The short press release does not specify whether Moscow is targeting the LGBT movement in general or whether it is designating one or more specific organizations. In the meantime, the Russian Ministry of Justice announced on Friday, November 17, that it had requested a ban on the “international LGBT social movement” for “extremism” and that a hearing to this effect is scheduled for November 30 at the Russian Supreme Court. .
“The Ministry of Justice filed an administrative request to the Supreme Court (…) to classify the international LGBT social movement as extremist and to ban its activities on the territory of the Russian Federation,” he said. he indicates.
Russia, which presents itself as a moral bulwark against the decadence of the West, is increasing conservative measures targeting LGBT communities, claiming in particular to defend children against behavior deemed deviant. In November 2022, Russian deputies adopted a law banning LGBT “propaganda” (lesbian, gay, bi, trans, etc.), a vote which came in the midst of a conservative hardening by the Kremlin accompanying its military offensive in Ukraine. It now bans LGBT “propaganda” to all audiences, in the media, on the Internet, in books and films.
During the summer of 2023, the Russian Parliament banned all gender transition, Russia having long had one of the most liberal laws in the world on this subject.
Homophobic and transphobic policy
For human rights defenders, Vladimir Putin and his regime above all pursue a homophobic and transphobic policy. “The Russian authorities are once again forgetting that the LGBT community are people, citizens of this country like any other. And now they not only want to make us disappear from public space, but to ban us as a social group,” Dilia Gafourova, director of the “Sphere” fund, responded to Agence France-Presse (AFP). an association for the defense of LGBT rights in Russia.
“This is a typical measure of repressive and undemocratic regimes: persecuting the most vulnerable,” she continued, promising to “fight” for LGBT rights in Russia.
The main LGBT NGO in Russia, LGBT-Set (“LGBT Network”, in Russian), was classified at the end of 2021 as a “foreign agent”, an infamous label which complicates its operation and exposes it to fines. , or even a ban. Since 2006, the NGO has been helping sexual minorities across Russia, particularly in the Russian republic of Chechnya, where the authorities are particularly hostile to them.
The Russian opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta and several NGOs revealed in 2017 that gays were arrested and sometimes tortured and murdered by the police in Chechnya.
