Russia’s State Duma will decide on whether to ban people from coming out as gay next week on 19 January. Two senior Russian Communist MPs Ivan Nikitchuk and Nikolai Arefyev have presented a bill calling for people who come out as LGBTI to serve up to 15 days behind bars.
Russia’s State Duma will decide on whether to ban people from coming out as gay next week on 19 January. Two senior Russian Communist MPs Ivan Nikitchuk and Nikolai Arefyev have presented a bill calling for people who come out as LGBTI to serve up to 15 days behind bars.
Any public displays of affection among gay men will result in jail time and a fine of 5,000 rubles ($80, €60).
The proposed bill is only targeting gay men as women, according to the lawmakers, are more ‘reasonable’ and can ‘manage their emotions’.
The legislation is intended at strengthening ‘traditional Orthodox values’.
‘We have our own idea of honor and conscience, and we must respect tradition. The scum that comes to us from the West is unnatural to Russia. These unconventional sexual desires do nothing but disgust normal, smart, healthy people,’ Nikitchuk said, according to the Russian News Service.
‘It is sick that disgusting people feel they should be treated the same.’
While the propaganda law covers the banning of Pride, this initiative will include 15 days in jail for any person wishing to support the rights of sexual minorities.
‘I do not think lawmakers dare to express their explicit support for homosexuals,’ Nikitchuk said, referencing how the propaganda law passed in 2013 swept through the Duma.
Nikitchuk and Arefyev have said the reason they are presenting the bill is because the current law banning the promotion of non-traditional relationships is not ‘effective’ enough.