'We're not hidg': Gay and lbian Rsians say a cultural shift is unrway

Contents:

• RSIA: EXPAND 'GAY PROPAGANDA' BAN PROGRS TOWARD LAW
• RSIAN LAWMAKERS MOVE TO TOUGHEN ‘GAY PROPAGANDA’ LAW, BANNG ALL ADULTS OM ‘PROMOTG’ SAME-SEX RELATNSHIPS
• EXPLAER: WHAT DO NEW ‘GAY PROPAGANDA’ LAW MEAN FOR LGBTIQ+ RSIANS?
• RSIAN PARLIAMENT MOV TO EXPAND 'GAY PROPAGANDA' LAW
• 'WE'RE NOT HIDG': GAY AND LBIAN RSIANS SAY A CULTURAL SHIFT IS UNRWAY
• WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT RSIA’S SO-CALLED ‘GAY PROPAGANDA’ BILL

RSIA: EXPAND 'GAY PROPAGANDA' BAN PROGRS TOWARD LAW

The proposals prohib sharg posive and even ntral rmatn about lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr (LGBT) people, and publicly displayg non-heterosexual orientatns, wh hefty f for nonpliance. The draft legislatn classifi displays of non-heterosexual relatns or orientatn as “rmatn harmful to children’s health and velopment” and provis that webs and other onle sourc hostg rmatn about lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr (LGBT) people n be blocked. “The 2013 ‘gay propaganda’ law was an unabashed example of polil homophobia, and the new draft legislatn amplifi that broar and harsher ways, ” said Tanya Loksha, associate Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

RSIAN LAWMAKERS MOVE TO TOUGHEN ‘GAY PROPAGANDA’ LAW, BANNG ALL ADULTS OM ‘PROMOTG’ SAME-SEX RELATNSHIPS

Rsian lawmakers agreed to toughen the untry’s discrimatory law agast so-lled same-sex “propaganda, ” movg to ban all Rsians om promotg or “praisg” homosexual relatnships or publicly suggtg that they are “normal. “Above all, by adoptg such laws the urt found that the thori had rerced stigma and prejudice and enuraged homophobia, which was patible wh the valu – of equaly, pluralism and tolerance – of a mocratic society, ” the urt document said.

EXPLAER: WHAT DO NEW ‘GAY PROPAGANDA’ LAW MEAN FOR LGBTIQ+ RSIANS?

Rsia’s so-lled ‘gay propaganda’ law has banned the promotn of “non-tradnal sexual valu” to unr-18s sce, the Rsian parliament has passed an expand versn of the law that outlaws all mentns of LGBTIQ-related topics the media – cludg film, televisn, advertisg, onle and ’s what you need to history of Rsia’s ‘gay propaganda’ lawOn 29 June 2013, Rsian print Vladimir Put signed a new law lled “On the propaganda of non-tradnal sexual relatns among mors”. The new law banned the promotn to children of “dgs, paedophilia and homosexualy” – or anythg else the Kreml ems ntradictory to “tradnal fay valu”, although the law do not fe what those valu are some siari wh the UK’s homophobic Sectn 28 legislatn, which prohibed the “promotn of homosexualy” by lol thori and was force om 1988 to Put claims that the propaganda law “do not discrimate agast gay people”, both the European Court of Human Rights and the UN’s Human Rights Commtee have said that rerc stigma, enurag homophobia and harms children the ’s new? But now unr the new law, the s may shut down a , LGBTIQ rights groups and other non-ernmental anisatns receivg funds om abroad have also been legally required to self-intify as “foreign agents” echo the Natnal Secury bill proposed by nservative MP Pri Patel, which would make an offence for journalists or publitns receivg fundg om a foreign state to report on ‘rtricted’ official ’s Mistry of Jtice add the Rsian LGBT Network a proment gay and transgenr rights umbrella group, to the “foreign agent” registry November last then, an creasg number of LGBTIQ rights groups have been targeted – and even forcibly closed.

Followg the troductn of the first versn of the ‘gay propaganda’ law almost a ago, the most flagrant vlatns of LGBTIQ rights have been documented the North Cs, pecially Chechnya, where secury forc have illegally taed, kidnapped, arrted, tortured and killed gay and transgenr 2021, 78% of rponnts to a natnwi survey by the Rsian LGBT Network reported that they had faced vlence or discrimatn nnectn to their genr inty and/or sexual orientatn. Nearly a third of the cints of vlence were mted by anised homophobic and transphobic vigilante survey also found that law enforcement and judicial systems refe to vtigate such crim, spe the fact that homosexualy was crimalised Rsia 1993. A draft bill llg for the broang of a 2013 ban on the “promotn of nontradnal sexual relatns” to mors, wily referred to as the “gay propaganda” bill, was announced on the webse of the parliament, or Duma.

