the crew had to be totally in the closet or be afraid of losing their jobs.”

Since then, “we have changed the travel industry and impacted women all over the world!” Dlugacz says. And indeed, examples abound of how the pioneering company made history and changed the world of travel. In 1993, Olivia visited the Greek island of Lesbos, in what Dlugacz has called, “probably the largest lesbian pilgrimage in a few millennia.”

Six years later, when docking in Turkey , an Olivia cruise was met by protestors who objected to the queer passengers. Over a thousand women disembarked anyway and infused so much cash into the local economy that by the next port they were greeted with signs proclaiming “Welcome, Ladies of Olivia!” and Turkish newspapers heralded the “wonderful women” who helped revive the tourist industry post-Kosovo War.

“We are amazing ambassadors wherever we go,” Dlugacz notes (pictured). “Meeting people who never saw so many women much less lesbians and LGBTQ + women having so much fun together. It is contagious and we have helped to change the way the world sees this very invisible population.”

Olivia founder Judy Dlugacz

Over the decades, Olivia cruises have hosted author summits and film festivals, leadership trips with icons like Billie Jean King, and tennis clinics with Martina Navratilova. The former recording label continued its musical legacy by booking stars like the Indigo Girls, Heart, k.d. lang, and Melissa Etheridge.

Today, Olivia Travel is the most influential queer women’s travel company in the world. “Our team and our guests represent an amazing cross-section of our community,” boasts Dlugacz, who says Olivia’s guests range from their 30s to 70s and reflect numerous ethnicities, racial identities, and international connections.

Alyson Palmer of the band BETTY performs onboard

“Since we started Olivia Travel, we have taken well over 350,000 women on vacations around the world,” Dlugacz says. “So many women never traveled outside of the U.S. before Olivia because of how insecure it was to travel as two women. Now we go everywhere with brand new travelers and well-seasoned adventurers. For lesbians and LGBTQ+ women in particular [cruising] is a great way to see the world with a community of friends,” Dlugacz says. “It is also a very secure way for women to travel.”

Solo group on an Olivia Cruise

LGBTQ+ travelers face more than taunts or outright discrimination when they travel — violence is always a possibility, especially for women, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming folks. Singles, couples, and small groups are at more risk than a ship full of queer women. There is safety in numbers and in the way Olivia vets every port and excursion operator before partnering with them. That kind of power and security can be intoxicating and it’s one of the reasons that Olivia cruises can feel so life changing.

There really is something special about being on a boat where women outnumber men 100 to one and the majority of passengers and crew are queer. (“It’s like taking off a tight shoe,” Dlugacz jokes.) It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Until it isn’t. After going on one Olivia cruise many guests return, again and again. (I’ve been on eight myself.)

“The LGBTQ+ women who come with us have an extraordinary experience, unlike any other,” Dlugacz adds. “I always welcome our guests at the gangway and say, ‘Welcome to the way the world should be!’ [There’s a] comfort and freedom knowing we are the majority and thus the norm. When you step on an Olivia cruise or resort or any of our trips, you can feel that sense of excitement and delight and for whatever number of days you are with us, there is a fresh sense of empowerment for all.”

The cruise industry has grown enormously in the past three decades. “When Olivia started cruising, the largest ships were 1,250 passengers,” Dlugacz muses. “Now they are over 5,000. But the good news is there is a lot of diversity in terms of size of ships, types of ships, and where we can go.”

Olivia charters cruise ships that can carry up to 2,200 passengers, riverboats (up to 180) in Europe and the U.S., and adventure cruises (up to 100) in the Galapagos, Antarctica, and the Sea of Cortez. The company also does resort buyouts in Mexico and the Caribbean and land-based adventures in Patagonia and Machu Picchu .

In the coming year, Olivia is planning 33 trips — mostly riverboats. But the itinerary also includes Windstar sail trips in Tahiti, resorts in Turks and Caicos and Nuevo Vallarta, and small luxury cruises to Iceland, Greece , Cyprus, and Israel.

As the world learns to live with the pandemic, travel has rebounded. In fact, business is booming. Dlugacz says, “We are seeing a huge increase in new guests on all of our vacations. We have yet to do a large cruise [since the pandemic started] and the first will be our 50th Celebrations to the Caribbean. Everything we are doing is selling out.”

In 2023 Olivia is celebrating its 50th anniversary as a company, and Dlugacz says it’s planning “blowout experiences,” including two cruises to the Caribbean and a buyout of a five-star resort in Cabo San Lucas. She says, “Next year promises to be Olivia’s biggest year in her history.”

Dlugacz says of her crew, “We get better at everything we do every time we travel.” Those who’ve been on previous cruises will still find something new to experience on Olivia. “More and more new talent, some wonderful new ships and itineraries you’ve never done before…[and] an even more diverse group of passengers!”

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Olivia Creates Affirming Space for LGBTQ Women Traveling Across the Globe

Almost 50 years ago, a collective of lesbians came together to create Olivia, a record company producing music by and for women. In 1990, that group had the opportunity to host a concert on a cruise ship. The four-night lesbian cruise quickly sold out and a travel company was born.

Today, Olivia produces incredible, worldwide trips specifically catering to LGBTQ women. Its vacations include cruises, riverboats, resorts, and adventure land packages spanning a diverse array of countries and continents. In its 30+ years of travel, Olivia has taken over 350,000 women on over 350 trips across the globe.

Olivia trips are specifically designed with queer women in mind, from the entertainment to the activity programming. All entertainment and activities are by and for the LGBTQ community: music, comedy, DJs, dance parties, themed parties, and more, all centered around LGBTQ women.

“The minute you step foot on an Olivia vacation, there’s a sense of community, of belonging, of validation,” Tisha Floratos-Salano, the Vice President of Travel and Business Operations at Olivia, told Georgia Voice . “We’re all saying hello to one another. There’s this joy and excitement and energy that you feel. For one week, we get to be with one another, create community, and build visibility wherever we go. At the same time, you’re having an incredible vacation that’s filled with entertainment that’s for our community.”

Team Olivia looks after each guest’s needs. There are specific needs coordinators on trips to take care of guests with extra dietary, medical, and mobility needs. There is also specific programming aimed at empowering solo travelers.

“Anywhere from 10 to 30 percent of our guests are solo travelers,” Floratos-Salano said. “So, we create a whole program just for our solo [travelers] so they have an opportunity to connect with other women, so they don’t feel alone on their vacation unless they want to just chill out and be by themselves.”

While Olivia advertises specifically to LGBTQ women, the company values diversity and inclusivity. Floratos-Salano told Georgia Voice that nonbinary and gender-expansive guests are welcomed with open arms. There is also programming created by and for women of color with the Sisters at Sea and Sisters at Play coordinators.

All of this translates into a vacation that is not only fun, but also affirming. As the Olivia hashtag #YouDon’tKnowUntilYouGo illustrates, the sense of community created on these trips is more impactful than new guests even realize.

“I think we all live our day-to-day lives, and sometimes we don’t know that we need this space, we need this community, where we can celebrate one another and be with one another,” Floratos-Salano said. “It’s almost a sacred space for our guests. The fact that Olivia can provide this affirming space, it’s transformational for some guests … [T]here are women who still live in places where they’re not really out in their everyday lives or there’s not any community where they live. To be able to provide that space for women is pretty powerful.”

This fall, Olivia is taking LGBTQ women to places like Machu Picchu, Amsterdam, India, and even Antarctica. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, many of these trips have been rescheduled from 2020 and are therefore sold out. However, destinations planned for next year include Switzerland, France, the Galapagos, and Egypt, as well as Olivia’s 50th anniversary Caribbean Cruise and Hard Rock Hotel Cabo trips, both recommended by Floratos-Salano. Olivia will also be announcing vacations for 2024 soon.

It is only through the unwavering support of the LGBTQ community that Olivia has been able to provide this life-changing opportunity for both global travel and interpersonal empowerment for so many years.

“Olivia has been there for the community because the community has been here for us,” Floratos-Salano said. “We are this small travel company that has grown because friends tell friends who tell friends. It’s been a remarkable journey to see so many women travel around the world, make lifelong friendships, and come back again and again.”

Due to limited space, it is suggested to book your trip far in advance. This can also be a more budget-friendly option; through a partnership with the buy-now, pay-later program Uplift, Olivia customers can put their vacation on an extended payment plan instead of paying for it upfront in full. View the entire vacation lineup and book your trip today at olivia.com.

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7 TOUR Companies that are Proud to specialize IN LGBTQ+ TRAVEL

Affinity Travel , Online Exclusives

Out Adventures specializes in LGBTQ travel

THESE TOUR companies are designed TO provide support for and celebrate LGBTQ+ friendly TRAVEL AND are ready to help you see the world the way you want.

For travelers in the LGBTQ+ community one key aspect of a successful trip is an atmosphere of acceptance. The tour operators listed below specialize in lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgender travel and will work with you and your group to assemble vacations to the best LGBT-friendly locations. Each of these companies pay close attention to the up-and-coming locations for LGBTQ+ travel as well as keeping an ear out for the safest destinations for anyone in the community. Feeling comfortable to be who you are while traveling is the top priority at each of these companies and they all have something unique to offer in the business of vacationing within your community.

