Police in Sochi detained a transgender former member of the Italian parliament, Vladimir Luxuria, for holding a sign that read "Gay is OK" in an apparent violation of Russia's "gay propaganda" law, Italian LGBT rights activists said.
After several hours in custody, Luxuria, a television host in Italy, was released, said Ivan Scalfarotto, the openly gay vice president of Italy's Democratic Party.
"I have spoken to Luxuria," Scalfarotto said in a Twitter message on Sunday night. "They have released her and she is fine."
A spokesman for Italy's Gay Center Fabrizio Marrazzo said that he also received a text message from Luxuria, saying that she had been freed from custody and planned to attend the Games on Monday, according to a statement on Luxuria's website.
The leaders of two Italian gay rights groups said earlier that Luxuria had called them after her detention on Sunday, and that supporters appealed to Italy's Foreign Minister Emma Bonino to help secure her release.
"She was arrested while attending the Olympics in Sochi with a banner that said in Russian: 'Gay is OK,'" said Imma Battaglia, honorary president of Italy's Gay Project group, Italy's La Stampa reported.
The police were "brutal and aggressive. No one speaks English," Battaglia said.
Head of Italy's gay rights group Arcigay, Flavio Romani, said that he had also received a phone call from Luxuria, saying that she had been detained under the "infamous" Russian law.
Luxuria had traveled to Sochi to challenge the 2013 law, signed last summer by President Vladimir Putin, that outlaws the dissemination of gay propaganda to minors.
"I'm in Sochi! Saluting with the colors of the rainbow, in the face of Putin!" Luxuria said in a Twitter message before her detention on Sunday.
The message was accompanied by a picture of herself wearing a rainbow-colored skirt and holding a rainbow umbrella and fan.
"Rebellious, free and unafraid of the state's morality police," Italian openly gay politician and
regional leader Nichi Vendola said in a Twitter message on Sunday.
Before her detention, Luxuria told Italy's ANSA news agency that she wanted "to protest the law of homophobic Putin" by going to the Games clad in a "long skirt with a train, earrings, bracelets and a fan — all in rainbow colors."
No information was immediately available about whether formal charges have been filed against Luxuria. Under Russian law, foreigners can be extradited if found guilty of promoting "non-traditional sexual relations" in the presence of children.
Luxuria had worn the rainbow outfit to stand outside the main spectator entrance to the Games on Saturday, the Wall Street Journal reported. Spectators headed to watch the U.S.-Russia hockey game stopped to take pictures with her, while a few Olympic volunteers watched the scene, but didn't ask Luxuria to leave.
Luxuria — who was born a man but lives as a woman — was also briefly detained during a gay rights march in Moscow nearly seven years ago.