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

Contents:

• ‘I’M AAID FOR MY FUTURE’: PROPOSED LAWS THREATEN GAY LIFE RSIA
• RSIA: EXPAND 'GAY PROPAGANDA' BAN PROGRS TOWARD LAW
• WHERE IS ILLEGAL TO BE GAY?
• RSIA TELLS UN THERE ARE NO GAYS CHECHNYA
• GAYS RSIA FD NO HAVEN, DPE SUPPORT FROM THE WT
• 'WE'RE NOT HIDG': GAY AND LBIAN RSIANS SAY A CULTURAL SHIFT IS UNRWAY
• RSIA TO GAYS: SHUT UP AND DISAPPEAR
• WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT RSIA’S SO-CALLED ‘GAY PROPAGANDA’ BILL
• WHY RSIA IS SO ANTI-GAY
• 1 5 RSIANS WANT GAYS AND LBIANS 'ELIMATED,' SURVEY FDS
• JAGS' MAXEN IS FIRST MALE AMERIN PRO SPORTS ACH TO E OUT AS GAY

‘I’M AAID FOR MY FUTURE’: PROPOSED LAWS THREATEN GAY LIFE RSIA

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. 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. ”The anizers had good reason to be wary: Life has been challengg for gay Rsians sce the law passed, as the ernment has treated gay life as a Wtern import that is harmful to tradnal Rsian valu and Rsia’s Parliament is set to pass a legislative package that would ban all “gay propaganda, ” signalg an even more difficult perd ahead for a stigmatized segment of laws would prohib reprentatn of L.

RSIA: EXPAND 'GAY PROPAGANDA' BAN PROGRS TOWARD LAW

Exprsn wh s ratnale for the war Ukrae, sistg that Rsia is fightg not jt Ukrae but all of NATO, a Wtern alliance that reprents a threat to the Put drove home that argument a speech last week, sayg that the Wt n have “dozens of genrs and gay pri paras, ” but that should not try to spread the “trends” elsewhere.

WHERE IS ILLEGAL TO BE GAY?

Olenichev said that though the police do not track hate crim agast queer people, he and his lleagu have noticed an crease clients who have suffered inty-based attacks sce rhetoric behd anti-gay laws may have dangero nsequenc for gay Rsians, said Vladimir Komov, a lawyer wh the group Delo 2013 law was promoted as protectg children, while the new on “seek to prohib gay propaganda as a danger to the state system, ” fg as extremism, he Lunchenkov said the proposed laws uld leave gay people “aaid to go to medil clics to get treatment or ttg” for sexually transmted diseas.

Lawmakers llg gays a danger on a par wh war “is more funny than sry, ” he now, gay Rsians and their alli have found exprsn spe rtrictive laws.

RSIA TELLS UN THERE ARE NO GAYS CHECHNYA

A versn of this article appears prt on, Sectn A, Page 7 of the New York edn wh the headle: Life for Gay Rsians Is About to Get Worse. 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. 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.

GAYS RSIA FD NO HAVEN, DPE SUPPORT FROM THE WT

The 2013 “gay propaganda, ” law has been extensively ed by the ernment to stifle pro-LGBT events and to shutdown anizatns and onle media. Image source, Getty ImagMillns of people ntue to live plac that outlaw same-sex relatnships and prosecute people for beg gay. In five untri and parts of two others, homosexualy is still punishable wh the ath penalty, while a further 70 imprison cizens bee of their sexual where homosexualy is legal, many untri treat those same-sex relatnships differently, such as havg an unequal age of nsent or a ban on marriage.

In Rsia, host of the Sochi Wter Olympics, a law banng the promotn of "non-tradnal" sexualy to unr-18s was troduced last, where is illegal to be gay? Decrimalisg beg gayImage source, Getty ImagDurg the last 200 years, an creasg number of untri have crimalised same-sex relatnships. Nigeria, which already bans gay relatnships, also recently outlawed same-sex marriag, gay groups and shows of same-sex public affectn.

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

Olympic host Rsia also troduced ntroversial legislatn June that prcrib f for anyone givg rmatn about homosexualy to people unr 18. As the global LGBT muny marks Pri Month, lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr people face growg, state-sanctned homophobia and vlence Rsia, activists say.

In s World Report 2023, the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) noted that Rsia has adopted “new, homophobic legislatn and ramped up homophobic…rhetoric. I nnot image anythg better for a [gay] Chechen than havg your mother stop talkg about marryg you off or curg you and, stead, jt treatg you normally.

RSIA TO GAYS: SHUT UP AND DISAPPEAR

I have always been amazed that there are famo gays and nothg happens to them, but ordary guys go to one wrong meetg and that’s .

Rsia's World Cup volunteers have warned they will hunt down gay England fans and report them to police if they see them kissg publicPublished: 9:00, 28 Jun 2018Updated: 9:02, 28 Jun 2018RUSSIA'S World Cup volunteers have warned they will hunt down gay England fans and report them to police if they see them kissg public. But what are the laws regardg homosexualy Rsia - and n same sex upl actually be prosecuted for beg openly affectnate?