OLIVIA TRAVEL

Leading lesbian tour operator, Olivia Travel, began as a record label in 1973 before transforming into an international tour outlet in 1990. Today the company, has planned trips for over 350,000 women and has a program designed for every kind of woman. There are programs for women over 40 and under 40, women of color, and even women in uniform. Whether you prefer to bring all your best gals on a trip or find adventure solo, there is a trip by Olivia that is a perfect fit for you. Their travel coordinators will work with you, or your entire group, to plan your next fantastic vacation.

Olivia Travel goes all out to deliver world-class travel experiences to women, their vacations span from full cruise trips to renting out hotels for a vacation full of girl power. The company even offers safari trips full of gorgeous landscapes and rare animal experiences. No matter which route you chose, all adventures through Olivia Travel are created to foster authenticity, a welcoming community of LGBTQ+ women, and a space that allows you to come exactly as you are. Groups, or solo travelers, may book online, visit the San Francisco office or call Olivia’s travel consultants. ( olivia.com )

OWLs: We celebrate our elders by creating special events so that you can connect, share stories, and forge new friendships. (photo courtesy of https://olivia.com/our-programs)

ZOOM VACATIONS

Based in Chicago, this prestigious travel planner won the 2016 Travvy Award’s gold prize for Best Escorted Tour Operator in the LGBT category and the 2010 TripOut Gay Travel Awards, among many other accolades. From their start Zoom has been all about diversity, inclusion, and comradery. All their destinations have been vetted as being gay-friendly and welcoming to people in all walks of life.

Zoom Vacations believes that successful gay travel, and travel in general, relies on the close attention to detail. Travel coordinators at Zoom strive to personalize the trip to the traveler, getting to know you, your preferences, and the vision you have for your vacation. The company provides two ways to travel, with their pre-planned vacation itineraries or by helping you plan your own private trip catered to your ideas.

Zoom’s unique tours can take you anywhere from Morocco or Egypt, and even to the Maldives. Their planned get aways offered each year include luxury hotel stays, tour guides throughout all the trip’s outings, as well as incredible cuisine both at your hotel and at hand-picked locations around your destination. If you want to go the independent travel route, a travel expert will work with you throughout each step of the planning process. They will consider the destination you have in mind along with your budget and hand craft a vacation specific to you. Pricing for solo trips and the schedule for upcoming tours, as well as testimonial from several previous Zoom travelers can be found on their website ( zoomvacations.com ).

Based in Salt Lake City, Utah to serve as a beacon of hope to the large population of young LGBTQ+ individuals, HE Travel is one of the leading companies in inclusive travel. They have received the Editor’s Choice from Out & About, the popular gay travel newsletter, and was named Gay Tour Operator of the Year by OutTraveler Magazine.

HE Travel specializes in active outdoor travel with trips that feature hiking, rafting, and biking. While all their trips have a varying levels of outdoor activity, they do not all center around these activities. There are also trips that feature island hopping, safaris and even cultural tours.

If outdoor adventure amongst a welcoming and inclusive community sounds like the right kind of trip for you, you can visit HE Travel’s website to see their full calendar of trips. ( tototours.com )

OUT ADVENTURES

Based in Canada, Out Adventures takes LGBTQ+ groups interests into consideration when planning a variety of trips around the world. Since 2009 Out Adventures has been prioritizing the celebration of the LGBTQ+ community in their travel itineraries. Their crew has explored over a hundred countries, making them well versed about customs and feelings towards the community. This allows them to plan trip for you centered around places that you will feel safe and welcomed. Out Adventures are not only curated to make you feel welcomed wherever your travels may take you, but also to support the LGBTQ+ community in the countries their tours visit. Tours are organized on their site according to themes such as active, cruise, culture, and flex, making it easy to find a trip that feels right for your interests.

Out Adventures guided trips and tours lean more towards the small size hosting sixteen travelers for land excursions and not more than forty on a cruise. This allows you and your fellow vacationers to build a sense of comradery and foster an even greater community feel on your trip. If one of their tours does not stick out to you, they always have agents that are happy to help you plan something that is more your style or speed. ( outadventures.com )

(Photo courtesy of https://www.outadventures.com/)

(Photo courtesy of https://www.outadventures.com/ )

DETOURS GAY TRAVEL

Founded in 2012, Detours home base is also located in Canada. The company is run by a group of family and friends that pride themselves on putting together relaxing and unhurried vacations. Their travel initiative is to allow guests on their trips to be travelers, not tourists, immersing them in a locations culture rather than only seeing bug ticket attractions. Detours travel concept revolves around you the traveler, steering away from “cookie cutter” itineraries and following a plan as we go mindset. If you would rather lay on the beach while the rest of the group goes zip lining or want to try out a weaving class instead of snorkeling, Detours encourages you to choose your own adventure along the way.

They have a calendar full of trips that can take you and your friends to Europe, Asia, Oceania, Latin America, and Africa. Whatever you’re looking for, Detours can help book your group on a pre-scheduled trip or customize one based on your interests. ( detourstravel.com )

Pink VIbgyor

This travel agency in Sydney, Australia specializes in tailor made LGBTQ+ vacations with a heart for providing you with the most immersive and relaxing stays. While Pink Vibgyor also offers specific preplanned gay tours, their shining aspect is their attention to your preferences when helping you plan your dream vacation. They heavily research all their package trips as well as any trip they may be assisting you with, to bring you closer to the LGBTQ+ culture and lifestyle around your location.

One of their features that set them apart from other LGBTQ+ travel companies is their section on culinary tours. These special tours feature meals with local families, getting a front row seat to their coking styles and recipes, and experiencing the best traditional cuisine your destination has to offer.

You can see all their exciting featured planned tours or fill out a form to begin crafting your personal tailor-made tour with a staff member on their website. ( pinkvibgyor.com/ ).

Oscar Wilde Tours

Gay Pride is more and more important in the world today—and Oscar Wilde Tours lets you explore it more deeply than ever. As heirs to a tradition that is central to civilization, LGBTQ+ people can truly take pride in their forebears, who count among their number such greats as Sappho and Socrates, Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, Shakespeare, Tchaikovsky and Virginia Woolf, the genius dancer Nijinsky, the literary revolutionary Thomas Mann, and of course, the sublime Oscar Wilde himself.

Oscar Wilde Tours offers guided tours to destinations such as Europe and the United States, focusing on the cultural and historical significance of LGBTQ+ communities in each location. ( oscarwildetours.com/ )

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Olivia Celebrates 40 Years of Lesbian Leisure

We look at four decades of the lesbian travel leader

For most travelers, planning a trip has more to do with the destination rather than the people one is bound to meet along the way. That’s hardly the case for Olivia, a San Francisco-based company and leader in the lesbian travel industry. When a traveler signs up for one of Olivia’s cruises she knows she’ll be gaining both photos and friends.

Olivia has gone way past providing memorable vacation experiences: They’ve created a lifestyle. “We change lives and minds wherever we go, and our collective power is an awe-inspiring thing that has led to many memorable moments,” explains Olivia President and Founder Judy Dlugacz. Today, Olivia serves millions of lesbians through cruises, adventure travel excursions and high-end luxury vacations. Yet, 40 years ago, Olivia operated on a much smaller scale. It all began in 1973 with a group of ten women who dreamed of changing the world through music. They launched Olivia Records, a record label that released LPs of acoustic folk for women, by women. Backed by a humble $4,000 investment, the team recorded a 45 with Meg Christian and Cris Williamson and sent it to all the rich and famous people they thought might further fund the album.

The plan didn’t work, but it didn’t matter. Olivia Records had already found its audience. Women around the country wanted to pick up the album, so Dlugacz and her team took it upon themselves to ship the record themselves, making a cool $11,000 in profits. With no distribution channel to access at the time, Olivia then created its own distribution model, eventually expanding to a network of 80 women who were passionate about the project. In an age before social media, many lesbians sought out each other through Olivia’s musical productions. It bonded the community together, giving women an avenue for self-expression and a glimmer of hope for a more open-minded future.

At the same time, lesbians turned to music as an emotional outlet. “We paralleled the women’s movement. It was the ability to reach women and have a profound impact and it literally changed their lives. If they were isolated in a small town, and thought they were the only women who were lesbian in the world, they bought this music and it changed their lives,” remembers Dlugacz.

After about 15 years in the music business, Dlugacz began pondering her next step. Coincidentally, after an Olivia-produced Seattle concert, a woman approached Dlugacz and nonchalantly mentioned how thrilling it would be to host a concert on the water. In that instant Dlugacz’s wheels began turning. An all-lesbian cruise might have seemed like a bold move for anyone else, but for Dlugacz it was a natural progression.

