Mayor: No gays in Sochi

The mayor of the city that is about to be honored by hosting the Winter Olympics says there are no gay people in his city.

In an interview today with the BBC, Mayor Anatoly Pakhomov says “We just say that it is your business, it’s your life. But it’s not accepted here in the Caucasus where we live. We do not have them in our city.”

The night before the broadcast, however, the BBC interviewer visited several gay clubs in Sochi.

“There are very many clubs for gay people in Moscow — in Sochi we have two gay clubs as well. In some places there’s serious prejudice against gay people. In other places it’s not as bad,” a drag queen said.

The Sochi 2014 organizing committee told the BBC it was “working hard to ensure the Games will be remembered for their diversity.”