President Barack Obama will meet with gay rights activist during
this week's Group of 20 summit in Russia.
Igor Kochetkov of LGBT Network told the AP that his group will
accept an invitation to meet with the president in St. Petersburg on
Thursday. A second organization, Coming Out, said that it has yet to
decide whether to attend the meeting.
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law which prohibits the
promotion of “gay propaganda” to minors, effectively outlawing
Gay Pride marches and similar demonstrations of support for LGBT
rights. The law has provoked worldwide outrage and calls for a
boycott of the Winter Olympics to be held in Sochi.
(Related: Thousands
in Berlin protest against Russian anti-gay law.)
Obama has previously weighed in against the law. However, the
president called a boycott “not appropriate.”
(Related: Obama:
Not appropriate to boycott Olympics over Russian anti-gay law.)
Obama canceled planned meetings with Russian President Vladimir
Putin before the G20 summit in response to Russia's decision to grant
temporary asylum to Edward Snowden, the former National Security
Agency (NSA) contractor who leaked details about the agency's
surveillance programs.