As successful as Olivia’s cruises are today, breaking into the travel market had its fair share of obstacles. “At first no one wanted to charter a ship to lesbians. They didn’t know us or understand who we were,” states Dlugacz. The cruise industry was unsure of what their regular customers would think of a company chartering a ship full of lesbians. The ship’s staff, too, had to be introduced to the lesbian community’s needs.

Dolphin Cruise Lines agreed to host the first Olivia cruise, and its first vacationers were women who already supported Olivia’s music. The Olivia team sold out the first week almost immediately, and then they added a second week that sold out just as quickly. Dlugacz and her team knew they were onto something big. In February 1990, the 600-passenger ship Dolphin IV left Miami and headed for the Bahamas on a couple of back-to-back four-night cruises.

Olivia provided a comfortable vacation environment for the lesbian community free of judgmental stigmas. With no fear of being stared at or hearing offensive remarks, Olivia’s clients got the most out of their cruise experience. The next step was hiring a dedicated female staff to run on-board activities ranging from dance lessons to solo programs.

Part of Olivia’s appeal is the welcoming atmosphere lesbian travelers have come to expect from the brand. If Judy’s opening tagline, “welcome to the way the world should be,” doesn’t get people excited, the high-energy and personable lesbian staff of stand-up comics, musicians and other entertainers will do the trick. Never straying far from Olivia’s roots, the company sees travel as a means to reach women around the world and change their lives for the better. Many of Olivia’s customers come back again and again for different travel experiences. Doreen Anderson, one of Olivia’s frequent travelers, first booked with Olivia in January of 2012 for a May 2012 trip to Cancun. Blown away by her Mexican trip, Anderson now recommends Olivia to her friends. “It is amazing to be part of this wonderful family/community and never have to watch over your shoulder or feel different. You really can be yourself, and also try things that you have never done before and step out of your ‘comfort zone’ in a safe and supportive environment,” she says.

The feeling of freedom one gets from an Olivia vacation is a driving factor in transitioning from a one-time customer to a frequent traveler. While Anderson asserts that she is “very out” in her everyday life, she says that Olivia lifts an invisible weight from one’s shoulders.

Donna Shands-Island, another regular Olivia cruiser, also touches on this same sense of freedom experienced during her trips. “Through Olivia I have found a greater sense of who I can be,” she says. After being inspired by other Olivia travelers, Shands-Island began to view her own life as one with endless opportunities. She is now an activist who speaks at various events about LGBT travel.

Anderson and Shands-Island are not alone in their high opinion of Olivia. A reported 96-98 percent of solo and coupled travelers, hailing from all over the world, say that they would book another vacation with Olivia. There is even a solo program specifically tailored to singles.

Another ingredient to Olivia’s winning recipe is its ability to turn any challenge into an opportunity. During a 2000 trip to the Bahamas, for example, Olivia cruisers were met by an angry group of anti-gay protesters. While hardly an ideal way to kick off a vacation, Olivia turned this unfortunate situation into a platform for raising awareness about the LGBT community. They called for the Bahamas government to make an official statement condemning the group of protestors. Like clockwork, the government held a press conference the next day asking Olivia and other gay and lesbian travelers to return to the island nation. The Bahamas’ Minister of Tourism even went so far as to climb aboard the ship and personally apologize for the protestors’ behavior.

On the other end of the spectrum, Olivia was praised after a trip to Turkey that very same year. No less than four major Istanbul newspapers celebrated the cruise ship’s arrival with front-page headlines about how Olivia’s lesbian travelers had rescued the Turkish economy by spending over half a million dollars in three separate ports of call within a three-day span. In this regard, Olivia cruises have helped boost the economies in many countries, as so many nations depend on tourism.

With a creative and positive outlook, the company has given back on a number of occasions. After the devastating 2010 earthquake in Haiti, Olivia partnered with gay companies Atlantis Events and RSVP Cruises to form the American Red Cross LGBT Haiti Relief Fund, an effort that raised a generous $250,000 to rebuild the affected communities. Similarly, their Olivia Gives program provides donations, such as much-needed school supplies to children in Honduras, Mexico, Africa and the Dominican Republic, all of which are areas where Olivia tours operate. Giving back to the communities where Olivia travelers visit adds value to Olivia as a company, Dlugacz believes.

To celebrate the diversity of the Olivia community, the Sisters at Sea and Friends program aims to encourage more women of color to travel with Olivia.

With so many of the company’s goals already exceeding expectations, their momentum shows no sign of slowing. Today, Olivia offers more than 150 vacation packages, ranging from tropical cruises to culinary-themed trips and adventurous African safari tours. They also offer Ultimate Escapes to exotic destinations like Tahiti and the Galapagos Islands. Tailored to the ultimate adventure travelers, these once-in-a-lifetime experiences continue to expand travelers’ horizons.

Under the leadership of Dlugacz, Tisha Floratos, Jill Cruse and the rest of the Olivia team, the company will soon offer an even more extensive inventory of travel destinations with further customizations available in an effort to connect, transform and celebrate the lesbian community. Olivia aims to treat each customer as a member of the family for years to come.

How destinations are helping LGBTQ+ visitors travel with pride

Destinations that embrace LGBTQ+ communities are rewarded with visitors. Their success shows how tourism can be more inclusive.

It’s well after midnight, and Madrid ’s Plaza de Chueca is living up to its title as the fizzing, thumping heart of the Spanish capital’s gay district. The warm air quivers with the sound of voices, not only in Spanish, but also in languages from around the world.

Progressive laws and largely liberal attitudes within Spain have made it a haven for LGBTQ+ travelers, who have long flocked to the country’s cities, coasts and islands.

Perhaps there’s a native link between the LGBTQ+ community and travel, as John Tanzella, president of the International LGBTQ+ Travel Association (IGLTA), says.

“The very nature of being LGBTQ+ means there’s an open-mindedness and desire to see the world,” he says. “This is a loyal community that loves to travel multiple times a year and spends a lot every time. Suddenly it’s clear why companies want to reach us.”

Gay Couple having breakfast with astonishing views of Barcelona city. Bunkers del Carmel, Barcelona, Spain

The rewards can be lucrative: research by corporate advisory and asset management company LGBT Capital estimates that the sector has a global spending power of $3.9 trillion. There’s even a name for it—“pink money.” But the experiences offered in return don’t always measure up.

“All too often, travelers pay hundreds a night, only to have a poor experience,” explains Simon Mayle, the event director of Proud Experiences , a convention for LGBTQ+ travel businesses. “The bar is often simply too low.” Mayle cites his-and-her slippers in bathrooms and awkward conversations about beds at check-in as examples. Some couples, he adds, are even turned away entirely.

Others may scratch their heads as to why hospitality sees the need to tailor service towards heterosexual pairings at all—after all, most travelers are looking for the same things: exploration, relaxation, scenic beauty and historic sites, according to recent studies.

( These digital tools help Black and LGBTQ+ travelers travel safely .)

But for all the common ground, the travel experience itself can be very different for the LGBTQ+ community: when and where to show affection, laws around same-sex activity, and gender-related issues concerning passports, to name a few.

In 2010, Preferred Hotels & Resorts created the Preferred Pride program —a collection of hotels that puts the experience of LGBTQ+ travelers front and center. For Rick Stiffler, senior vice president of sales-leisure, it was partly driven by a desire to see more initiative in the hotel world. He believed too few brands were making real efforts when it came to inclusivity.

“We wanted our hotels to really engage with the community, both locally and internationally,” he says. “If they truly want this business, then they need to show it… If a hotel is inclusive of LGBTQ+ people, then it’s going to be inclusive of everyone, and that matters.”

So how are destinations around the world representing the full spectrum of the community? And what remains to be done on behalf of businesses looking to advertise acceptance and equality? Here’s the state of play now.

Seeing the spectrum

In recent decades, improved understanding and more inclusive services have helped to give the LGBTQ+ community more confidence when traveling, but not everything has quite caught up with the times.

A quick Google image search using the words “gay travel” reveals no shortage of well-toned, beach-loving, predominantly male couples. For a community defined by its diversity, the online reality can still feel one-dimensional.

Crowded Copacabana Beach with distant view of Christ the Redeemer statue far right, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, South America

But some countries have already taken note: in 2013, Thailand launched its “Go Thai. Be Free” campaign, with a comprehensive list of experiences, hotels, and destination guides geared towards LGBTQ+ travelers, featuring people of all colors and orientations. Malta , meanwhile, has positioned itself as one of Europe ’s most welcoming destinations through more inclusive marketing, in step with improved equality laws within the country.

Stiffler believes there’s been a genuine shift in travel to reflect an audience that’s more eclectic than ever, including same-sex-parented families and trans and non-binary travelers. “Adverts should look like real people in the community, not just two models posing on a beach,” he explains.

( Why LGBTQ+ travelers face difficult choices of coming out abroad .)

Jill Cruse is the vice president of guest experience at Olivia Travel , an operator based in San Francisco with mostly lesbian clientele. She’s enthusiastic about the kinship that comes from the company’s group trips, which, she says, have even more value after two years of social isolation. She believes LGBTQ+ travelers are seeing the benefit of being among like-minded people again. “It means you’re free to be yourself, and, really, there’s nothing like feeling accepted.”

