The deputies of Russia overwhelmingly approved Friday a law banning gender transitions and, in particular, the adoption of children by transsexualsin full ultra-conservative turn of Russian society, especially after the offensive in Ukraine.
“This decision protects our citizens, our children,” he declared in Telegram the speaker of the lower house of parliament (Duma), Viacheslav Volodin.
Marital status changes, sex reassignment surgeries, and hormonal treatments had become accessible in Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union.
In a statement published on Friday, the Duma specified that the text prohibits “all medical intervention” for gender reassignment, in particular surgical operations and hormonal therapies. It is also prohibited sex change on identity documents.
The text provides for exceptions, under evaluation by a special commission, that allow these surgical interventions in cases of “congenital anomalies” in children during the formation of their genitals.
Marriages involving a transgender person will be “annulled” after the law comes into force, the Duma specifies.
Transgender people will also be prohibited from having children or adopting them in Russia. The Deputy Chairman of the Duma and rapporteur of the bill, Pyotr Tolstoysaid that this measure is not retroactive and that Russian transgender people who have already adopted children will not lose custody.
The bill was approved in the third and final reading. Now it must be validated by the Upper House of Parliament, the Federation Council, and then signed by the president Vladimir Putin to enter into force, stages that are generally simple formalities.
Conservative turn since the offensive on Ukraine
Since the offensive against Ukrainethe authorities have multiplied conservative measures, especially against LGTB+, arguing that they want to eliminate behaviors that they consider deviant and imported from the West.
To justify this bill, Volodin He said Friday that gender reassignment surgeries had skyrocketed in the United States in the past 10 years.
“What a monstrous trend! It is a path that leads to the degeneration of a nation. It is unacceptable for us,” he said.
Before the Duma, he also argued that Russia would become “Sodom” if the country adopted laws similar to the European ones, referring to this mythical city in the Bible associated with the idea of perversion.
The Russian security services (FSB) arrested a transgender activist on Thursday accused of “high treason” for the benefit of Ukraine.
Before the approval of the text, Ian Dvorkinea 32-year-old psychologist who runs a Russian NGO to help transgender people, Center T, had told AFP that he feared an increase in suicides in his community with this law.
According to him, the Russian state now designates transgender people “as ‘enemies of the people,’ deprives them of rights, of aid, and outlaws them.”
The ban on hormone therapy could “feed the black market in hormones” and its use without medical advice would pose serious risks, it warns.
Since 2013, a law already prohibits in Russia the “propaganda” of “non-traditional sexual relations”, a text denounced by NGOs as an instrument to repress the LGTB+ community.
In December the application of this law was considerably expanded. Now prohibits “propaganda” LGBT+ to all audiences, whereas previously it only referred to minors.
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Source: Ambito
