Back in 2013, Russian President Vladimir Putin presented law prohibiting so-called “propaganda of non-traditional relationships” minors. For several months now, there has been discussion in Russia about strengthening and extending it not only to the school and educational contexts, but also to people of all ages in general and, consequently, to such means of communication as cinema, television, newspapers and websites. On Thursday, the Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, voted in favor of a law that is now closer to final approval.
If the law is passed would categorically forbid talking positively about same-sex relationshipsthe LGBT+ community, gender transition and everything related to topics related to a person’s sexual identity and beyond the concept of a traditional married couple.
The bill, as explained Guardian, it criminalizes any act that is considered an attempt to promote what is called “non-traditional sexual relations” in Russia, with a fine of up to 400,000 rubles for individuals and 5 million rubles for organizations. The law talks about “LGBT propaganda, gender reassignment and pedophilia,” and Russian politicians say it is a way to protect Russian values from the “moral corruption” of the West.
“The special operation is taking place not only on the battlefield, but also in the minds and souls of people,” said Oleksandr Khinshtein, one of the initiators of the law, referring to the conflict in Ukraine. At an earlier discussion of the bill, Khinshtein himself target children’s cartoon Peppa Pig, for showing a lesbian couple. LGBT+ activists in the country stressed the seriousness of this provision: for the new law to come into force, it still needs to be approved by the upper house of the Russian parliament and then ratified by Putin, but most likely there will be no hitches. . “This law is part of the government’s ongoing homophobic campaign against LGBTQ rights,” Al said. Guardian Igor Kochetkov, head of the human rights organization Russian LGBT Network: “This is part of a wider attack on everything that the government considers “Western and progressive”.
Source: Elle