The types of trips this community is seeking are also changing. Darren Burn, founder of tailor-made luxury LGBTQ+ travel company Out of Office , says well-established LGBTQ+ destinations such as Thailand, Gran Canaria, and Ibiza are still popular, but he’s also seeing travelers demonstrating their confidence with more adventurous trips, too. “We’re seeing more and more solo travelers in the market, too; single gay men looking to join an epic group hikes in Machu Picchu , for instance,” he says.

However attractive these destinations may be, many are still unwelcoming, even dangerous to LGBTQ+ travelers. Equality tracker Equaldex lists over 70 countries as having homophobic laws, several of them even enforcing capital punishment for same-sex activity. But being open-minded can be beneficial, says Burn. “It’s worth remembering that these countries have gay citizens, too,” he says. “Tourism can show people that, really, we’re no different after all.”

The benefits of welcoming diverse, broad-minded travelers have paid off for some destinations. Tel Aviv and Rio de Janeiro , says Mayle, have woken up not just to the financial rewards of an inclusive approach, but also the more human benefits, too. “LGBTQ+ people are, by nature, welcoming and open people,” he says. “Plus, many of us have a big network of like-minded people back home.”

Walking the walk

Any legislative change begins at the top, of course, but certain governments pose a challenge for the industry. In these cases, companies looking to directly advertise to gay, lesbian, or trans travelers can rarely do so overtly.

A double rainbow arches off the Seychelles Islands.

Burn argues that such destinations—which often happily take bookings from LGBTQ+ travelers—need to put their money where their mouth is. “A lot of them rely on the money of these travelers, but are they making inroads with getting laws changed?” he asks. “It’s not fair to have one rule for citizens and another for visitors.”

Despite this, there’s been tentative progress in countries that, until recently, lagged well behind in terms of equality.

In 2019, the Botswana High Court ruled in favor of decriminalizing homosexuality, and similar moves have been made in the Seychelles , Mozambique , and Trinidad and Tobago in recent years.

Change takes time, says Cruse, claiming that some destinations, such as the Bahamas , were hesitant about welcoming a lesbian cruise in the early 1990s. “Once we [the company] came into the market, people got to know us and realized we were no different, things started to change.”

Mayle believes it isn’t too late for companies looking to make a positive change, but the key is doing it with purpose and authenticity. Tanzella agrees, saying that lip service is no longer enough to convince travelers that the industry cares. “If you claim to appreciate diversity, but your board of directors looks the same, you’re not walking the walk,” he says. “You need to really mean what you’re doing.”

Streff says travelers today are savvy, and that a rainbow sticker in the window is no bad thing but needs to go much further. “Diversity is something that needs to be reflected behind the scenes, too, so consumers know it’s genuine,” he says.

Authenticity has worked for Madrid, at least. Of course, there are rainbow flags and stickers aplenty, but it’s the progress that counts most: this is the capital of a country where same-sex marriage was legalized nationwide in 2005—the third country in the world to do so after the Netherlands and Belgium. Perhaps it’s proof that if you show the world you’re open-minded, people will come.

Other nations might want to take note: after all, where LGBTQ+ travelers go, others follow. “It happened with Ibiza, and now we’re seeing it with Mykonos—suddenly everyone’s going,” says Burn. “It’s almost a question of ‘where will the gays go next?’”

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Gay Moscow Moscow City Guide

Moscow invariably hits the headlines for all the wrong reasons. And though the Russian capital isn’t particularly LGBTQ-friendly (Vladimir Putin’s annual shirtless photoshoot notwithstanding), we don’t think you should miss out on the most intriguing of Moscow points of interest because of it. Homosexuality is legal, although a vaguely-worded 2013 law prohibits the promotion of ‘non-traditional’ relationships. As such, gay travellers are advised against overt displays of their sexuality. That said, the vast majority of visits remain trouble-free, even for visitors who frequent the city’s less-than-secret gay bar and club scene.

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The best hotels in Moscow

The historic exterior of the Hotel Metropol , facing the internationally-celebrated Bolshoi Theatre and close to many of the other main things to do in Moscow, is nothing compared to its sumptuous interiors. Its decor recalls the no-expense-spared philosophy of the grand imperial era that climaxed at the turn of the 1900s. Marble detailing, decorative plasterwork, and a breathtaking stained-glass roof enclosing the vast dining hall is the result. Though the hotel is large – with 365 rooms, there is a different bed for every day of the year – each room is uniquely shaped in the art deco style, ensuring a personal feel. The rooms at the Russo-Balt Hotel are also individually decorated, but in the earlier art nouveau style of swirling floral motifs, blown-glass chandeliers, and richly carved woods. Stand out features include a pillow menu and breakfasts which incorporate produce from the hotel’s private farm.

Rooms at the PR Myasnitsky Boutique Hotel have a more playful, contemporary look, combining bare brick with sleek pieces of modern furniture, all within the large public spaces of the nineteenth-century edifice. Each features a small fridge and capsule coffee machine. As a self-declared design hotel, rest assured that any stay at Akvarel Hotel will be an elegant one, with every detail considered from the moment you step across the threshold. The chic mid-century design flows effortlessly from the lobby bar and summer terrace to the rooms, each of which has been custom-styled with fanciful furnishings. A little further away, on the Third Ring Road in the Basmanny district, is the three-star Boutique Hotel Baumanskiy . The modern building features quirky in-room works of art and the offer of complimentary coffees at reception. The carpeted interiors give this stay a homely ambience, which marries well with breakfast – which is served in your room.

Photo: Crew

- Gay Moscow - Moscow

Opposite the Bolshoi Theatre in the heart of Moscow, this historical hotel features a pool and gym. It offers free parking, as well as free WiFi throughout the property.

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PR Myasnitsky Boutique Hotel

PR Myasnitsky Boutique Hotel features some rooms with Myasnitskaya Street views. A rich breakfast is served in the Market Place restaurant, located nearby.

Boutique Hotel Baumanskiy

Situated conveniently in the Basmanny district of Moscow, Boutique Hotel Baumanskiy is located 6 km from Olympic Stadium, 7 km from The Kremlin and 7 km from Zaryadye Park.

Russo-Balt Hotel

Housed in an elegant building dating back to 1876 with a private garden, this central Moscow hotel serves an elegant breakfast, prepared from organic products from the private farm.

Akvarel Hotel

Hotel Akvarel is located in the heart of Moscow’s historic centre. Free WiFi is available throughout the hotel. Teatralnaya Metro Station is a 7-minute walk away.

Brick Design Hotel

Featuring free WiFi, Brick Design Hotel offers accommodation in the centre of Moscow in the 19th-century historical building. Chistye Prudy Metro Station is 300 m from the hotel.

Villa Kadashi

Villa Kadashi Boutique Hotel is set right in the heart of Moscow, an 11-minute walk from Zaryadye Park. Around 1 km from The Kremlin, the property is also close to Saint Basil’s Cathedral.

Discover more hotels like this in Moscow

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Russian Activists Just Won an Important Battle Over LGBTQ Rights. But the War Is Far From Over

LGBT activists rally in Moscow's Pushkin Square on July 15, 2020. The poster reads: "I don't accept power that does not allow me to have a family!"

T here aren’t many people like Yulia Tsvetkova in Komsomolsk-on-Amur. The Russian city is 5,000 miles and seven time zones east of the capital, Moscow, and for half the year, it is under snow or ice. It’s known more for shipbuilding and aircraft manufacturing than LGBTQ rights and feminist activism — but that hasn’t stopped Tsvetkova forging a reputation in both. “There are practically no activists here, most of them try to leave,” she says, over a phone call. “But there’s still a lot I can do.”

In the past three years, the 27-year-old has headed a youth theatre, where she created plays that explored gender stereotypes, run online groups on feminism and sex education, and published drawings that she says promote LGBTQ and women’s rights on social media. Her activism has made her a target for the authorities. In July, about a week after the Kremlin pushed through constitutional amendments that include defining marriage as a union between a man and woman, Tsvetkova was fined for a second time under the country’s notorious “gay propaganda” law and forced to pay 75,000 Rubles ($1000) over her colorful illustrations of same-sex couples and their young children.

Tsvetkova is now facing charges of “spreading pornography” for a Vagina Monologues page she published on social media last November, which features illustrations of vaginas, aimed at breaking the stigma around women’s bodies. “I laughed, my lawyer laughed, my friends laughed. Anyone can see that this isn’t pornography,” she says. Yet she spent four months under house arrest and prosecutors are relentlessly trying to build a case against her. If she is found guilty, as 99% of those prosecuted in Russia’s criminal courts are, she could be sent to jail for up to six years. Tsvetkova has become a symbol of the resistance against Russia’s enforcement of “traditional values” and despite the Kremlin’s attempt to stigmatize her activism, she has received unprecedented support from celebrities, artists and journalists across Russia and beyond.

