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Russia’s LGBTQIA+ community has faced increasing pressure from authorities for years
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- Author: Steve Rosenberg
- Role, editor, Moscow
4 hours ago
The decision came at the request of the Ministry of Justice. although the organization does not exist as a legal entity.
The hearing was held behind closed doors, but reporters were allowed to hear the court’s decision. The court heard that no one from the “defendant side” was present.
The Russian constitution was amended three years ago to clarify that marriage means a union between a man and a woman. Samesex partnerships are not recognized in the country.
Ahead of the decision, BBC News asked Sergei Troshin, a Saint Petersburg city councilor who came out as gay last year, what impact it would have.
“I think this will mean that anyone the state considers to be an LGBTQIA+ activist could face a lengthy prison sentence for ‘participation in an extremist organization,'” Troshin said.
“For the coordinator of such a group, the prison sentence will be even higher.”
“This is real repression. There is panic in Russia’s LGBTQIA+ community. People are urgently emigrating. The word we use is evacuation. We must evacuate our own country. It’s terrible,” he added.
Last year, these restrictions were extended to all age groups.
References to LGBTQIA+ people have been excluded from books, films, advertisements and television shows. Earlier this month, a Russian TV channel bleached a rainbow in a South Korean pop video to avoid being charged with violating the “gay propaganda” law.
In the Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, opinions differ.
Vitaly Milonov, a notoriously homophobic lawmaker from the ruling United Russia party, says LGBTQIA+ activism is not just about defending “sexual minorities or the private lives of individuals.” “It’s more about the political agenda promulgated by this international LGBTQIA+ movement.”
“They have their own tasks, their own goals. They act as a political force, a political structure, and the goals of this structure contradict the Russian Constitution.”
Officially, there is no international LGBTQIA+ movement. That’s why I asked the MP how you can ban “something that doesn’t exist”.
“Ah, it’s easy,” Milonov replied. “We can ban all activities of international LGBTQIA+ organizations here in Russia. That’s good. We don’t need them.”
“And I’m looking forward to the next step: banning the rainbow flag. We don’t need this flag. It is a symbol of the fight against the traditional family. I hope that no one in Russia can show this flag.”
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Nonbinary person Maxim Goldman decided to leave Russia: “I suffer from the complete rejection of my own country”
Under Vladimir Putin’s presidency, the Kremlin has adopted an ideology based on conservative thinking and “traditional family values.”
Authorities portray LGBTQIA+ activism as inherently Western and hostile to Russia. Pressure on the LGBTQIA+ community is portrayed as a means of defending Russia’s moral fabric.
Is it also a lure for votes?
“I think that [o julgamento no Supremo Tribunal] “It’s connected to the presidential elections in March,” says Sergei Troshin.[As autoridades] They create an artificial enemy.
“They say: ‘We are fighting against the West’. The fight against LGBTQIA+ people fits into this antiWestern rhetoric. The fight against the West and the LGBTQIA+ community is popular in the conservative and antiWestern part of society. “That will also be the case with this issue.” will be promoted in the period before the elections.”
Maxim Goldman, who works for a Russian organization that supports trans and nonbinary people, agrees that the issue serves a political agenda.
“They’re trying to divert attention from more important issues that Russian officials don’t want people to think about,” Goldman says.
“When we learned about the Supreme Court case, the people running our organization realized that we urgently needed to leave the country. It became an emergency.”
Maxim, who identifies as nonbinary and is on his last day in Russia, was carrying a suitcase and was about to head to the airport when he spoke to BBC News.
“I suffer from total rejection in my own country,” says Maxim. “We should have a democracy here. The people we put in power should take care of us.”
“But the opposite happens. They are punishing us.”
City councilor Sergei Troshin is staying for the time being. But he has no illusions.
“I have spoken a lot about LGBTQIA+ rights in the past,” says Sergei. “This may be enough to initiate criminal proceedings against me. I hope not, but maybe.”
“Russian society is full of fear. With every word you cross a minefield. Say one thing and it could get you five years in prison; Say otherwise and you’ll be behind bars for 10 or 15 years.”