Russian Anti-Gay Bill Waiting in the Wings
MOSCOW - Russia’s top gay rights activist on Thursday condemned a bill passed in the country’s second largest city that prohibits “propaganda of homosexuality” to minors, warning it could be used to ban gay protest rallies.
Nikolai Alexeyev of the GayRussia.ru group described the legislation tentatively approved by lawmakers in St. Petersburg as a “disgrace.” The bill was proposed by the dominant United Russia party and passed Wednesday by a 27 to 1 vote, with one abstention, in the first of three required readings. It calls for a fine of up to $1,600 for “public actions aimed at propaganda of pederasty, lesbianism, bisexuality, and transgenderism among minors.” Alexeyev said the bill could become “the main legal reason to deny any public actions by the LGBT community. ”It theoretically allows the ban of anything anywhere where kids could be present,” he told The Associated Press.
Homosexuality was decriminalized in Russia in 1993 and gay clubs operate in most big cities, but discrimination is still widespread. Most attempts by Alexeyev’s group to hold rallies have been thwarted by riot police and activists with Russia’s dominant Orthodox Church and pro-Kremlin youth movements.
SOURCE: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/russian-gay-rights-activist-slams-anti-gay-bill-in-st-petersburg/2011/11/17/gIQA238tTN_story.html
This is really fucking important, you guys. This article is from last Thursday, but there are rumblings across Russian blogs that this law represents the precedent country-wide to prevent any person doing or saying something that could be conceived of as "homosexual propaganda" by an already unimaginably corrupt police system. I've been hearing a great deal about this from relatives in Moscow... The rumors are so huge that they are getting picked up by human rights organizations.
http://www.allout.org/en/actions/russia_silenced/taf has a huge petition going, and they write, "Political leaders in St. Petersburg are about to vote on law that will make it illegal for any person to write a book, publish an article or speak in public about being gay, lesbian or transgender. The ruling party led by President Medvedev and Prime Minister Putin could make millions of people invisible with the stroke of a pen." If you've got the time, please sign the petition! There are only two days to make a global statement in support of Russia's LGBT community.