Rsia: Expand 'Gay Propaganda' Ban Progrs Toward Law | Human Rights Watch

Contents:

•  RUSSIA: ‘GAY PROPAGANDA’ LAW REMAS PLACE, BUT PLATS AGAST NTUE
• GAY TIKTOK UPLE ARRTED RSIA
• RSIA: EXPAND 'GAY PROPAGANDA' BAN PROGRS TOWARD LAW
• ANTI-GAY PROPAGANDA VIO GO VIRAL RSIA
• ‘OUR MERE EXISTENCE IS ILLEGAL.’ AS MOSW TOUGHENS ANTI-GAY LAW, LGBTQ RSIANS FEAR FOR THE FUTURE
• WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT RSIA’S SO-CALLED ‘GAY PROPAGANDA’ BILL
• RSIAN LAWMAKERS MOVE TO TOUGHEN ‘GAY PROPAGANDA’ LAW, BANNG ALL ADULTS OM ‘PROMOTG’ SAME-SEX RELATNSHIPS
• PROTTS, BOYTT LLS AS ANGER GROWS OVER RSIA ANTI-GAY PROPAGANDA LAWS
• LGBT HATE CRIM DOUBLE RSIA AFTER BAN ON 'GAY PROPAGANDA'

 RUSSIA: ‘GAY PROPAGANDA’ LAW REMAS PLACE, BUT PLATS AGAST NTUE

SummaryIn 2013 Rsia enacted a feral law prohibg what lled “gay propaganda”, g the protectn of children as an exce to silence any public discsns or posive msag about LGBT issu. Ostensibly foced on the “Protectn of the Moraly of Children”, the law the Ryazan Oblast prohibed “public actns aimed at propaganda of homosexualy (sodomy or lbianism) among mors”. It was amend to make an offence to take part “the promotn of homosexualy among mors” 2008, jtified by cg the myth that gay men plan to “rec” young people to beg homosexual.

The laws me to force at a time when openly homophobic rhetoric was risg Rsia, and LGBT rights anisatns have sce lked their adoptn Rsia to an crease vlence agast LGBT people and a crease protectn for LGBT people om the 2013 the untry’s children’s missner went so far as to say that protectn of the “tradnal fay” was a matter of natnal secury, and that policians who opposed this prry should be “cursed for centuri as stroyers of the fay and the human race”. Settg up a picket outsi a sendary school he unfurled two banners proclaimg: “Homosexualy is normal” and “I am proud of my homosexualy”.

One claimed that a lack of rmatn about LGBT rights ntributed to Rsia havg the world’s hight teenage suici rate, while the other listed a number of proment Rsian public figur believed to be gay. Like Bayev, they had travelled to stage a prott that would potentially see them fed unr the regn’s “gay propaganda” law, the hop that they would be able to succsfully ntt eher their f or the nstutnaly of the laws themselv. This challenge was readily were arrted and fed, and Alekseyev was fed aga 2012 while prottg another “gay propaganda” law St Petersburg, after holdg a sign which read “Homosexualy is not a perversn.

GAY TIKTOK UPLE ARRTED RSIA

”Knowg that Rsian urts had prevly taken to acunt lgs of Uned Natns bodi, Bartenev had also referred to a 2012 Human Rights Commtee cisn which Ryazan Oblast’s “gay propaganda” law was found to have vlated a prottor’s right to eedom of exprsn. The judg led that Rsia had failed to monstrate how eedom of exprsn on LGBT issu would adversely affect “tradnal fai” and said the European Court would not beg to endorse polici “which embodied a predisposed bias on the part of a heterosexual majory agast a homosexual mory”. The urt nmned Rsia’s attempts to draw parallels between homosexualy and paedophilia and argued that, fact, the prentatn of objective rmatn about sex and genr inty should be nsired an dispensable part of public-health policy.

Fally, the urt dismissed the ernment’s allegatns that children uld be enticed to a “homosexual liftyle” on the grounds that there was no evince at all to that effect. The lg ultimately found that Rsia’s “gay propaganda” law was open to abe dividual s and rerced stigma and prejudice agast LGBT people.

Between 2013 and 2015 Moldova, Ukrae and Lhuania eher abolished or whdrew siar “gay propaganda”-style legislatn, markg a move away om discrimatn the “gay propaganda” law ntu to be ed Rsia, more challeng to are ntug to e forward. The European Court of Human Rights led 2017 that the 2013 law is discrimatory, promot homophobia and vlat the European Conventn on Human Rights. The urt found that the law “served no legimate public tert,” rejectg suggtns that public bate on LGBT issu uld fluence children to bee homosexual, or that threatened public morals.

RSIA: EXPAND 'GAY PROPAGANDA' BAN PROGRS TOWARD LAW

Speakg before Put signed the bill to the law on Monday, Tanya Loksha, associate Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch said: “The 2013 ‘gay propaganda’ law was an unabashed example of polil homophobia, and the new draft legislatn amplifi that broar and harsher ways.”. Petersburg who left Rsia after his parents threatened to sue his therapist who backed him receivg hormone therapy; and Ivan, 18, who is gay, half Rsian and half Ukraian, and “didn’t want to kill people.

“My parents are very nservative and they don’t believe gay people should exist, ” said Max, who didn’t disclose his last name for fear of retaliatn agast his parents who live St. Most of his iends are the closet or fled the untry — and many of them, he said, were vlently attacked by anti-gay groups before they left. A survey published 2020 by Mosw-based non-ernmental rearch anizatn the Levada Center, found that about 30% of Rsians wanted to isolate gay people om society.