Rsia’s parliament has passed the third and fal readg of a law banng “LGBT propaganda” among all adults, as Mosw ramps up s nservative ph at home amid the war Ukrae that passed the ne-month mark on bill crimalis any act regard as an attempt to promote what Rsia lls “non-tradnal sexual relatns” – film, onle, advertisg or public – and expands on a notor 2013 law that banned “propaganda of nontradnal sexual relatns” among mors and was ed to ta gay rights the new law, dividuals n be fed up to 400, 000 roubl (£5, 400) and anisatns 5m roubl (£68, 500) for “propagandisg nontradnal sexual relatns”, while foreigners uld face up to 15 days’ arrt and expulsn om rights groups and LGBTQ+ activists say the extensn of the law means any act or public mentn of same-sex relatnships is functnally beg Rsian print, Vladimir Put, is expected to sign the bill the g the start of the war Ukrae, the Kreml has lnched a h effort to promote “tradnal valu”, wh the Rsian lear makg anti-gay rhetoric one of the rnerston of his polil a recent speech, Put acced the wt of “movg towards open satanism”, cg the promotn of gay and transgenr rights Europe as an example. ”Kochetkov said the bill was also an attempt by the Kreml to look for ternal enemi and distract attentn om battlefield past newsletter promotnafter newsletter promotnHuman rights crics fear the law will be ed to close down pennt film and book ftivals, makg the topic of gay sexual orientatn sentially taboo Rsia.

RSIAN PARLIAMENT MOV TO EXPAND 'GAY PROPAGANDA' LAW

Kochetkov’s LGBT Network, wh a number of other human rights groups, has also received the “foreign agent” label, a Soviet-era tag signed to target groups the thori say receive “foreign fundg” and engage “polil activy” while the Rsian ernment has expand s attacks on LGBTQ+ rights, recent pollg has dited parts of Rsian society are beg more tolerant towards the gay muny, wh a 2019 poll showg that 68% of younger Rsians view the LGBTQ+ muny as “normal” July, Daria Kasatka, Rsia’s hight-ranked female tennis player, me out as gay, a move appld by fellow athlet and parts of the Rsian public. In Rsia, antipathy towards homosexualy and genr variance is not new—LGBT people there have long faced threats, bullyg, abe si their fai, and discrimatn—but the 2013 “gay propaganda” law has creased that social hostily. And while Rsian ernment officials and parliament members claim that the goal of the “gay propaganda” law is to protect children om potentially harmful subject matter, the law fact directly harms children by nyg them accs to sential rmatn and creasg stigma agast LGBT youth and their fai.

While some LGBT youth told that teachers had supported and protected them, many others said their teachers characterize LGBT people as a symptom of perversn imported om Wtern Europe or North Ameri, mirrorg the polil homophobia that motivated the passage of the “gay propaganda” law the first place.

'WE'RE NOT HIDG': GAY AND LBIAN RSIANS SAY A CULTURAL SHIFT IS UNRWAY

Some explaed that they felt forced to speak about sexual orientatn and genr inty only phemisms, or to say explicly at the outset of unselg ssns that they nnot and will not dissemate “gay propaganda” attempts to dispel advance any notn that they are vlatg the law. On June 10, 2013, Yelena Mizula, the thor of the law at the State Duma, the lower chamber of Rsia’s parliament, told reporters that the Deti-404 webse did not nstute “gay propaganda” unr the law. Instct relevant law enforcement agenci, such as the office of the prosecutor general, the Mistry of Interr, and the Invtigative Commtee, to gather data about homophobic and transphobic crim, and make such data publicly available.

In le wh the June 2013 EU guil on promotg and protectg the enjoyment of all human rights by lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and tersex (LGBTI) persons, support iativ to provi assistance and redrs for victims of such vlence, civil society and ernmental monorg of s volvg vlence, and trag of law enforcement personnel.

WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT RSIA’S SO-CALLED ‘GAY PROPAGANDA’ BILL

Same-sex relatns between men were crimalized 1993, two years after the breakup of the Soviet Unn, and 1999 the Rsian Mistry of Health regnized the standards of the Internatnal Classifitn of Diseas (ICD), which had been revised 1990 to remove a diagnosis for homosexualy. [11] A 2018 survey by a ernment-n pollg agency found that 63 percent of rponnts believe there is a subversive force workg Rsia to stroy “Rsian valu” through the spreadg of “gay propaganda. The harng of negative social attus cis wh the creasg spread of hateful, anti-LGBT rhetoric, cludg by public officials the media, and the promulgatn of regnal and natnal anti-LGBT “gay propaganda” laws that prohib the “promotn” of “nontradnal sexual relatns to mors, ”[12] unrstood to mean the pictn of LGBT people anythg other than a negative light.