The ‘international LGBTQ movement’ was deemed an extremist group by Russia’s Supreme Court which also outlawed all activity connected to it within the nation which has led to fear of arrest and prosecution among gay and transgender activists there. The development came three years after the country changed the constitution to assert that marriage is a union only between a man and a woman. Same-sex unions are not recognised in Russia.
A plea to ban what the justice ministry referred to as “the international LGBT social movement” was pronounced by the judge on 30 November. The action conforms to a pattern of growing legislative prohibitions in Russia on gender identity and sexual orientation which includes laws that forbid advocating for “non-traditional” sexual relationships and that prohibit legal or medical gender transitions.
It is expected to further weaken the rights of the LGBTQ community which have been subjected to an increasingly harsh crackdown in recent years because President Vladimir Putin wants to maintain his standing as the protector of traditional moral values against the progressive West.
The court order stated, “the claims are to be satisfied: to recognize the international LGBT movement as an extremist organization and to prohibit its activities in Russia,” according to state news agency RIA Novosti, although there is no legally recognized LGBTQ community in Russia due to the discriminatory anti-gay law in place in the nation. The Justice Ministry was the only organisation present for the four to five-hour closed-door hearing which included secret information and proceedings, however, reporters were summoned to hear the decision. According to RIA Novosti, the judgment is going to take effect right away.
The Justice Ministry announced two weeks ago on its official website that it has started legal action to label the “international LGBT social movement” as an extremist group and seek Russia to declare it illegal. The ministry did not define the “movement” in any detail.
A United Nations statement denounced the ruling and claimed that Russia’s top court ruled in favour of a motion filed by the Ministry of Justice which argued that the LGBTQ community risked “inciting social and religious discord” in breach of Russia’s Law on Countering Extremism. “Repeal, immediately, laws that place improper restrictions on the work of human rights defenders or that discriminate against LGBT people,” demanded UN human rights chief Volker Turk of the Russian government.
The world body expressed its “deplorement” over the decision and warned that “members, employees, and people engaging with such organisations” could face criminal charges as well as jail time as a result. The UN human rights chief claimed that under Russian law, an organisation termed as extreme faces instant dissolution and its executives might face up to 10 years in prison.
He stressed, “This decision exposes human rights defenders and anyone standing up for the human rights of LGBT people to being labelled as ‘extremist,’ a term that has serious social and criminal ramifications in Russia.” Although homosexuality was no longer illegal in Russia in 1993, prejudice and homophobia are still pervasive.
Following the request from the justice ministry on 17 November which without providing examples mentioned that “various signs and manifestations of extremist orientation, including the incitement of social and religious discord” had been identified in the activities of the LGBT movement in Russia, the gay activists had come to view the decision as inevitable. LGBT activist Ada Blakewell stated outside the court that the decision went against Russia’s official claims that it does not discriminate against and grants equal rights to LGBT people.
She alleged that to convince her that she was not a transsexual woman, she had undergone “conversion therapy” for a year against her will. “In practice, after the adoption of this lawsuit, I won’t be able to talk about conversion therapy.”
Multiple anti-LGBTQ laws have been enacted or strengthened by the Kremlin in recent years as part of a conservative movement that has been stronger since the invasion of Ukraine. President Putin is almost certainly going to continue in office beyond the next presidential elections next year. A rule prohibiting doctors from performing gender reassignment surgery on children was passed in Russia in July of this year, except for situations involving the treatment of congenital physiological defects.
The president passed a bill into law in December 2022 that broadened Russia’s ban on LGBTQ “propaganda” prohibiting anybody to advocate for same-sex partnerships or imply that non-heterosexual inclinations are “normal.” He signed a package of amendments that included harsher sanctions for those who advocated gender transition and/or “non-traditional sexual relations and/or preferences.” The 2013 legislation that forbade the communication of LGBTQ-related information to children was expanded upon by the current law.
“I’d like this world to be a free place where people can love whoever they want, although my attitude to all this is neutral because I’m not in their shoes. But if I were forbidden to love, that would be very painful,” voiced a young woman named Lera in an interview with Reuters.
However, a man in his 20s named Daniil had a different opinion and observed that same-sex partnerships were “not normal.” He highlighted, “I believe the majority of people at least that I know, my friends and acquaintances, share a negative attitude towards homosexuality. That’s why it’s the right decision for our country.”
Russia has previously blacklisted over a hundred groups due to their “extremist” views. Prior designations have been used as a pretext for arrests, such as those about the Jehovah’s Witnesses religious movement and outfits connected to opposition politician Alexei Navalny. The state of the LBGT community in Russia, according to UN Human Rights Office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani is “just going from bad to worse” and the court’s ambiguous definition of the “LGBT movement” leaves the law vulnerable to misuse. She conveyed, “What this means for the LGBT community is its further repression of their fundamental rights.”