The defiance of Tsvetkova and many other LGBTQ activists in Russia may finally be paying off. Two weeks after the constitution was changed, the government proposed a bill to ban same-sex marriage and end the legal recognition of transgender people. Many activists had expected the landmark bill, co-authored by conservative lawmaker Elena Mizulina, to pass in the fall. But on Nov. 16 parliament revoked the bill for revision and it could now be scrapped altogether.

Svetlana Zakharova, a spokesperson at the Russian LGBT Network in St. Peterburg says she can’t say for sure why the law was repealed, but emphasizes that the LGBTQ community and its allies in Russia managed to unite to resist the legislation “more than ever before”. “Our activities, together, helped to dismiss the bill,” she says. Mizulina lost support because of the “tremendous level of public outrage about the bill’s homophobia and transphobia,” Jonny Dzhibladze, a coordinator at Vykhod (“Coming Out”), a St.Petersburg based LGBT rights group, says. “It looks like we can breathe freely for some time,” he says.

But a battle won does not mean the war is over. The climate for LGBTQ people in Russia is still extremely hostile. According to a 2019 report by the Russian LGBT Network, 12% of LGBT people surveyed reported being subject to physical attacks, and 56%, psychological abuse. LGBTQ activists have been arrested, attacked and killed . “If you live your life quietly and you do not make demands from the government, you do not express yourself publicly as an LGBT person, the government is not going to go after you,” says Tanya Lokshina, associate director for Human Rights Watch’s Europe and Central Asia division. The repeal of the bill is unlikely to change that situation. “It’s not as if everything was fine before the bill, and if it passed, everything would be bad,” says Tsvetkova. But it does seem like “we’re in a moment of transition between accepting what’s around us and challenging it,” she says.

Artist Julia Tsvetkova is seen on an iPad screen during a video interview on July 16, 2020.

Russia’s culture of intolerance

Over the past 20 years, Russian President Vladimir Putin has closely aligned himself with the socially conservative Orthodox Church and has enacted legislation in purported defense of “traditional values” that activists say has promoted a culture of hostility toward the LGBTQ community. Russia is already one of the least LGBTQ friendly places in Europe, ranking higher than only Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkey in the 2019 Rainbow Index , by Brussels-based advocacy group Ilga-Europe. In 2012, Moscow city authorities banned pride events for 100 years.

A year later Putin passed the so-called “gay propaganda” law, which bans information deemed to promote homosexuality to minors. The punishments were not severe, but it made it more dangerous for LGBTQ activists to claim their rights and stifled access to support services for LGBTQ youth. Alexander Kondakov, a researcher at the Centre for Independent Social Research in St. Petersburg says “It cannot be denied that the discriminatory law and the hateful rhetoric around LGBT rights at the time influenced an increase in violence towards LGBT people”.

Then came this year’s bill. Activists say the legislation represented an escalation, taking aim at the rights of transgender people in particular. It was a “tremendous blow” for the trans community in Russia, says Lokshina. Activists say that ending legal recognition – banning transgender people from changing the sex on their birth certificate – as the bill proposed, would further marginalize an already vulnerable group and open the way for more discrimination.

Alexei Lis, a 36 year-old activist and transgender man from St. Petersburg says that “If the police stop me and ask for my I.D. and see a woman’s photo, I could be harassed and beaten.” Gaining legal recognition is “an important step for transgender people in intergrating in society”, in terms being able to apply for jobs and access medical services without fear of discrimination, says Reinera Veles, an 23 year-old activist and transgender woman from Moscow.

For many LGBTQ people and their allies, the bill was a step too far. Russian LGBTQ activists fought back through campaigns including a social media movement ( #ProtectRussianTransLives ) and a petition that has been signed by almost 23,000 people. Dozens of doctors specializing in gender transition also condemned the move. In an appeal to lawmakers, medical professionals wrote that the bill will “destroy” the process of full gender transition by ending the legal recognition of transgender people. They said that the practice, which has been in place for decades in Russia, is “extremely important” for the “socialization” of transgender people. Banning it would “aggravate” gender dysphoria, they said.

High profile figures also joined the protest, including playwright Valery Pecheikin, opposition politician Dmitry Gudkov, and lawmaker and TV presenter Oksana Pushkina. Defying her colleagues in Putin’s United Russia party, Pushkina called it “an absolutely insane law” in an interview with TV Dozhd (“Rain”) , one of the country’s few remaining independent outlets. Referring to Article 19 of Russia’s Constitution, which guarantees equal rights and freedoms to all citizens, she emphasized that “sexual orientation cannot be the basis for restricting civil rights.” Afterwards, several LGBTQ activists wrote open letters to Pushkina explaining how the bills would affect them.

The Russian government has entrapped itself, says Lokshina. “The more the government cracks down, the more vigorous LGBT activism in Russia becomes,” she explains. “One of the greatest developments” that she says she’s seen in her 20 years of human rights work in Russia is the “the mainstreaming” of the LGBTQ rights movement. “Seven or eight years ago LGBT activists were seen as separate from the human rights community. The mainstreaming happened because of the crackdown,” she says.

Justice for Yulia

The widespread criticism over Tsvetkova’s persecution is a case in point. Several high profile figures have publicly defended her over the “pornography” investigation, including TV host and former presidential candidate Ksenia Sobchak, actress Renata Litvinova, and veteran broadcaster Vladimir Pozner. They urged the authorities to protect the activist, who says she has received death threats from an anonymous homophobic network called Saw that publishes the names and contacts of LGBTQ people, and calls for violence against them. LGBTQ activist Elena Grigoryeva was murdered in July 2019 after her details appeared on Saw’s website.

Opposition grew. In June, over 500 Russians across the country staged single person pickets in solidarity with Tsvetkova. Police responded aggressively, detaining 40 demonstrators in Moscow and St. Petersburg. The same month, over 50 media outlets organized a “Media Strike for Yulia”, demanding that the “pornography” investigation be dropped. Writers, journalists, actors, influencers, and bloggers published articles, including in Vogue , under the hashtag #forYulia and #FreeJuliaTsvetkova, and some 248,000 people signed an online petition calling on authorities to drop the case against her.

Until recently, very few public figures in Russia were voicing their support for LGBTQ issues, says Zakharova, at the Russian LGBT network. “It shows that society is changing. It’s not as homophobic as our officials and religious leaders think,” she says. While the Russian public is still deeply divided on LGBTQ rights, support for the community appears to be growing. A 2019 poll by the Levada Center, an independent polling agency in Moscow, found that 47% of Russians support equal rights for the LGBTQ community, the highest level in 14 years (43% were not in support). The trend is especially pronounced in 16-18-year-olds , 81% of whom reported a “friendly or calm attitude” toward LGBTQ people and 33% reported having LGBTQ acquaintances, compared to 42% and 8% respectively among the general public . “There’s a lot of hope in young people,” says Zakharova.

While there is little evidence that Putin’s ruling party is becoming less hostile to LGBTQ people, there seems to have been a shift in attitudes among Russia’s democratic opposition figures. In 2009, Russia’s most prominent opposition figure Alexei Navalny suggested that gay people could “frolic” in a cordoned stadium rather than in public in a Pride Parade. Yet during his bid for Moscow mayor in 2013 and an aborted run for the presidency in 2017, he proposed to allow regional referenda on same-sex marriages. More recently, in June, he accused the government of going “completely crazy” after pro-Kremlin media group Patriot released a homophobic political advert . Sobchak, the TV host, in 2011 doubted the need for same-sex marriages. “I just don’t understand why this phenomenon should be called marriage,” she said. But as a presidential candidate in 2018, she included same-sex civil unions and the lifting of the “gay propaganda” law in her political program .

The repeal of the bill was an important win for Russia’s LGBTQ community, but it’s just one victory. “It’s not the end point,” Tsvetkova says. “Homophobia is a daily reality in Russia”. Battling that requires the daily work of LGBTQ groups across the country, the willingness of the the public to speak out about inequality and efforts of human rights lawyers as they defend LGBTQ rights activists, like Tsvetkova, who currently awaits the start of her trial. But many activists feel that the change that they have long been fighting for is finally in the air.

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'We're not hiding': Gay and lesbian Russians say a cultural shift is underway

When Lisa Androshina threw her first lesbian party in Moscow in 2017, she had low expectations.

“We wanted to just gather with our friends and just listen to cool music,” Androshina, 34, told NBC News. “We didn’t plan to do anything serious.”

She booked a bar that she said was often empty and invited her friends and some DJs. After a few parties, her event, called LVBZ, grew in popularity.

Image: Lisa Androshina, right, and the other organizers of the LVBZ lesbian party in Moscow.

Androshina, who lives in Moscow, said about 500 people now attend the quarterly LVBZ nighttime dance, which features DJs from around the world.

Despite the government’s anti-gay restrictions and the country’s conservative views on LGBTQ issues, some lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer Russians, like Androshina, are publicly sharing their identities and forming community, particularly in the country’s largest cities. This has spawned a cultural shift, albeit a small and partially underground one.

“We’re not hiding,” Androshina said. “We’re openly speaking about who we are now.”

