Proposed Russian Law Would Jail Gays For Displaying ‘Personal Perverted Sexual Preferences’

Russian lawmakers have proposed a new law that would even further criminalize being gay, claiming Putin's anti-gay laws have been ineffective.

Russian lawmakers have proposed a new law that would even further criminalize being gay, claiming Putin's anti-gay laws have been ineffective.

Lawmakers in Russia have decided that Vladimir Putin's campaign against "gay propaganda" by Russia's LGBT people has “proved to be insufficiently effective” and are proposing new lawsto further criminalize gay people. One new sweeping law would make any public display that could be construed as an expression of homosexual affection punishable by a fine or up to 15 days in jail.

The bill's language makes illegal any "public expression of non-traditional sexual relations, manifested in a public demonstration of personal perverted sexual preferences in public places," further expanding the criminalization of homosexuality.

"In the biological sense, not reproducing is the same as death and in that sense homosexuality is a lethal threat for the whole of humankind," the bill's co-author, Ivan Nikitchuk, says.

Tanya Cooper, Russia researcher at Human Rights Watch (HRW) calls the proposed law "a new and absurd low in discriminatory legislative proposals," saying it "proposes to effectively outlaw being gay, and just being yourself could land you behind bars."

HRW reports the authors of the bill "contend that homosexuality is 'socially infectious,' especially for children and teenagers exposed to public manifestations of homosexuality. They also conflate homosexuality with pedophilia, explicitly accusing the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) movement of striving to support pedophilia. The measure’s authors claim that the measure will protect public health and morals."

The law would only apply to men because, it says, women are "more reasonable" and "respected."

In an interview, HRW notes, "Nikitchuk condemned Western countries for protecting rights of LGBT people as human rights, saying that 'normal people,' especially the young, should be protected from 'these mentally abnormal' people. He also called gay people 'cattle' and said they 'infect people around them.'"

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