Russia’s justice ministry has filed a petition to the Supreme Court to outlaw the activities of what it refers to as the “international LGBT public movement” as extremists.
The petition stands unclear from the ministry’s statement if it’s aimed at certain organisations or the LGBT community at large.
The movements were inciting “social and religious strife” and “extremist activity” amongst civilians, the statement included.
However, any LGBT activist could face criminal charges as a result of the prohibition.
Russia’s authorities have previously labelled opposition parties and human rights organisations—like Alexei Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation—as radical and now want to change the rights of people’s sexual orientation legally.
On November 30, the Supreme Court will evaluate the movement.
The Moscow Times mentioned one of the few LGBT activists living in Russia, stating that the prohibition would make it difficult for LGBT organisations to function.
The chances of employees getting under criminal prosecution are also high if the ban is made legal.
“Essentially, it would entail criminal prosecution based solely on one’s orientation or identity”- one of the activists noted.
LGBT people- Scapegoat for Russia’s President before election
According to reviewers, the action is a populist ploy intended to garner support before the presidential election of the following year.
Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president has not yet formally announced his candidature for the position, although it is widely anticipated that he will run for a fifth term.
Putin’s Russia has clamped down on LGBT activity because of his conventional beliefs. The impression that the West is attacking the “traditional Russian values” has been made earlier by the President on the issue.
Following the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, this effort was intensified. Laws prohibiting “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations” were passed in December of last year and applied to all age groups.
There has been a clampdown on transgender rights this year as well. legislation was passed that outlawed gender reassignment surgery. “Non-traditional sexual relations” are not prohibited in Russia, officials defend.
Duma, The Russian State targeted the transgender community in July 2023, banning gender-affirming care.
Putin has made a rhetorical connection between the invasion of Ukraine and his anti-trans and anti-gay policies. At a ceremony on September 30, 2022, to formally announce the illegal annexation of the oblasts of Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, Luhansk, and Kherson in Ukraine, he made statements criticising the LGBTQ community.
“Do we want to impose in our schools, starting in the primary grades, perversions that lead to degradation and extinction?” Putin noted during his speech.
Lawmaker Inna Sovsun of Ukraine, a supporter of same-sex marriage and LGBTQ rights, has upheld that homophobia in her country is a holdover from the Soviet and Russian eras.
This was an extension of a juvenile-focused statute from 2013. Positive portrayals of same-sex partnerships in advertising or the media are illegally classified as inciting violence, disseminating pornography, or inflaming racial, ethnic, or religious conflicts.
During a UN assessment of Russia’s human rights record on Monday, Deputy Justice Minister Andrey Loginov stated that discrimination against people based on their gender identity or sexual orientation was illegal and that the law protected LGBT rights.
However, the most recent action is probably going to worry a community that is already under threat deeply.” Activists face coercion from the state, and from homophobic and transphobic groups, often abiding by physical attacks,” said the anonymous activist.
Head of the LGBT charity Dilya Gafurova, who departed Russia, told the AFP news agency that the government intended to outlaw the LGBT community as a social group rather than merely ‘erase us from the public field’. “We’re going to keep fighting,” she asserted.