ANTI-GAY PROPAGANDA VIO GO VIRAL RSIA

Although is not illegal to be an LGBTQ+ person Rsia, a ago the Kreml passed a so-lled “gay propaganda law” banng the distributn of rmatn about gay relatnships among mors.

Maksim and Dmrii say they n’t wa to marry and start a fay, somethg that they, as gay men, wouldn’t be able to experience back home. In December 2022, Rsia expand s existg “gay propaganda” law to exert ntrol over public discsns and narrativ surroundg non-heterosexual relatnships and inti.

‘OUR MERE EXISTENCE IS ILLEGAL.’ AS MOSW TOUGHENS ANTI-GAY LAW, LGBTQ RSIANS FEAR FOR THE FUTURE

“This legislatn is the latt a strg of asslts on the rights of lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr people, this time unr the bric of state-ced transphobia.

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

“First Rsia tried to erase lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr inti om public view, and now they are targetg transgenr people themselv, ” Reid said.

“Rsia should reverse s outrageo policy and ensure rights to inty, fay life, and medil re for lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr people – startg wh reversg the anti-trans law. The young woman who only intified herself to Dimrov by the name Elena said that sce the latt passage of laws cludg expansn of the Rsia’s “gay propaganda” law to clu adults last December, upled wh the crackdown by the Rsian Feral Service for Supervisn of Communitns, Informatn Technology and Mass Media, abbreviated as Roskomnadzor, on any webs and on popular phone apps that ter to LGBTQ people, she has now begun efforts earnt to leave the untry.

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 origal “gay propaganda” ban, troduced 2013, purported to protect children om “propaganda, ” broadly fed to mean any posive or ntral pictn or discsn of non-heterosexual relatns.

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

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. The 2013 “gay propaganda, ” law has been extensively ed by the ernment to stifle pro-LGBT events and to shutdown anizatns and onle media.

The vio is meant to be promotg nstutnal reform, which among other thgs clus the amendment of Article 72 to fe marriage as the “unn between a man and a woman” vio, which sparked ternatnal backlash, is a hypothetil documentary-style vlog set 2035, when Rsia has evintly rejected the proposed nstutnal chang and gay people have been given the right to adopt.

The distrght child is troduced by his adoptive father to his “new mother”, the father’s gay partner, who prents the boy wh a drs. Actor Alexanr Filimonenko, who stars as the gay partner the vio, has sce issued a statement revealg that he will be votg agast the proposed amendments. By no means did I want to offend anyone, ” said anti-gay article as part of 14 proposed revisns, which if approved, will nstute the send drastic round of reforms to the Rsian Constutn sce 1993.

PROTTS, BOYTT LLS AS ANGER GROWS OVER RSIA ANTI-GAY PROPAGANDA LAWS

In 2014, Put drew nnectns between homosexualy and paedophilia and said that Rsia mt “cleanse” self of homosexualy durg a televisn terview. The proposed nstutnal ban on gay marriage is wily seen as an attempt to disguise and tract promence of the most impactful amendment that would ‘ret’ Vladimir Put’s four printial terms, allowg him to stand for re-electn 2024 and potentially stay power until 2036.

Multiple discrimatory laws have been passed sce, startg wh 2013 legislatn rtrictg LGBTQ+ rights known as the "gay propaganda" law, which banned any public endorsement of "nontradnal sexual relatns" among the vasn of Ukrae last year, Rsian thori ratcheted up their rhetoric, methodilly weedg out anythg they emed a "gradg Wtern fluence, " cludg rights groups that advoted anythg om helpg domtic abe victims to prervg rerds of Soviet 2022, the origal law targetg "gay propaganda" was expand to ver adults, outlawg any posive or even ntral reprentatn of LGBTQ+ people the public sphere, movi, lerature or media, forcg the already rare number of LGBTQ+-iendly spac to executive director of the Inpennt Psychiatric Associatn of Rsia, Lyubov Vogradova, lled the law "misanthropic" ments to the Rsian newspaper Kommersant late June. 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.

In an earlier sermon, Kirill bizarrely blamed the untry’s vasn of Ukrae on gay pri rights activists on Thursday nmned the bill. ”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. ”Over the past few years, Rsia has banned a number of proment LGBTQ+ rights groups, cludg the Sphere Foundatn, an anisatn that shed light on vlent anti-gay purg Chechnya.

LGBT HATE CRIM DOUBLE RSIA AFTER BAN ON 'GAY PROPAGANDA'

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. Potg to the reactns, Kochetkov said the new law would not drastilly change the way Rsians viewed lbians, gay men, bisexuals and transgenr people.

As the Kreml prepared to falize the expansn of the 2013 discrimatory anti-gay law, members of the LGBTQ muny Rsia told CNN they feared the uncerta future ahead. The measur clu g private acunts on social media, havg accs to a work of tsted people, sendg their son to a private krgarten where the fact a kid has two moms is ls likely to spark a homophobic reactn, and g a private hospal where they n ls risk of a doctor llg child protectn thori to make quiri about their fay set-up, they said. Sce the first law on “gay propaganda” passed 2013, Rsia has seen repeated crackdowns on the gay muny, most notably 2017 and aga 2019 the southern regn of Chechnya, where activists reported dozens of men and women were taed and some tortured and killed for their sexual orientatn, and no proper vtigatn followed.

“This is not only an anti-gay law, this is also explicly an anti-trans law, ” said Vanya Solovey, an advocy and program officer for Eastern Europe and Central Asia at the trans rights group Transgenr Europe, referencg the part of the package that forbids the promotn of rmatn that uld e people to want to change their genr assigned at birth.