Russia’s Supreme Court on Thursday banned the “international” LGBT+ movement for “extremism,” paving the way for trials and prison sentences for homosexuals and activists defending their rights in Russia.
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This decision comes amid an ultra-conservative shift towards LGBT+ people, with Russia positioning itself as the standard-bearer of “traditional” values in the face of the West’s supposed decadence.
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 AFP correspondents on the ground.
Mr. Nefedov specified that this ban came into effect “immediately.”
Fewer than a dozen people gathered outside the court. “Very few people came,” laments journalist Ada Blakewell. “It shows how afraid everyone is to talk about LGBTQ people.”
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, immediately condemned this new decision. “No one should be imprisoned for standing up for human rights or deprived of their rights because of their sexual orientation or gender identity,” he said in a statement.
“The Monster” LGBT+
The hearing, the first in the case, lasted just a few hours and took place without a lawyer – there is no organization with that name in Russia – and behind closed doors as the case was classified as “secret”.
“LGBTs are not poor gays or lesbians, which Russia, we are told, has decided to fight against. “This is a well-organized and planned project to undermine traditional societies from within,” Duma deputy speaker Pyotr Tolstoy assured on Telegram.
“Sodomy is a sin,” he insisted, calling for the complete “destruction” of the LGBT+ “monster” and not just its “tentacles.”
A spokesman for the Russian Orthodox Church, Vakhtang Kichidze, welcomed this ban as “a form of moral self-defense,” according to the Ria Novosti agency.
“Russia has once again shown that neither the collective West nor the United States will deny us the most important thing: a religious and national identity!” Akhmed Doudaev, Member of the Government of the Russian Republic of Chechnya.
According to Russian NGOs and independent media, LGBT+ people have been secretly tortured and murdered in Chechnya in recent years.
In mid-November, the Russian Justice Ministry requested that the international LGBT movement be classified as an “extremist organization” and banned, without clearly saying which organization it was targeting.
Any public activity related to what Russia considers a “non-traditional” sexual orientation could now be punished as “extremism,” a crime punishable by heavy prison sentences.
“The authorities could start opening criminal cases against public figures and activists to create a climate of fear,” said Maxime Olenitchev, a lawyer for the NGO Pervy Otdel, which supports victims of repression in Russia.
“Peak of Madness”
Previously, LGBT+ people faced heavy fines when accused of “propaganda” – the term used by authorities – but not prison sentences.
Over the last decade, their rights have been drastically restricted under the leadership of Vladimir Putin, who, along with the Orthodox Church, claims to want to ban from public spaces behaviors deemed deviant and 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 the association.
“Work in Russia is becoming more and more unsafe (…) It looks like those (LGBT+ activists) who survive are living in complete secrecy,” he told AFP.
For him, this process is “a new peak of madness” and “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” between minors, a text denounced by NGOs as a tool of homophobic oppression.
This law was significantly 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 MPs also passed a law targeting transgender people, specifically banning them from undergoing surgery and hormone therapy.