Push to restrict talk of LGBTQ issues in Russia will leave community 'even more unprotected'
CBC
A push by Russian lawmakers to more firmly restrict the public discussion of LGBTQ lives and issues will further isolate a community that faces ongoing peril, advocates say.
A draft bill discussed in Russia's State Duma this past week aims to build on prior legislation — enacted nearly a decade ago and decried in the West — that banned "promotion of non-traditional sexual relations" to minors.
Supporting lawmakers, engaged in this effort for months, want to extend that ban to Russians of all ages.
"We propose to extend the ban for LGBT propaganda regardless of age, not just for children as it is today," Alexander Khinshtein, a Russian lawmaker and proponent of the bill, said this week.
The move to tighten anti-LGBTQ measures is occurring at a time when Russia is engaged in a high-profile war with Ukraine — and both experts and advocates see Moscow working to spell out very clearly who it sees as opponents.
Miron Rozanov, a spokesperson for the NC SOS Crisis Group, said the Russian government is trying to convince its people that "Ukraine, Western countries and LGBTIQ+ people are enemies."
Maria Popova, an associate professor of political science at Montreal's McGill University, said at the same time, Moscow is signalling the wide gulf between itself and the values of the West, while showing little regard for the people caught in the middle.
"The West has LGBT rights, so Russia has to reject them," Popova said in an email.
Dilya Gafurova, head of the Russian LGBTQ rights organization Sphere, said the community "has no rights in Russia at the moment" and that the legislation being considered by lawmakers would make things even worse.
"This will make them even more unprotected and even more invisible," she told CBC News via email.
It would also limit the ability of groups like Sphere to support the community, Gafurova said.
Rozanov said the proposed legislation "legitimizes violence against LGBTQ people and effectively prohibits coverage of the work of human rights organizations that help them."
His group helps people in that community who live in the North Caucasus region — people who he says are especially endangered by the proposed extension of the propaganda ban.
"It is extremely difficult to achieve justice for people who have experienced violence because of their identity or orientation," Rozanov said in an email.
