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

Contents:

• RSIA: EXPAND 'GAY PROPAGANDA' BAN PROGRS TOWARD LAW
• MAJORY OF RSIANS BELIEVE GAYS NSPIRG TO STROY UNTRY'S VALU, POLL FDS
• “LET THEM FLEE TO SWEN: THERE, EVERYONE LOOKS AT THEM MORE POLELY”: GAY PROPAGANDA AND LGBT RIGHTS THE BALTIC STAT
• THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985
• GAY PEOPLE WHO E OUT LATER LIFE FACE UNIQUE OBSTACL
• ‘PROPAGANDA’ BY GAYS FAC RSIAN CURBS AMID UNRT
• POLAND ANTI-GAY VOIC
• GAY HISTORY: 18 ANTI-GAY GROUPS AND THEIR PROPAGANDA
• GAY PRI VERS ‘GAY PROPAGANDA’GAY PRI VERS ‘GAY PROPAGANDA’

RSIA: EXPAND 'GAY PROPAGANDA' BAN PROGRS TOWARD LAW

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.

MAJORY OF RSIANS BELIEVE GAYS NSPIRG TO STROY UNTRY'S VALU, POLL FDS

“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. Several ernments Europe have put forward creasgly dranian legislatn limg the rights of LGBT dividuals unr the guise of “protectg children, ” fightg “gay propaganda, ” and “genr iology, ” while supportg tradnal fay and nservative valu. A more recent example of this type of legislated homophobia the form of the Pedophilia Act passed by the Országgyűlés (Natnal Assembly) of Hungary June 2021, which bans “exposg mors to any ntent that picts sexualy for s own sake or portrays and promot homosexualy or viance om genr inty based on birth sex” media, schools, and clash of “civilizatnal valu” ntu to reprent a pture pot between what Wtern European natns promote as human rights and what Central and Eastern European natns cry as lonialism and double standards.

“LET THEM FLEE TO SWEN: THERE, EVERYONE LOOKS AT THEM MORE POLELY”: GAY PROPAGANDA AND LGBT RIGHTS THE BALTIC STAT

However, as the Lhuanian LGBT rights NGO Lietuvos gėjų lyga (Lhuanian Gay League, or LGL)Footnote 2 noted their prs release on the amendments, the chang keep the law tact and do nothg to addrs provisns that n be ed to target LGBT-related ntent, even if is for rmatnal or tnal purpos (Antanaytė, 2021) chapter outl how the ncept of “gay propaganda” n be unrstood terms of the often-fierce bat over same-sex partnership legislatn, same-sex fai, hate crim laws, and LGBT visibily Estonia, Latvia, and Lhuania.

Further, looks to lol LGBT and femist rights anizatns the three untri, cludg Eti LGBT Ühg (Estonian LGBT Associatn), Femisteerium (Estonia), LGBT un viņu drgu apvienība ‘Mozaīka’ (Associatn of LGBT and their Friends “Mozaīka, ” Latvia), Pri Hoe (Latvia), and Lietuvos gėjų lyga (LGL, Lhuania), and the news stori, blog posts, and prs releas they create that often react and try to unter nservative and homophobic/transphobic narrativ prent polics and society. Typilly, accatns of “gay propaganda” are leveled agast activists phg for legal regnn of same-sex partnerships and fai, the stagg of pri march major ci across Central and Eastern Europe, media stori and programs that pict ntral or posive reprentatns of LGBT dividuals, and sex tn that go beyond abstence and heterosexualy.

THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

However, “gay propaganda” and “genr iology” both have their origs relig and nservative polil movements—referred to as the “anti-genr” movements—origatg the mid-1990s and early 2000s, and the terms are often ed as polil tools to monize and spegoat sexual and genr mori. While is out of spe of this rearch to provi a full acuntg for the fundg that allows groups to fight agast “gay propaganda” and “genr iology” Estonia, Latvia, and Lhuania, do pot to specific stanc where “followg the money” would help to better expla the motiv of specific groups and Rights ComparisonThere is nsirable dispary LGBT rights Estonia, Latvia, and Lhuania, particularly parison to many untri Wtern Europe. While a slim relative majory all three untri believe that lbian, gay, and bisexual dividuals should have the same rights as heterosexual cizens—53% Estonia and Lhuania and 49% Latvia—when qutns pertaed to the moraly of same-sex relatnships, marriage rights, adoptn, and transgenr rights, signifint majori Latvia and Lhuania reacted negatively, while a slim pluraly Estonia (49–44%) believe that there is nothg wrong wh a same-sex relatnship (European Commissn, 2019a).

Regardg perceptns of whether there is systematic discrimatn the three untri, cludg agast tersex and transgenr people, signifint majori all three believe that wispread discrimatn do not exist, except Lhuania, where 50% believe that there is wispread discrimatn agast lbian, gay, and bisexual people (European Commissn, 2019a). While the vtigatn appears to be ongog, and an quiry has been opened to the actn of the police on the plats that had been filed agast the neighbor (LSM, 2021d), the cint reflects the difference of Latvian police to homophobic crim—that is the victim’s flt, and the perpetrator is not the weeks followg Kdzulis’ ath, a motn was troduced the Latvian Saeima (parliament) by the liberal, pro-LGBT rights Development/For! One member of the mtee, Juris Rancāns (Jnā konservatīvā partija, New Conservative Party), claimed the proposal was “based on assumptns, feelgs and prejudic spread mass media agast Latvia, agast the part of Latvia’s nservative society, agast Latvia as a terribly homophobic untry, which is absolutely unte” (LSM, 2021e).

