The legislation aims to ban any mention of what authorities consider to be “gay propaganda” in the media, films, books and advertising. It also prohibits “propaganda of pedophilia and sex change”.
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“Any propaganda of non-traditional relations will have consequences,” said Duma (Lower House) Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin on social media.
According to him, the bill “will protect our children and the future of our country from the darkness spreading across the United States and Europe.”
If the amendments are approved in the upper house of Parliament, and then signed into law by President Vladimir Putin, they will, according to human rights groups, effectively ban any public promotion of LGBTQIA+ people in Russia.
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Russia seeks to present LGBTQIA+ relations as a product of Western influence and is hardening its rhetoric as its confrontation with the West over the conflict in Ukraine intensifies.
“Demonization”
Dilya Gafurova, leader of Sfera, an LGBTQIA+ rights group, finds it especially “worrying that the state says that LGBTQIA+ people are a Western invention” and warned about the possible effects of “demonizing an entire group.”
The bill introduces fines equivalent to US$165 for violators, and authorities can block websites that contain prohibited information.
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According to the Duma website, the new legislation would also ban “the sale of goods, including foreign ones, that contain prohibited information.”
For years, Vladimir Putin has portrayed himself as the antithesis of Western liberal values. This rhetoric has been reinforced since he sent troops into Ukraine on February 24, isolating Moscow and provoking an unprecedented crackdown in the country.
Russian film producers and book publishers fear the bill will result in the banning of classics like Vladimir Nabokov's “Lolita.” The Duma said that “films that promote such relations will not receive a distribution certificate.”
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Activist Dilya Gafurova asked authorities not to use the LGBTQIA+ community “as an instrument of ideological confrontation”.
“We just are. There is nothing wrong with us and nothing that should be silenced,” she stated, assuring that it is impossible to “take away our voice.”
(With AFP)
