Last Saturday in New York, hundreds of rainbow-clad protesters walked peacefully toward Trump Tower chanting, “They are queer; bring them here; we will never live in fear.” Supporting Voices 4 Chechnya, an LGBTQ+ international support group, they marched to demand resettlement visas and humanitarian parole for thousands of LGBTQ+ people who are currently trapped in Chechnya and mainland Russia because of persecution. Captives have reportedly been murdered and tortured at the hands of Chechen state officials and even members of their own families.
In Manhattan, marchers walked from the Stonewall Inn to Trump Tower, symbolically confronting president Donald Trump, who has not yet spoken on the matter. Russian-American journalist Masha Gessen and celebrities including the drag queens Katya and Milk, from RuPaul’s Drag Race, joined the protest to honor the Voices 4 Chechnya platform: to support queer individuals both “near and far.” Click through to see images from the protest.