Don’t even talk about it: Russia moves to tighten restrictions under ‘gay propaganda’ law | 10 points

With the intention to prevent children from being exposed to, what it calls “LGBTQ+ propaganda”, the Russian Parliament has introduced a bill to completely ban LGBTQ+ imagery.

A draft bill calling for the broadening of a 2013 ban on the ‘promotion of non-traditional adult relations’ to minors, widely referred to as the ‘gay propaganda’ bill, was announced on the website of the parliament, or Duma.

In 2013, Russia had unanimously passed a federal law banning gay “propaganda”. Furthering the Kremlin’s conservative values, the law made it illegal to equate straight and gay relationships and distribute material on gay rights. According to the law, individuals, media groups and foreigners are fined if found guilty of breaking the rules.

All you need to know about Russia’s draft bill:

1. The draft bill, which is similar to what state Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin proposed earlier this month, would prohibit any depictions of LGBTQ+ imagery online, in media and in public.

2. Introduced by a cross-party group of six Communist and socially conservative deputies, the bill would ban public discussion of LGBTQ relationships in a positive or neutral light, and any LGBTQ content in cinemas.

3. On July 8, Vyacheslav Volodin spoke in favor of a broad ban on disseminating information on LGBTQ relationships after Russia had withdrawn from the Council of Europe, a human rights watchdog, in March.

4. Vyacheslav Volodin, an ally of President Vladimir Putin, wrote on Telegram, “With the exit from the Council of Europe, demands to legalise same-adult marriages in Russia have become a thing of the past. Attempts to impose alien values on our society have failed.”

5. A committee chairman in the State Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, wrote on Telegram on July 11 that a 2013 law banning “propaganda of nontraditional adult relations” among minors is “insufficient.”

6. According to a report in the Associated Press, Putin formally recalled Russia’s representative at the European Court of Human Rights, or ECHR, via a decree published Monday on the Russian government portal for legal information, on the same day the bill was submitted for consideration.

7. Last month, Putin signed into law a bill releasing Russia from its responsibility to enforce ECHR judgments issued after March 15, when Russia withdrew from the Council of Europe. The ECHR was established by a 1953 convention drafted by the then-newly formed council, which all member states are expected to ratify.

8. Russia is not alone, Romania is also considering a bill that would ban minors from being exposed to so-called “gay propaganda” in schools and in public life. The parliamentarians supporting the bill have said Romania was under threat from gender theories that have “taken Western Europe by storm” and are “endangering Christian values and the traditional Christian family.”

9. Despite warnings from rights groups that it would “fuel Russian propaganda and disinformation campaigns” and reinstate censorship in the former communist country, seven lawmakers from the ethnic Hungarian UDMR, a junior ruling coalition party, initiated the bill under the guise of preventing child abuse and promoting child rights. The Lower House has given a nod to the bill and is due for it’s final vote later this month.

10. Similar legislation in neighbouring Hungary that passed in June 2021 drew sharp criticism from the European Commission. Hungary’s parliament had passed a law banning gay people from featuring in school educational materials or TV shows for under-18s. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen termed it a ‘shame’ and has referred Hungary to the EU’s Court of Justice.

— ENDS —