‘Tired of being targeted’

In 2013, Russia passed a law that bans distributing information on LGBTQ issues and relationships to minors. Known as the “ gay propaganda law ,” the legislation states that any act or event that authorities deem to promote homosexuality to those under 18 is a finable offense.

The legislation has had a far more sinister impact than just a financial one: After it passed, anti-LGBTQ violence in the country increased, according to a 2018 report from the international rights group Human Rights Watch . A 2019 poll from the Russian LGBT Network, a Russian queer advocacy group, found 56 percent of LGBTQ respondents reported experiencing psychological abuse, and disturbing reports have emerged in recent years of the state-sanctioned detention and torture of gay and bisexual men in Chechnya, a semiautonomous Russian region. Just last year, a survey found that nearly 1 in 5 Russians reported wanting to “eliminate” gay and lesbian people from society .

“I don’t think Russian society is homophobic on its own,” Svetlana Zakharova, a boardmember of the St. Petersburg-based Russian LGBT Network, said. “The law’s inspiring homophobic hatred.”

Zakharova said younger residents are less trusting of the Russian government and are more accepting of LGBTQ people. She said that despite the “gay propaganda law,” more people from across the country are attending public, LGBTQ-focused events.

“Many people are tired of being targeted constantly, and they want to change something,” she said.

Creating ‘beautiful things’ amid fear

News articles, TV segments and documentary films about LGBTQ life in Russia tend to chronicle the challenging, and at times violent, experiences of the queer people that live there. This media narrative, even if accurate, contributes to the difficulty of being LGBTQ in Russia, according to Nikita Andriyanov, who lives in Moscow and co-hosts a podcast, roughly translated in English as “wide open,” about LGBTQ life and culture in Russia.

“It is not easy, and it’s not fun to be a gay person here,” he said.

Andriyanov, however, is among those trying to change the narrative. He said smaller media outlets, like his own, are helping to shape Russia’s emerging LGBTQ community. To avoid fines from the “gay propaganda law,” he said he adds a disclaimer to his podcast stating that it is for people over 18. And if the government were to fine him, despite the disclaimer, he said, people in the LGBTQ community would help support him.

“Once you are ready to accept the fact [that you are LGBTQ] and try to fight it, you become an activist,” Andriyanov said. “[There’s] that extra responsibility.”

Sasha Kazantseva, a 34-year-old lesbian living in Saint Petersburg, is also trying to change the narrative and help build community through media. In 2018, she created a digital magazine about queer Russian culture called O-Zine . She said she wanted to publish the magazine, in part, to counter the news coverage focused on the difficulty of being gay in Russia. The publication features queer art and culture stories, as well as positive articles about people in the community. She said she hopes O-Zine helps empower LGBTQ Russians to feel proud of their identities.

“When you’re a queer person and you live in a very homophobic country,” she said, “it makes it rather hard to just feel connection to other people.”

She’s trying to change that — and she said O-Zine has helped to document the progress that has been made so far. When the publication first launched, Kazantseva said, finding openly LGBTQ people to feature was difficult. Now, she added, Russians living in larger cities are open, and at times eager, to share their stories.

“Paradoxically [the gay propaganda law] helps the process of self-reflection of who we are, how we live as a community, how we can feel proud of who we are,” Kazantseva said.

She said both a drive to fight governmental restrictions and access to social media has slowly fortified the community over the past several years.

Despite collaborating with high-profile Russian creators and celebrities, O-Zine has not been fined under the country’s propaganda law. The magazine has avoided issues because it is independent and not an official media organization, according to Kazantseva.

“When you live under this risk daily, you start to just not care,” said Kazantseva, who like Zakharova said the younger generation is more progressive and open. “We can be arrested the next day, but let’s do what we want to do, and let’s create beautiful things.”

She did, however, note that the situation is drastically different in smaller Russian towns, where she said it’s nearly impossible — if not deadly — for queer people to form community.

“In Moscow and in St. Petersburg, big cities, it’s possible for us to have friendly spaces,” Kazantseva said. “For smaller cities [in] Russia, it’s nearly impossible, because people know each other, and people are less tolerant.”

Andriyanov, who moved from the vast province of Siberia to Moscow after college, agreed.

“It is not really that dangerous for me to be openly gay as it would have been if I grew up, if I stayed in [Siberia],” Andriyanov said. “I don’t think it would have been possible for me to reach that level of openness about my identity.”

He said living in a large city has helped him to accept his sexuality, and added that he would likely be in danger if he stayed in his hometown and lived openly as a gay man.

Creative ‘freedom’

A few films in Russian cinema are also reflecting the shift. The 2019 film “Beanpole” is a drama about a romance between two women in the former Leningrad that is set during World War II. Another 2019 film titled “Outlaw” is widely regarded as the first Russian film to feature a transgender character. “Outlaw” weaves the story of a gay teenager in modern-day Moscow and a transgender dancer in 1980s Soviet Union.

“‘Outlaw’ is about the impossible, about freedom — internal and external,” Ksenia Ratushnaya, the film’s director and screenwriter, said.

Ratushnaya, who lives in Moscow, said she thought the propaganda law would prevent her from screening “Outlaw” in Russia. She was nonetheless able to secure a governmental certificate to show the film in theaters, with the proviso that she edit out curse words and a few seconds of a sex scene involving a priest. That scene was flagged by government censors as breaking another law prohibiting offense against religious people.

Even though Ratushnaya was able to produce and release a film that featured LGBTQ characters without facing legal challenges, she said her film was not shown widely in Russia. Just 10 theaters agreed to screen it to the public, far fewer than most films, according to Ratushnaya. She said she believes many theater operators were simply too afraid to show it.

“I want people to have access to any information that they want,” said Ratushnaya, who added that it’s a battle to navigate the laws and create art. “Freedom, for me, is extremely important.”

‘You can move slowly to the light’

Androshina said the cultural shift she has observed, including the success of her lesbian party, has made her hopeful for the future. Currently, however, she’s not without concerns, ranging from her inability to marry or adopt children to fear for her physical safety as an out lesbian.

She also noted that because her party, LVBZ, is for people over 21, the event should be legal but added that the propaganda law and its application is not entirely clear to her. She said she is constantly balancing potential threats, including legal ones, and her dedication to creating an open and celebratory space for LGBTQ Russians. But despite all the challenges, she stressed that her experience as an out person in Russia may surprise some inside and outside her country.

“People think that it's too bad, and [we all] really have to hide without doing anything. That's not true,” she said. “We’re actually moving in a good direction.”

“You may have some fears,” she added, about being openly LGBTQ in Russia. “At the same time, there is a tunnel. You can move slowly to the light; you can make an impact.”

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Elizabeth Kuhr is an NBC News producer based in London.

George Itzhak is a Digital Associate Producer at "Nightly News with Lester Holt"

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Biden Administration Releases Revised Title IX Rules

The new regulations extended legal protections to L.G.B.T.Q. students and rolled back several policies set under the Trump administration.

President Biden standing at a podium next to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona.

By Zach Montague and Erica L. Green

Reporting from Washington

The Biden administration issued new rules on Friday cementing protections for L.G.B.T.Q. students under federal law and reversing a number of Trump-era policies that dictated how schools should respond to cases of alleged sexual misconduct in K-12 schools and college campuses.

The new rules, which take effect on Aug. 1, effectively broadened the scope of Title IX, the 1972 law prohibiting sex discrimination in educational programs that receive federal funding. They extend the law’s reach to prohibit discrimination and harassment based on sexual orientation and gender identity, and widen the range of sexual harassment complaints that schools will be responsible for investigating.

“These regulations make it crystal clear that everyone can access schools that are safe, welcoming and that respect their rights,” Miguel A. Cardona, the education secretary, said in a call with reporters.

The rules deliver on a key campaign promise for Mr. Biden, who declared he would put a “quick end” to the Trump-era Title IX rules and faced mounting pressure from Democrats and civil rights leaders to do so.

The release of the updated rules, after two delays, came as Mr. Biden is in the thick of his re-election bid and is trying to galvanize key electoral constituencies.

Through the new regulations, the administration moved to include students in its interpretation of Bostock v. Clayton County, the landmark 2020 Supreme Court case in which the court ruled that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects gay and transgender workers from workplace discrimination. The Trump administration held that transgender students were not protected under federal laws, including after the Bostock ruling .

In a statement, Betsy DeVos, who served as Mr. Trump’s education secretary, criticized what she called a “radical rewrite” of the law, asserting that it was an “endeavor born entirely of progressive politics, not sound policy.”

Ms. DeVos said the inclusion of transgender students in the law gutted decades of protections and opportunities for women. She added that the Biden administration also “seeks to U-turn to the bad old days where sexual misconduct was sent to campus kangaroo courts, not resolved in a way that actually sought justice.”

While the regulations released on Friday contained considerably stronger protections for L.G.B.T.Q. students, the administration steered clear of the lightning-rod issue of whether transgender students should be able to play on school sports teams corresponding to their gender identity.

