The Moscow legislature is considering passing a bill that would penalize anyone who publicly promotes “sodomy, homosexuality, bisexuality or transgender identity to minors.” St. Petersburg has already started the legislative process to pass a similar bill that would fine individuals 3,000 rubles ($97.50) and organizations 10,000 to 50,000 rubles ($325 to $1,625) for promoting LGBT causes.
Disturbingly the bill offers no definition to what “publicly promoting” entails, so it could conceivably include anything from handing out condoms to picketing, protesting or walking in a Pride march.
And while the bills haven’t been made into law just yet, you and your comrades may still wanna pack a bunch of singles just if you ever decide to go on gay holiday in the former USSR.
Image via Erik Charlton
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Ron
Russia has never been a true democracy. They’ve had a veneer of freedom but get past it and they are a good old dictatorship.
There’s no real political opposition and anyone who tries to stand up to Putin and his live hand-puppet (Medvedev) ends up in jail, or dead – usually both.
Mark Moscow
http://vk.com/album-13696686_146647493
Mk_Ultra_Again
@Mark Moscow: Molodez! very nice )
Jill
Urgent Support Requested for Russian LGBT Network, LGBT Organization Coming Out and Side by Side LGBT Film Festival: Imminent risk of the limitation of the rights of the LGBT community
On 11 November 2011 the legal committee of the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly introduced a bill concerning the prohibition of so-called ‘propaganda of sodomy, lesbianism, bisexualism and transgenderism, and pedophilia to minors’ and the introduction of administrative penalties and fines. The bill was introduced by the political party United Russia.
By combining homosexuality, bisexuality, and transsexuality into one law with sexual crimes against minors (pedophilia), members of the Legislative Assembly indulge in a gross manipulation of public opinion. Their goal, to pass an anti-democratic law, directed at severely limiting human rights in St. Petersburg.
In the name of ‘public interest’ members of the Legislative Assembly have decided to blatantly ignore the Federal law, the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the European Convention for Human Rights, the Council of Europe Recommendations and other decrees by international organizations, of which Russia is a member. Another significant oversight is that no public discussions have been held.
The adoption of this law also clearly violates the interests and rights of minors. Russia leads the world in the number of teenage suicides, and ignoring issues of sexual orientation and gender identity can lead to tragic consequences.
The adoption of this law will have detrimental effects on the whole of the Russian LGBT movement. The only interregional LGBT organization Russian LGBT Network, the largest grassroots LGBT organization Coming Out, Side by Side LGBT Film Festival and other LGBT groups are headquartered in St. Petersburg. The LGBT movement in Russia has become so noticeable that the homophobic government can no longer ignore its existence. The state attempts to destroy LGBT organizations by using a legal framework for their arguments and discrediting them in the minds of the people.
Similar laws have already been passed in the regions of Ryazan and Arkhangelsk. At the moment, there is every reason to believe that United Russia – the party holding power – intends to adopt such a law at the federal level. This would effectively put a complete end to the work on promoting human rights for LGBT people in Russia.
Please support the LGBT community in St. Petersburg and Russia, by sending the appeal attached in Russian to the authorities of St. Petersburg and the Ombudsmen.
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions,
Valery Sozaev,
Advocacy Manager
Russian LGBT-Network
http://lgbtnet.ru/
[email protected]
[email protected]
+7 (906) 229-25-60
+7 (812) 313-93-69
PLEASE SEND THE APPEAL IMMEDIATELY (in Russian or your native language). Send copies of the appeal to diplomatic envoys accredited to your country:
Cam
A country where entrenched politicians who have no chance of losing their seats rule hand in hand with billionaire corporate oligarchs (CEO’s)
Sound familiar?
Here they gerrymander their districts to entrench their seats and the CEO’s claim everything they do is because the stockholders demand it. (Even though paying themselves 80 million doesn’t benefit the stockholders at all.)
the crustybastard
Totalitarianism comes creeping back to Russia on little cat feet…
Putin.
Wies
i still don’t get it why people hate us so much
Triple S
There’s a show here in Australia could ‘Gruen Planet’ and they talk about advertising and other kinds of stuff like that, and they also have a section called; ‘What would Putin do?’
It basically shows all the propaganda of making Putin out to be a fantastic, wonderful person. Now, I don’t know the intricacies of politics, let alone the corrupt-democratic one of Russia, but I’m pretty sure that Medvedev (cool name; too bad it’s for an idiot) does absolutely nothing and Putin (a really stupid name for a stupid person) just tries to look like a nice person to manipulate all these stupid Russians.
My apologies to any Russians who may be offended.
Mark Moscow
@Triple S: you are stupid yourself! all elections are fake. people hate them!
Mark Moscow
Support LGBT in Russia: Oppose the prohibition of “homosexual propaganda” in St Petersburg
http://www.change.org/petitions/support-lgbt-in-russia-oppose-the-prohibition-of-homosexual-propaganda-in-st-petersburg
Mike in London UK
@Wies
They hate us becuase they don’t understand us.
We’re different. We don’t fall into their nice little “1 Man / 1 Woman” box, or even their “1 Man / 1 Woman / 1 Mistress on the side” box.
Humanity is still a violetly xenophobic species; we declare war on each other for reasons that defy rational understanding; and the majority of a group finds any thing that doesn’t fit within its own narrow window of “normality” to be something they must attack.
Mark Moscow
@Mike in London UK: they hate us because Abraham’s religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam).
Russian Girl
@Triple S: I am of Russian descent, and I am proud of my language and culture. Crazy proud.
I got no love for Russian politics or politicians. We left for a reason.
The “stupid Russians” crack stings a bit, but I understand how easy it is to get frustrated with that place.
This is why no matter how much we bash the super-right or the Tea Party crowd, I’m always proud to be an American at the end of the day, no matter how hokey it sounds. Yes, we have plenty of problems, but we are making progress while Russia is creeping back to the dark ages.
Again, it’s worth re-iterating: We left for a reason. Have pride in the culture, but not the country. It’s worth adding that we’re Jews… aka the only group that Russia hates more than the gays, as if that were even effing possible.