Russian deputies voted in first reading, Thursday, October 27, a toughening of the legislation on sexual minorities. The 2013 law punishing the “propagande LGBT” with minors is thus reinforced by the prohibition of “denial of family values” and some “promotion of non-traditional sexual orientations” also among adults.
These prohibitions concern “media, internet, literature and cinema” or even advertising. “Films promoting non-traditional sex will not receive a distribution certificate,” warned the Duma. The text also prohibits “information likely to induce the desire to change sex” for minors.
The motivations for these amendments can be summed up as the fight “against sin, sodomy and darkness”, see daily life online Gazeta.ru. “Parliamentarians justify these amendments by the need to deal with the ‘hybrid warfare’ and to protect children from the influence of Western trends”continues the newspaper.
“Civilizational confrontation” with the West
Deputy Aleksandr Khinchtein, one of the main promoters of this hardening, developed this argument from the Duma rostrum:
“In fact, we are also fighting today so that Russia does not have ‘parent number one’, ‘parent number two’, ‘parent number three’ instead of ‘mum’ and ‘dad’. This shows once again our civilizational confrontation with the West, where a perception of the superiority of non-traditional sexual orientation and transidentity as a factor of individualization is formed. If we do not protect our borders, it will be a threat not only to Western civilization, but also to the future of our country: the health of the nation, the demographics.”
These amendments must still be approved by the upper house of parliament, the Council of the Federation, before the text is submitted for signature to Vladimir Putin. Some voices nevertheless believe that, in the current context, the sanctions against these new offenses can be very harsh.