The bill was sent to the Saeima Legal Affairs Commissn (LSM, 2021a) before returns for a further vote, which has yet to rponse to the recent events, Anhela Kamenska, director of the Latvian Human Rights Centre, noted that policians the Saeima are ntributg to the issue of homophobic hate speech and the polarizatn of society (LSM, 2021c). EKRE scribed the opponents of the referendum as those who “wish to overthrow the existg orr and replace wh the goals of globalism, mass immigratn, multi-culturalism, genr ntraly and homosexual iology, cludg the adoptn of children by gay upl” (BNS, 2020b). This aligns wh the rhetoric of other far-right populist parti across Europe, where they claim they are the thentic moral center of the has also equently voked the dangers of LGBT rights to Estonian culture, wh posts on Uued Uudised, the news portal affiliated wh EKRE, often ridg “homopropaganda” both Estonia and abroad.

GAY PEOPLE WHO E OUT LATER LIFE FACE UNIQUE OBSTACL

This, as the news se claimed, is evince of “homopropaganda” pervertg the notn of “equaly, ” which their terms means natural patibily of men and women, and that such propaganda mt be opposed or will lead to genr-ntral toilets and polil rrectns as liberal (e. In this claim, he further stated that if members of the gay muny were unhappy, they should move to Swen where they will be treated better and that if gays uld spread their “homopropaganda” Estonia, then EKRE should be able to spread s own propaganda (Eggert, 2020). The story was picked up by news outlets around the world, wh RT, the Rsian media anizatn wh close ti to the Kreml, notg that the Swedish Conservative Party had proposed a swap wh Estonia—Swedish homophob for Estonia’s LGBT muny (RT Internatnal, 2020, October 22).

What is apparent is that the rhetoric and tactics employed by EKRE are typil for a right-wg populist party: monize mori, claim that “gay propaganda” is a threat to the natn, attack media and opposn policians as enemi and liars, and claim the mantle of Right to Be Seen: LGBT Visibily LhuaniaUntil summer 2021, Lhuania was the only untry the EU to have a “gay propaganda” law on the books. In s ial form banned public discsn or dissematn of homosexualy as well as bisexualy, polygamy, imag of heterosexual terurse, ath and severe jury, the paranormal, dg e, foul language and bad eatg habs, among other activi (LGL, 2009a).

‘PROPAGANDA’ BY GAYS FAC RSIAN CURBS AMID UNRT

However, due to polil prsure om then Print Dalia Grybskaė, who warned that the origal text would n afoul of mments ma by Lhuania as a member of the European Unn, the draft law was amend to remove referenc to homosexualy and bisexualy, wh the fal text “banng rmatn ‘enuragg the sexual abe of mors, sexual relatns between mors and other sexual relatns’” (LGL, 2009b).

As noted LGBT rights activist and former Member of the Seimas Marija Aušrė Pavilnienė (Lietuvos socialmokratų partija, Social Democrats) poted out, this was an important moment for breakg the perceptn of Lhuania as the most homophobic untry the European Unn (Msage & Sibille, 2014). Counter-prottors typilly stand by the para route, ually ont of the ma Roman Catholic Cathedral at Katedros aikštė, holdg signs wh slogans cludg “Sexually lechero propaganda, ” “Protect our children om gay propaganda, ” and imag that clu a rabow flag and an EU flag wh a cross through both symbols.

The activists that help anize Baltic Pri Lhuania are aware of this perceptn and have taken the accatns and turned them to slogans for the march: In 2016 the slogan was “M ame žmonės—ne propaganda” (“We are people, not propaganda”), and 2019 the slogan was “M ame šeima” (“We are fay”) 2019 march was also marked by several accatns of “gay propaganda.

POLAND ANTI-GAY VOIC

Furthermore, the text voked the “gay propaganda” law:Acrdg to our nvictn, the march ntradicts the Law on the Protectn of Mors agast the Negative Impact of Public Informatn, which prohibs the public display of actns that are nsistent wh the ncepts of natural fay, erotic or sexually suggtive. This reprents one of the major dangers of disrmatn tied to “gay propaganda”—that n be ed by unacuntable foreign actors to fluence a untry to the triment of s social and polil hn, rather than supportg and promotg the “tradnal fay.

GAY HISTORY: 18 ANTI-GAY GROUPS AND THEIR PROPAGANDA

This me after Estonian banks had ozen assets of the work relatn to EU sanctns agast Kiselyev and Rossiya Segodnya, who also operate Sputnik (ERR, 2020a) the bans are aimed at tradnal media channels—televisn—and do not perta directly to LGBT rights and “gay propaganda, ” the ndus of disrmatn mirror what is occurrg onle.

The groups clu K, Let’s Protect Our Children, and Our Children, and while they are separate anizatns, they have as a group lobbied the Latvian Saeima to pass laws banng “gay propaganda” and adoptn of Latvian children by foreigners. The anizatn was also behd a signature drive to ll on the Saeima to pass a law banng “gay propaganda”—which ultimately failed when the inti of the anizatn’s lears were revealed and they were treated by the public as proxi for the Rsian ernment (Spriņģe, 2016).

GAY PRI VERS ‘GAY PROPAGANDA’GAY PRI VERS ‘GAY PROPAGANDA’

ConclnThis chapter outl how the ncepts of “gay propaganda” and “genr iology” have been ed by polil and relig nservativ to monize sexual mori, femist and LGBT activists, and as a way to stake a claim to the “te” moral valu Europe. For example, Estonia EKRE, which has typilly been anti-Rsian, has recent years appealed to the Rsian muny by playg up their nservative (and, some would say, vilently homophobic) crentials hop of wng their vot (ERR, 2021d).

While there is a mon language beg shared across Europe terms of “gay propaganda” and “genr iology, ” this often masks lol enomic and social anxieti the Baltic untri—cludg a sense of (un)belongg the European Unn and the perceptn of Rsia as an existential threat to natnal sovereignty—that are often unaddrsed by EU stutns.