LGBT rights groups say homophobic attacks have rocketed sce print Vladimir Put approved the ntroversial law outlawg the promotn of a gay liftyle to mors 2013. Although sexual activy between gay people was crimalised 1993, homosexual upl are not eligible for the legal protectns offered to heterosexuals Rsia.

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

Dpe beg slammed for the recent crease social discrimatn, crim and vlence agast homosexuals, big ci such as Mosw and Sat Petersburg are said to have thrivg LGBT muni.

In a report issued April 2012, a panel of five expert advisers to the Uned Natns Human rights Council nmned the wave of torture and killgs of gay men Chechnya. In January 2018, two gay men whose marriage was registered by Rsian officials fled the untry after receivg ath threats. Stotsko said he had exploed a loophole the gay marriage law, cg another law that means Rsia regnis marriag registered abroad.

In January 2016, state Duma rejected a proposal by the munist Party to punish people who publicly show their homosexualy wh f and arrts.

WHY RSIA IS SO ANTI-GAY

An official at Rsia’s Jtice Mistry has said at the Uned Natns that the rights of the LGBT muny were not vlated Chechnya bee there were no gays sentiment was first exprsed by Chechen strongman lear Ramzan Kadyrov who, faced wh media reports that gay Chechens were allegedly taed and tortured, mataed that “we don’t have any gays. ” Last year, the vtigative Novaya Gazeta reported that more than 100 men had been starved, beaten, and tortured wh electric shocks a ernment-backed crackdown on lol gays.

And particularly where that base of support is close to relig views, there is a lot of crossover there that works for polil opportunists who are g official forms of homophobia to fe their polil That is Dan Healey, profsor of Rsian history at the Universy of Oxford. In December 2022, Rsia expand s existg “gay propaganda” law to exert ntrol over public discsns and narrativ surroundg non-heterosexual relatnships and inti.

1 5 RSIANS WANT GAYS AND LBIANS 'ELIMATED,' SURVEY FDS

As Rsia ntu to flounr Ukrae, wh attempts to pture the small town of Bakhmut turng to a grisly reenactment of the Battle of Verdun, and Kreml propagandists lurchg back and forth between hysteril swagger and the five stag of grief, the Rsian polil tablishment has cid to tackle what’s really important: a natnal “Don’t Say Gay” law. A bill that outlaws “LGBT propaganda”—fed so broadly as to ver not only gay or transgenr rights advocy but potentially all public exprsns of “nontradnal” sexualy or genr inty—passed the State Duma on November 24 and was approved by the upper hoe of Rsia’s fake legislature, the Council of Feratns, last Wednday. ) But do rell Soviet-era censorship unr which any mentn of Tchaikovsky’s homosexualy was scbbed om books and films about the great poser’s life, while bgraphil prefac to Soviet edns of Osr Wil cloaked the reason for his imprisonment such phemisms as “transgrsns agast moraly.

JAGS' MAXEN IS FIRST MALE AMERIN PRO SPORTS ACH TO E OUT AS GAY

” Ocsnally, foreign books wh gay characters, such as Iris Murdoch’s 1973 novel The Black Prce, slipped past the censor’s vigilant eye. But there uld have been no qutn, for stance, of publishg Jam Baldw’s gay-themed masterpiece Gvanni’s Room, even though Baldw was acclaimed the official Soviet media as a fighter agast Amerin racism; the novel had to wa until 2007 for s first Rsian edn.

This is not the first time Put-era Rsian legislatn has gone after “gay propaganda”: A more limed 2013 law add “propaganda of non-tradnal sexual relatns” to a broar law that banned the distributn of “harmful” material to mors. The Duma voted down an amendment that would have exempted “universally regnized cultural products” such as lerature and art om the ban; theory, this means, for example, that Rsian translatns of Vladimir Nabokov’s novel Pale Fire, whose prcipal narrator Charl Kbote is nspicuoly gay, uld fall unr the ax. Jt last month, the premiere of a play lled The Prcs and the Ogre at a children’s theater Novosibirsk was nceled—or at least layed, sce will apparently open this month after vettg by the Mistry of Culture—bee of an anonymo plat om someone who found too gay.

Many Rsian mentators, such as journalist and activist Renat Davletgilyev, believe the new law is a transparent attempt by the Put regime to shore up flaggg support among the Rsian public by appealg to homophobia, stg gays as the menacg “other, ” and monizg not only the Wt but Rsian antiwar liberals as “sexual viants. A report by journalist Sasha Belaya on the Khodorkovsky Live YouTube channel noted that the Duma’s discsn and passage of the legislatn had been acpanied by an anti-gay mpaign the Rsian state media that explicly targeted liberals and dissints. Fellow TV host Vladimir Solovyov livered his mentary on “this filth, this abomatn, this foulns, and nasts” a bizarre sgsong apparently tend to mimic “gay” mannerisms.