Russia’s Supreme Court on Thursday, November 30, banned the “international LGBT movement and its affiliates” for “extremism,” paving the way for trials and prison sentences against homosexuals and activists defending their rights in Russia.
This decision comes amid an ultra-conservative shift targeting LGBT+ people, with Russia now positioning itself as the standard-bearer of “traditional” values in the face of what it sees as the decadence of the West. This policy has accelerated since the Russian army’s attack on Ukraine at the end of February 2022, which led to a repression of all forms of criticism of the Kremlin.
Judge Oleg Nefedov ordered “to recognize the international LGBT movement and its affiliates as extremists and to ban their activities on the territory of the Russian Federation,” according to Agence France-Presse (AFP) correspondents on the ground. Mr. Nefedov specified that this ban came into effect “immediately.”
The hearing, the first in the case, lasted just a few hours and took place without a lawyer – there is no organization called the International LGBT Movement in Russia – and behind closed doors as the case was classified as “secret”. “Only a representative of the Russian Ministry of Justice will take part in the hearing,” the Supreme Court told state news agency Ria Novosti earlier in the day.
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In mid-November, the Russian Justice Ministry called for it to be classified as an “extremist organization” and to ban “the international LGBT movement,” without clearly saying which organization it was targeting. Any public activity related to what Russia considers “non-traditional” sexual preferences could now be punished as extremism, a crime punishable by heavy prison sentences.
“A new peak of madness”
Up to now, LGBT+ people have been threatened with large fines for carrying out their “propaganda”, but not with a prison sentence. Over the last decade, their rights have been drastically restricted under the leadership of Vladimir Putin, who claims to want to ban from public view behaviors deemed deviant that were imported from the West.
Ian Dvorkine, founder of the NGO Center T in Russia, which helps transgender people, fled for fear of being accused of extremism and thrown in prison for founding this association. “Work in Russia is becoming more and more unsafe (…) It seems so [les militants LGBT+] those who survive will live completely hidden,” he told AFP. For him, this trial against a “movement” that officially does not exist in Russia is “a new height of madness.” “Anyone could fall under this [cette accusation] “The extremism,” he says indignantly, pointing out that “more and more people” are asking for help to leave the country.
Since 2013, a law has banned the “propaganda” of “non-traditional sexual relationships” against minors, a text denounced by NGOs as a tool of homophobic oppression. This law was expanded at the end of 2022. It now bans LGBT+ “propaganda” to all audiences, in the media, on the internet, in books and films.
In July, Russian lawmakers also passed a law targeting transgender people and banning them from transition options, including surgery and hormone therapy.
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