Russian court bans 'LGBT movement'

Russia's Supreme Court has made a significant ruling, declaring the 'international LGBT public movement' as an extremist organisation and prohibiting its activities nationwide. This decision was instigated by a request from the justice ministry, despite the fact that no such organisation officially exists. The court hearing was conducted privately, but journalists were permitted to hear the verdict. The court stated that no representatives from the 'defendant's side' were present.

Three years prior, Russia amended its constitution to explicitly define marriage as a union between a man and a woman, thereby not recognising same-sex unions. Prior to the court's ruling, I interviewed Sergei Troshin, a municipal deputy in St Petersburg who publicly identified as gay last year. He expressed his concerns about the potential implications of the ruling. He stated, 'I believe this could mean that anyone whom the state labels as an LGBT activist could face a lengthy prison sentence for 'participating in an extremist organisation'. The sentence could be even longer for the organiser of such a group. This is genuine repression. There is widespread fear in Russia's LGBT community. People are hastily emigrating. The term we're using is evacuation. We're being forced to evacuate from our own country. It's a dreadful situation.

In recent years, Russia's LGBT community has faced escalating pressure from the authorities. In 2013, a law was enacted prohibiting 'the propaganda [amongst minors] of non-traditional sexual relations'. Last year, these restrictions were extended to all age groups in Russia. References to LGBT individuals have been expunged from books, films, advertisements and television shows. Earlier this month, a Russian TV channel altered a rainbow in a South Korean pop video to avoid accusations of violating the 'gay propaganda' law. At the Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, Vitaly Milonov, a notoriously homophobic MP from the ruling party, United Russia, argued that the ban on LGBT groups was 'not about sexual minorities or the private life of individuals'. He stated, 'It's more about the political agenda proclaimed by this LGBT international movement. They have their own tasks, their own goals. They act as a political force, a political structure and the goals of this structure contravene the Russian Constitution.