Russia’s Justice Ministry said Friday that it had requested a ban on the “international LGBT movement” on the grounds of “extremism,” a new example of the ultra-conservative turn in Russia that has accelerated since the offensive against Ukraine.
In a press release, the ministry did not specify whether it was targeting the LGBT+ movement around the world in general or whether it was naming one or more existing organizations. And he did not immediately respond to an AFP request for details.
The Supreme Court of Russia must consider this request for a ban on November 30th.
The ministry said it had “submitted an administrative application to the Supreme Court (…) to classify the international LGBT movement as extremist and ban its activities on the territory of the Russian Federation.”
For years, Russian President Vladimir Putin has pursued policies that many representatives of the LGBT+ community and NGOs have described as homophobic and transphobic.
Since the offensive against Ukraine began in February 2022, Russian authorities have further tightened their conservative measures, particularly against LGBT+ people. They say they want to eliminate behavior considered deviant and position themselves as a moral bulwark against the West, which is seen as decadent.
For several human rights organizations, Vladimir Putin and his regime pursue homophobic and transphobic policies. The Kremlin reiterates that individuals are free in their sexual orientation, but that Russia must protect children in the face of Western propaganda that it says denies the existence of biological sex.
The Ministry of Justice’s announcement was denounced by professional organizations.
“The Russian government is once again forgetting that the LGBT+ community is made up of people, citizens of this country like any other.” And now they not only want to make us disappear from the public space, but ban us as a social group,” reacted Dilia Gafourova, director of the “Sphere” fund, an association defending LGBT+ rights in Russia, told AFP.
“It is a typical measure of repressive and undemocratic regimes: the persecution of the weakest,” she continued, promising to “fight.”
Amnesty International condemned a “shameful” and “deeply cynical” decision in a press release.
“A life of silence and fear of being humiliated and imprisoned is the price that the state wants to impose on countless LGBTI people in Russia,” lamented Marie Struthers, regional director of the NGO for Europe from the East.
Ban on “propaganda”
In July, Russian lawmakers passed a law targeting transgender people, banning them from undergoing transitions, including surgeries and hormone therapy, as well as any right to adopt children.
Since 2013, a law in Russia has already banned “propaganda” of “non-traditional sexual relationships” aimed at minors, a text denounced by NGOs as a tool of LGBT+ oppression.
At the end of 2022, this law was significantly expanded. It now bans LGBT+ “propaganda” for all audiences, in the media, on the internet, in books and films.
For this reason, a ballet at the Bolshoi about the life of the Soviet dancer Rudolf Nureyev, a homosexual, was removed from the repertoire last spring.
Since 2020, the Russian Constitution has also stipulated that marriage is a union between a man and a woman, effectively banning same-sex partnerships.
The largest LGBT+ NGO in Russia, LGBT-Set (“LGBT Network”, in Russian), was classified as a “foreign agent” at the end of 2021, a notorious designation that complicates its activities and carries fines. , or even a ban.
Since 2006, the NGO has been helping sexual minorities across Russia, particularly in the Chechen Republic, where authorities are particularly hostile towards them.
The Russian opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta and several NGOs revealed in 2017 that gays in Chechnya were arrested by the police and sometimes tortured and murdered.