The administration stressed that while, writ large, exclusion based on gender identity violated Title IX, the new regulations did not extend to single-sex living facilities or sports teams. The Education Department is pursuing a second rule dealing with sex-related eligibility for male and female sports teams. The rule-making process has drawn more than 150,000 comments.

Under the revisions announced on Friday, instances where transgender students are subjected to a “hostile environment” through bullying or harassment, or face unequal treatment and exclusion in programs or facilities based on their gender identity, could trigger an investigation by the department’s Office for Civil Rights.

Instances where students are repeatedly referred to by a name or pronoun other than one they have chosen could also be considered harassment on a case-by-case basis.

“This is a bold and important statement that transgender and nonbinary students belong, in their schools and in their communities,” said Olivia Hunt, the policy director for the National Center for Transgender Equality.

The regulations appeared certain to draw to legal challenges from conservative groups.

May Mailman, the director of the Independent Women’s Law Center, said in a statement that the group planned to sue the administration. She said it was clear that the statute barring discrimination on the basis of “sex” means “binary and biological.”

“The unlawful omnibus regulation reimagines Title IX to permit the invasion of women’s spaces and the reduction of women’s rights in the name of elevating protections for ‘gender identity,’ which is contrary to the text and purpose of Title IX,” she said.

The existing rules, which took effect under Mr. Trump in 2020, were the first time that sexual assault provisions were codified under Title IX. They bolstered due process rights of accused students, relieved schools of some legal liabilities and laid out rigid parameters for how schools should conduct impartial investigations.

They were a sharp departure from the Obama administration’s interpretation of the law, which came in the form of unenforceable guidance documents directing schools to ramp up investigations into sexual assault complaints under the threat of losing federal funding. Scores of students who had been accused of sexual assault went on to win court cases against their colleges for violating their due process rights under the guidelines.

The Biden administration’s rules struck a balance between the Obama and Trump administration’s goals. Taken together, the regulation largely provides more flexibility for how schools conduct investigations, which advocates and schools have long lobbied for.

Catherine E. Lhamon, the head of the department’s Office for Civil Rights who also held the job under President Barack Obama, called the new rules the “most comprehensive coverage under Title IX since the regulations were first promulgated in 1975.”

They replaced a narrower definition of sex-based harassment adopted under the Trump administration with one that would include a wider range of conduct. And they reversed a requirement that schools investigate only incidents alleged to have occurred on their campuses or in their programs.

Still, some key provisions in the Trump-era rules were preserved, including one allowing informal resolutions and another prohibiting penalties against students until after an investigation.

Among the most anticipated changes was the undoing of a provision that required in-person, or so-called live hearings, in which students accused of sexual misconduct, or their lawyers, could confront and question accusers in a courtroom-like setting.

The new rules allow in-person hearings, but do not mandate them. They also require a process through which a decision maker could assess a party or witness’s credibility, including posing questions from the opposing party.

“The new regulations put an end to unfair and traumatic grievance procedures that favor harassers,” Kel O’Hara, a senior attorney at Equal Rights Advocates. “No longer will student survivors be subjected to processes that prioritize the interests of their perpetrators over their own well being and safety.”

The new rules also allow room for schools to use a “preponderance of evidence” standard, a lower burden of proof than the DeVos-era rules encouraged, through which administrators need only to determine whether it was more likely than not that sexual misconduct had occurred.

The renewed push for that standard drew criticism from legal groups who said the rule stripped away hard-won protections against flawed findings.

“When you are dealing with accusations of really one of the most heinous crimes that a person can commit — sexual assault — it’s not enough to say, ‘50 percent and a feather,’ before you brand someone guilty of this repulsive crime,” said Will Creeley, the legal director of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.

The changes concluded a three-year process in which the department received 240,000 public comments. The rules also strengthen protections for pregnant students, requiring accommodations such as a bigger desk or ensuring access to elevators and prohibiting exclusion from activities based on additional needs.

Title IX was designed to end discrimination based on sex in educational programs or activities at all institutions receiving federal financial assistance, beginning with sports programs and other spaces previously dominated by male students.

The effects of the original law have been pronounced. Far beyond the impact on school programs like sports teams, many educators credit Title IX with setting the stage for academic parity today. Female college students routinely outnumber male students on campus and have become more likely than men of the same age to graduate with a four-year degree.

But since its inception, Title IX has also become a powerful vehicle through which past administrations have sought to steer schools to respond to the dynamic and diverse nature of schools and universities.

While civil rights groups were disappointed that some ambiguity remains for the L.G.B.T.Q. students and their families, the new rules were widely praised for taking a stand at a time when education debates are reminiscent to the backlash after the Supreme Court ordered schools to integrate.

More than 20 states have passed laws that broadly prohibit anyone assigned male at birth from playing on girls’ and women’s sports teams or participating in scholastic athletic programs, while 10 states have laws barring transgender people from using bathrooms based on their gender identity.

“Some adults are showing up and saying, ‘I’m going to make school harder for children,” said Liz King, senior program director of the education equity program at the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. “It’s an incredibly important rule, at an incredibly important moment.”

Schools will have to cram over the summer to implement the rules, which will require a retraining staff and overhauling procedures they implemented only four years ago.

Ted Mitchell, the president of the American Council on Education, which represents more than 1,700 colleges and universities, said in a statement that while the group welcomed the changes in the new rule, the timeline “disregards the difficulties inherent in making these changes on our nation’s campuses in such a short period of time.”

“After years of constant churn in Title IX guidance and regulations,” Mr. Mitchell said, “we hope for the sake of students and institutions that there will be more stability and consistency in the requirements going forward.”

Zach Montague is based in Washington. He covers breaking news and developments around the district. More about Zach Montague

Erica L. Green is a White House correspondent, covering President Biden and his administration. More about Erica L. Green

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Putin’s crackdown casts a wide net, ensnaring the LGBTQ+ community, lawyers and many others

FILE - Riot police detain two young men at a demonstration in Moscow, Russia, on Sept. 21, 2022. The crackdown by Russian President Vladimir Putin affects not only opposition politicians but also independent voices and those who don’t conform to what the Kremlin sees as the country’s “traditional values.” (AP Photo, File)

FILE - Russian President Vladimir Putin, center, walks to attend a welcome ceremony with Kyrgyzstan President Sadyr Japarov at talks in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, on Thursday, Oct. 12, 2023. It’s not just opposition politicians who are targeted under Putin in recent years but also independent voices who don’t conform to what the state sees as Russia’s “traditional values.” (Pavel Bednyakov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, File)

FILE - Russian lawyer Ivan Pavlov, center, is surrounded by journalists after he leaves a court in Moscow, Russia, on Friday, April 30, 2021. Pavlov, who defended former journalist Ivan Safronov on treason charges, left Russia later that year after authorities opened a criminal investigation against him for speaking out about the case. (AP Photo, File)

FILE – LGBTQ+ activists hold a rainbow flag at a rally in Pushkin Square, in Moscow, Russia, on Wednesday, July 15, 2020. The crackdown on LGBTQ+ rights has gone on for more than a decade under President Vladimir Putin. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - Members of Jehovah’s Witnesses attend a court session in Perm, Russia, on Wednesday, May 12, 2021. Russia’s Supreme Court in 2017 declared the Jehovah’s Witnesses to be an extremist organization, exposing its members to potential criminal charges. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - In this file image taken from video, Dennis Christensen shows a picture in a court room in Oryol, Russia, on Thursday, May 23, 2019. The Supreme Court in 2017 declared Jehovah’s Witnesses to be an extremist organization, exposing its members to potential criminal charges. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - Journalist Dmitry Muratov, editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta, sits in Moscow City Court during an appeal of a ruling against the influential newspaper in Moscow, Russia, on Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023. Novaya Gazeta announced in 2022 it was suspending its operations for the duration of Russia’s military action in Ukraine, and authorities later revoked its license. Its staff moved abroad and launched Novaya Gazeta Europe, which has been critical of the Kremlin. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - A demonstrator holds a poster saying, “Hands off Memorial, freedom for political prisoners” as people gather in front of the Russian Supreme Court in Moscow, Russia, on Tuesday, Dec. 14, 2021. The court ordered the closure of Memorial, one of the country’s oldest and most prominent human rights organizations. It drew acclaim for highlighting repression in the Soviet Union and was awarded the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize for its work. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - Supporters of the human rights group Memorial react during a court session in Moscow, Russia, on Tuesday, April 5, 2022. In 2021, a court ordered the closure of Memorial, one of the country’s oldest and most prominent human rights organizations that drew international acclaim for highlighting repression in the Soviet Union. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - Women attach a portrait of a relatives to a tree as people gather at Levashovo Cemetery outside St. Petersburg, Russia, on Monday, Oct. 30, 2023, to commemorate victims of Soviet repression under dictator Joseph Stalin. About 45,000 of the victims were buried in the cemetery from 1937 to 1953. In December 2021, a Moscow court ordered the closure of the human rights group Memorial, which drew international acclaim for highlighting repression in the Soviet Union. (AP Photo, File)

