– Takes off the silk glove – VG

Less than 20 minutes ago

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When the United Russia party supports a proposal, it means in practice that it will probably also pass in the Duma, where no opposition parties are represented.

In 2013, Vladimir Putin signed a new law who criminalized “propaganda for non-traditional sexual relations” directed at children.

Now it has come a new bill which means that this will also be banned against adults – and it is threatened with up to 1.5 million kroner in fines.

Say yes

– I am sure that our committee will support this bill one hundred percent. Of course, yes, I want to say yes to this initiative, says Vitaly Milonov Parliamentary Gazette. He is the leader of the family, women and children committee in parliament and thus represents the Putin party.

Today, “propaganda” for “non-traditional conditions” is marked with “18+” on the Internet and on television. Milonov believes that there is something “hypocritical” about this, and thus supports the proposal to ban everything.

Vitaly Milonov became famous in 2015 then two russian women kissing in front of a sleeping milonov on a plane. They kissed in protest against the anti-gay politician.

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It states that the law should only apply to “deliberate public acts to disseminate information that popularizes or imposes non-traditional sexual relationships”.

The penalty starts with fines of from 6,200 kroner for ordinary citizens to up to 1.5 million for so-called “legal persons” – when there is mass distribution via, for example, social media or traditional media.

Marked with 18+

Three out of four Russians are negative about same-sex marriage, according to a poll by VTsIOM, reports Tass. Only five percent of those surveyed fully support the right to register such marriages.

Patricia Kaatee, Russia’s adviser to Amnesty, is not very surprised that such a law is coming.

– My assessment is that this has been the reality for many lhbtiq activists for a long time already, she says – and points to several examples:

The artist and activist Yulia Tsvetkova was convicted of violating the anti-propaganda law in 2019 for two websites on the Russian social network vkontakte that had sexual orientation and gender identity as a theme, despite the fact that both websites were clearly marked with 18+. Evdokia Romanova was convicted in 2017 of violating the law after sharing an article on Facebook from the British newspaper The Guardian about Ireland’s referendum on same-sex marriage. There are many examples.

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– What do you think about the reasoning?

– While the public justification for the original anti-propaganda law has been “to prevent minors from having a distorted view that society places an equal value on traditional and untraditional sexual relationships”, it has been clear throughout that the reference to minors has only been a apology, Kaatee believes.

– It has been clear from the outset that the main purpose of the Anti-Propaganda Act is to reject LGBTQ people’s demands for equal rights and protection against discrimination, and to portray queers as deviants.

– Shows the iron fist

– In the same way as the “foreign agent” law?

– Yes, in the same way as its main purpose is to spread the notion that political activists are enemies of the state.

Patricia Kaatee believes that the original anti-propaganda law worked as intended by the Russian authorities, and resulted in both an increased hate crime and a poorer legal protection against discrimination against queers. For example, people have lost their jobs as teachers as a result of the law.

With this new law, the authorities take off the silk glove and show the iron fist that has always been hidden under it, but which queer people all over Russia have of course already known for almost ten years. But it’s clear – when the silk glove is off, the blow will hit harder and hit more.

PS: The European Court of Human Rights ruled in 2017 that the original gay law is in violation of the European Convention on Human Rights.

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