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FPI and CTR Analysis: Responding Effectively to Russia’s Anti-Gay Laws

Foreign Policy Initiative

Background

In June 2014, the Russian Duma unanimously passed a bill—which President Vladimir Putin signed into law—prohibiting so-called “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relationships to minors.” The following month, a law banning adoption by foreign same-sex couples, or even opposite-sex couples residing in countries where same-sex marriage is recognized, was enacted. Coming twenty years after the decriminalization of homosexuality in Russia, these measures marked the culmination of efforts by Russian municipal and regional authorities to target the country’s LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) minority. Russian citizens found to be in violation of the federal statute can be fined 5,000 rubles (equivalent to roughly $150), businesses can be levied up to 1 million rubles and forced to close for up to 90 days, and foreigners face deportation.

Though these measures are ostensibly aimed at “protecting” children from sexually explicit material, their effect is to stigmatize sexual minorities and prevent them from engaging in a necessary conversation about civil equality and their place within Russian society. The federal statute effectively makes it illegal to speak about homosexuality in neutral (never mind positive) terms, bans public demonstrations demanding respect for gay people, and could even be used to arrest same-sex couples for holding hands in public. As such, the law violates universally binding norms concerning free speech, assembly, and association. Such norms are enumerated in Russia’s own constitution and laws, as well as those of the United Nations, Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and Council of Europe instruments, all to which Russia is party.

The legislative attack on Russia’s gay community must be seen in the context of the Putin regime’s broader assault on civil society. A year before the anti-gay legislation was enacted, the Duma passed a regressive law requiring non-profit organizations receiving funding from abroad to register as “foreign agents,” likening many pro-democracy and humanitarian groups to espionage fronts. Simultaneously, the Russian government expelled USAID and has continually harassed employees of European political foundations. Russian government officials, abetted by their political allies in the Orthodox Church, routinely speak of homosexuality as a decadent, Western import aimed at weakening Russia from within; Putin himself has justified official state homophobia by lamenting Europe’s declining birthrate, which he partially blames on gays. These efforts simultaneously divert attention from government corruption, and also strengthen Putin’s political ties to Russian social conservatives.