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New Delhi: Russian President Vladimir Putin has intensified his crackdown on LGBTQ people on Monday after he signed new legislation that calls for a ban on the public expression of their identity in the country.
Under the new law, which widens Russia’s interpretation of what qualifies as “LGBT propaganda”, any action or the spreading of any information that is considered an attempt to promote homosexuality in public, online, or films, books, or advertising, could incur a heavy fine, as reported by the news agency Reuters.
According to the new law, it is illegal to spread “propaganda” about “nontraditional sexual relations” in the media, in advertising, in movies, or on social media. It had passed the Duma, Russia’s Parliament, by a vote of 397 to 0 on Nov. 24, The New York Times reported that demonstrations of “nontraditional relationships or preferences” will also be wholly barred from advertising and any outlet visible to minors.
The New York Times reported that demonstrations of “nontraditional relationships or preferences” will also be wholly barred from advertising and any outlet visible to minors. Distributing to minors any information “that causes children to want to change their sex” was also prohibited, the NYT reported.
Putin has long cast LGBTQ life as a Western intrusion into Russia’s traditional society and values, and proponents of the new law recently likened the fight against LGBTQ expression to Russia’s military actions in Ukraine, which they see as a broader civilizational clash between the West.
“We have our way of development, we do not need European imposition of nontraditional relations,” Nina Ostanina, chairwoman of the committee on family, women, and children, said during parliamentary hearings on the legislation, as quoted by the New York Times .
Russia has banned “propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations” among minors since 2013, with heavy fines or suspension of business activities for Russians, and expulsion from the country for foreigners who were found guilty. The new law extends the ban on such propaganda to all adults.
After the ban was imposed, just over 100 cases ended up in court, according to an analysis by a Russian lawyer, Maksim Olenichev. According to the experts, its biggest impact was casting the community as inappropriate, making it more invisible and subject to abuses. The new law is likely to further suppress the LGBTQ community, its opponents said.
The new law also calls for a ban on propaganda for pedophilia. The combination “looks like an attempt to put homosexuality and pedophilia in the same row,” reported the NYT citing a leading independent news site, Meduza.
“The ban on ‘LGBT propaganda’ is a big problem,” Alena Popova, a human-rights activist told the group Coming Out, as quoted by NYT. “Now this vulnerable group is in an even more vulnerable position.”
The 2013 law said it took the form of “dissemination of information aimed at the formation of nontraditional sexual attitudes among minors.” Imposition of information about these relationships “that arouses interest in such relations” also amounted to propaganda, the law said, as did spreading the “distorted idea of the social equivalence of traditional and nontraditional sexual relations.”
Fines for “propaganda” of nontraditional sexual relations or preferences can rise to about $6,400 for citizens and $80,000 for organizations.
Roskomnadzor, Russia’s powerful internet regulator, will monitor the internet to identify information and programs that are affected by the ban on LGBTQ “propaganda” and pedophilia, NYT reported citing the Russian state-run news agency Tass. The law also forbids issuing a rental or streaming certificate for films with materials that promote nontraditional sexual relations and preferences.
(With agencies’ inputs)
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