FILE – Oleg Orlov, co-chair of the human rights group Memorial, gestures from a defendants’ cage in court in Moscow, Russia, on Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2024. Orlov, charged with discrediting the Russian military after Moscow sent troops to Ukraine, was convicted and sentenced to 2½ years in prison. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - Alexei Navalny, second left, and his lawyers Alexander Fedulov, left, Olga Mikhailova, right, and Vadim Kobzev, second right, are seen on a TV screen as the opposition leader appears in a video link from a penal colony in Russia’s Vladimir region, about 260 kilometers (163 miles) northeast of Moscow, on Friday, Aug. 4, 2023. Lawyers for Navalny, who died in prison on Feb. 16, 2024, were charged with involvement with an extremist organization. Associates say the charges were a way to keep Navalny isolated while in prison. (AP Photo, File)

FILE – Alexei Liptser, a lawyer who represented Alexei Navalny, stands in a defendants’ cage in a court in Moscow, Russia, on Friday, Oct. 13, 2023. Liptser was arrested on charges of involvement with an extremist organization, along with two other lawyers for the opposition leader. Navalny associates said the charges were a way to keep him isolated while in prison, where he died on Feb. 16, 2024. (AP Photo, File)

FILE – Vadim Kobzev, a lawyer for Alexei Navalny, stands in a defendants’ cage in a court in Moscow, Russia, on Friday, Oct. 13, 2023. Kobzev was arrested on charges of involvement with an extremist organization, which associates of the opposition leader said was a way to keep him isolated before his death in prison. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - A police officer stands in a police bus with detained demonstrators during an anti-war protest near Red Square with St. Basil’s Cathedral, right, in the background in Moscow, Russia, on Sept. 24, 2022. President Vladimir Putin’s crackdown targets not just opposition politicians but also the voices of independent Russians who don’t conform to what the state sees as the country’s “traditional values.” (AP Photo, File)

FILE - Russian Supreme Court judge Oleg Nefedov leads a hearing in Moscow, Russia, on Thursday, Nov. 30, 2023. In November, the Supreme Court banned the LGBTQ+ “movement” in Russia, labeling it an extremist organization. That effectively outlawed any LGBTQ+ activism. Shortly afterward, authorities started imposing fines for displaying rainbow-colored items. (AP Photo, File)

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This story is part of a larger series on the crackdown on dissent in Russia. Click here to read more of those stories , and the AP’s coverage of Russia’s presidential election.

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — It’s not just opposition politicians who are targeted in the crackdown by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government in recent years. Also falling victim are independent voices as well as those who don’t conform to what the state sees as the country’s “traditional values.”

Russia’s once-thriving free press after the collapse of the Soviet Union has been largely reduced to either state-controlled media or independent journalists operating from abroad, with few critical outlets still working in the country. Prominent rights groups have been outlawed or classified as agents of foreigners. Lawyers who represented dissidents have been prosecuted. LGBTQ+ activists have been labeled “extremists.”

A look at those who have come under attack during Putin’s 24-year rule that is likely to be extended by six more years in this month’s presidential election:

INDEPENDENT MEDIA

Independent news sites largely have been blocked in Russia since the first weeks of the war in Ukraine . Many have moved their newsrooms abroad and continue to operate, accessible in Russia via virtual private networks, or VPNs. Reporting inside Russia or earning money off Russian advertisers has been difficult.

Russian authorities since 2021 also have labeled dozens of outlets and individual journalists as ”foreign agents” – a designation implying additional government scrutiny and carrying strong pejorative connotations aimed at discrediting the recipient. Some have also been outlawed as “undesirable organizations” under a 2015 law that makes involvement with such organizations a criminal offense.

Journalists have been arrested and imprisoned on a variety of charges.

“The Russian authorities decided to destroy civil society institutions and independent journalism completely after Feb. 24, 2022,” said Ivan Kolpakov, chief editor of Russia’s most popular independent news site Meduza, referring to the date of the invasion. Meduza was declared “undesirable” in January 2023.

More restrictions appear to be coming. Parliament passed a law banning advertisers from doing business with “foreign agents,” likely affecting not just news sites but also blogs on YouTube that need advertising and are a popular source of news and analysis.

Journalist Katerina Gordeyeva initially said she was suspending her YouTube channel with 1.6 million subscribers due to the new law but changed her mind after an outpouring of support. “Giving up now would be too simple and too easy a decision,” she said. “We will try to hang in there.”

RIGHTS GROUPS

Dozens of rights groups, charities and other nongovernmental organizations have been labeled “foreign agents” and outlawed as “undesirable” in recent years. Many had to shut down.

In December 2021, a court in Moscow ordered the closure of Memorial , one of Russia’s oldest and most prominent human rights organizations. It drew international acclaim for its studies of repression in the Soviet Union; several months after the ruling, it won the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize. In yet another crippling blow, its 70-year-old co-chair, Oleg Orlov, was sentenced last month to 2½ years in prison over criticism of the war.

Another prominent rights group leader behind bars is Grigory Melkonyants, co-chair of Golos, which monitored Russian elections since 2000. He is in pre-trial detention on charges widely seen as an attempt to pressure the group ahead of this month’s vote.

His arrest last year wasn’t a surprise, said the group’s other leader, Stanislav Andreychuk, in an interview with The Associated Press, because Golos has been under pressure since it detailed widespread violations in the 2011 parliamentary election that led to mass protests.

Pressure against Golos came in waves, however, and at times, the group was able to work constructively with election authorities. It even won two presidential grants.

“We are like a town on a high river bank,” Andriychuk said. “The river eats away at the bank, and the bank recedes slowly. … At some point, we found ourselves on the cliffside.”

Lawyers who represent Kremlin critics and work on politically motivated cases also have faced growing pressure. Some prominent ones have left Russia, fearing prosecution.

Human rights and legal aid group Agora was labeled “undesirable” in 2023, making its operations and any dealings with it illegal.

Three lawyers who represented Alexei Navalny are jailed on charges of involvement with an extremist organization. Associates of the late opposition leader said it was a way to isolate him while in prison.

Prominent human rights lawyer Ivan Pavlov told AP the pressure has scared some attorneys away from political cases. Pavlov left Russia in 2021 while defending former journalist Ivan Safronov on treason charges. After Pavlov spoke out about the case, authorities opened a criminal investigation against him and barred him from using the phone and the internet. “They simply paralyzed my work,” he said.

Dmitry Talantov, another lawyer for Safronov, was arrested in 2022 for criticizing the war and is on trial. He faces up to 10 years in prison.

LGBTQ+ COMMUNITY

The crackdown on LGBTQ+ rights has gone on for more than a decade and often was accompanied by Putin’s criticism of Western nations trying to impose their values on Russia. In 2022, authorities adopted a law banning propaganda of “nontraditional sexual relations” among adults, effectively outlawing any public endorsement of LGBTQ+ rights.

Another law enacted in 2023 prohibited gender transitioning procedures and gender- affirming care, as well as changing a person’s gender in official documents and public records.

In November, the Supreme Court banned what the government called the LGBTQ+ “movement” in Russia, labeling it as an extremist organization. That effectively outlawed any LGBTQ+ activism. Shortly afterward, authorities started imposing fines for displaying rainbow-colored items.

Igor Kochetkov, human rights advocate and founder of the Russian LGBT Network, told AP the Supreme Court ruling was more about ideology than anything else.

“So far we haven’t seen attempts to ban gay relations” and criminalize them, as the Soviet Union did, Kochetkov said. Rather, it’s an attempt to suppress “any independent opinion that doesn’t fit with the official state ideology ... and any organized civic activity that the government can’t control,” he added.

RELIGIOUS BELIEVERS

In perhaps a similar vein, the government, closely allied with the Russian Orthodox Church, has cracked down on smaller religious denominations and groups, banning some. Authorities went further with Jehovah’s Witnesses, prosecuting hundreds of believers across the country, often simply for gathering to pray.

The Supreme Court in 2017 declared Jehovah’s Witnesses to be an extremist organization, exposing those involved with it to potential criminal charges.

Jehovah’s Witnesses spokesman Jarrod Lopes said over 400 believers have been jailed since then, and 131 men and women are in prison. Nearly 800 Jehovah’s Witnesses have faced charges, and over 500 were added to Russia’s register of extremists and terrorists.

“It’s absurd to us, because … part of our belief system is to obey the authorities. We want to be good citizens. We want to help our community,” he told AP. “We’re also not anti-government, we are neutral. We’re not going to stage a protest.”

In 2018, Putin himself said “Jehovah’s Witnesses are Christians, too, I don’t quite understand why clamp down on them,” and he promised to look into it. But the number of arrests and raids targeting them only grew.

Putin has distanced himself from the law enforcement and security structures that carry out the crackdowns, says Tatyana Stanovaya, senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center.

“They have a certain domain, and they have a mandate in this domain, and they act in accordance with it,” Stanovaya says. “Putin knows it and agrees with it. … It’s convenient for him.”

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