Russia\u2019s parliament has passed the third and final reading of a law banning \u201cLGBT propaganda\u201d among all adults, as Moscow ramps up its conservative push at home amid the war in Ukraine that passed the nine-month mark on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The bill criminalises any act regarded as an attempt to promote what Russia calls \u201cnon-traditional sexual relations\u201d \u2013 in film, online, advertising or in public \u2013 and expands on a notorious 2013 law that banned \u201cpropaganda of nontraditional sexual relations\u201d among minors and was used to detain gay rights activists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Under the new law, individuals can be fined up to 400,000 roubles (\u00a35,400) and organisations 5m roubles (\u00a368,500) for \u201cpropagandising nontraditional sexual relations\u201d, while foreigners could face up to 15 days\u2019 arrest and expulsion from Russia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Human rights groups and LGBTQ+ activists say the extension of the law means any act or public mention of same-sex relationships is functionally being outlawed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, is expected to sign the bill in the coming days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since the start of the war in Ukraine, the Kremlin has launched a fresh effort to promote \u201ctraditional values\u201d, with the Russian leader making anti-gay rhetoric one of the cornerstones of his political agenda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a recent speech, Putin accused the west of \u201cmoving towards open satanism\u201d, citing the promotion of gay and transgender rights in Europe as an example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alexander Khinshtein, a senior lawmaker and one of the bill\u2019s designers, said the war in Ukraine had given the proposed anti-LGBTQ+ law \u201cnew relevance\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe special military operation takes place not only on the battlefield but also in the minds and souls of people,\u201d Khinshtein said, referring to the conflict in Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In an earlier discussion of the bill, Khinshtein targeted the popular children\u2019s cartoon Peppa Pig, after a lesbian couple joined its cast of characters in an episode titled Families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox church and a close ally of Putin, also backed the new law. In an earlier sermon, Kirill bizarrely blamed the country\u2019s invasion of Ukraine on gay pride parades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Human rights activists on Thursday condemned the bill. Igor Kochetkov, the head of the rights group Russian LGBT Network, said the bill was an \u201cabsurd\u201d government attempt to further discriminate against the LGBTQ+ community in Russia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis law is part of an ongoing homophobic government campaign against LGBTQ rights,\u201d said Kochetkov, who recently left Russia. \u201cThis is part of a broader attack on anything the government deems \u2018western and progressive\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kochetkov said the bill was also an attempt by the Kremlin to look for internal enemies and distract attention from battlefield losses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Human rights critics fear the law will be used to close down independent film and book festivals, making the topic of gay sexual orientation essentially taboo in Russia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kochetkov said the vague wording of the bill made it difficult to gauge just how restrictive the law would be. \u201cOfficials don\u2019t explain what they mean under \u2018LGBT propaganda\u2019. At this point, it is hard to know how this will affect the community,\u201d he said. \u201cBut the situation of the LGBTQ community was already very dire before this bill.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Over the past few years, Russia has banned a number of prominent LGBTQ+ rights groups, including the Sphere Foundation, an organisation that shed light on violent anti-gay purges in Chechnya.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kochetkov\u2019s LGBT Network, with a number of other human rights groups, has also received the \u201cforeign agent\u201d label, a Soviet-era tag designed to target groups the authorities say receive \u201cforeign funding\u201d and engage in \u201cpolitical activity\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But while the Russian government has expanded its attacks on LGBTQ+ rights, recent polling has indicated parts of Russian society are becoming more tolerant towards the gay community, with a 2019 poll showing that 68% of younger Russians view the LGBTQ+ community as \u201cnormal\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And in July, Daria Kasatkina, Russia\u2019s highest-ranked female tennis player, came out as gay, a move applauded by fellow athletes and parts of the Russian public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pointing to these reactions, Kochetkov said the new law would not drastically change the way Russians viewed lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and transgender people. \u201cMany in the country are becoming more accepting of the LGBTQ community and a new law will not buck this trend,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Russia\u2019s parliament has passed the third and final reading of a law banning \u201cLGBT propaganda\u201d among all adults, as Moscow ramps up its conservative push at home amid the war in Ukraine that passed the nine-month mark on Thursday. The bill criminalises any act regarded as an attempt to promote what Russia calls \u201cnon-traditional sexual […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":22882,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[11261,12487,8627,11043,6975,5304,11394,5777,11941,10387,287,6537,10767,10000,5364,6201,920,6621,6738,8057,12210,11844,6560,9769,2264,10840,5252,5205,1152,10342,8483,2693,2717,5721,12309,5572,5340,7968,11973,6332,9403,6846,1198,3805,6014,71,3457,5217,3852,7584,10041,5538,5511,5180,694,5251,3954,594],"class_list":["post-27618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news","tag-accused","tag-agenda","tag-alexander-khinshtein","tag-anti-lgbtq","tag-arrest","tag-attack","tag-attacks","tag-banned","tag-bill","tag-campaign","tag-children","tag-church","tag-conflict","tag-conservative","tag-daria","tag-discriminate","tag-episode","tag-europe","tag-families","tag-fear","tag-female","tag-foreigners","tag-gay","tag-gay-rights","tag-government","tag-human-rights","tag-invasion","tag-july","tag-kremlin","tag-law","tag-lesbian","tag-lgbt","tag-lgbtq","tag-losses","tag-men","tag-military","tag-moscow","tag-nine","tag-one","tag-online","tag-orthodox","tag-orthodox-church","tag-parliament","tag-president","tag-propaganda","tag-putin","tag-russia","tag-russian","tag-russians","tag-sex","tag-speech","tag-tennis","tag-transgender","tag-ukraine","tag-vladimir-putin","tag-war","tag-will","tag-who"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27618\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}