Russia imposes ban on 'international LGBT movement', terming it 'extremist group'
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The Supreme Court in Moscow handed down the ruling behind closed doors and without the presence of any defence
Russia banned the "international LGBT movement" on Thursday (Nov 30), claiming that it was an extremist group, a step which cements the long crackdown on the LGBTQ community as the country pushes for conservative social values.
In the past decade, President Vladimir Putin has informed Russians to follow the conservative social values which have been promoted by the Orthodox Church.
The ruling was handed down by the Supreme Court in Moscow on Thursday (Nov 30), as reported by AFP.
It did not clarify if certain organisations or individuals will be affected by the ruling.
The judge ruled that "the international LGBT public movement and its subdivisions" were extremist, and issued a "ban on its activities on the territory of Russia”.
He added that the order was placed into effect immediately.
If the law is applied to citizens, the "extremist" label will place gay, lesbian, transgender or queer people who are residents in Russia at risk of facing years of imprisonment.
The court hearing happened behind closed doors and there was no defence present in the case, as reported by Russian media ahead of the verdict.
"One day it will be over but for now we need to try to continue to live and save ourselves," said the Feminist Anti-War Resistance on social media, while responding to the verdict.
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'New low point of insanity'
Other NGOs, which include transgender rights group "Center T", said that they will publish the safety guidelines for the LGBTQ community's members.
Director of the NGO Yan Dvorkin, who fled from Russia citing security issues, said that the legal proceeding is a "new low point of insanity".
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Russian administration is said to have taken a steep conservative turn after it deployed troops to Ukraine last year. Dvorkin said that he feels all LGBTQ people are being used by the Russian authorities as scapegoats.
"They're losing the war. This makes people very frustrated and dissatisfied with the government. It's very easy to take that anger out on LGBTQ people,” the director said.
Any kind of administrative procedure and medical intervention which helped in gender reassignment was banned by Russia in July.
At that time, lawmaker Pyotr Tolstoy said that the measure was about “erecting a barrier to the penetration of Western anti-family ideology”.
(With inputs from agencies)
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