This legislation essentially prohibits the public discussion of homosexuality. The British press is depressingly silent.
By the week’s end, the St. Petersburg Assembly hope to make it illegal for any person to write a book, publish an article or speak in public about being gay, lesbian or transgender. Campaigners are currently attempting to prevent such a move. It’s too late for Arkhangelsk and Ryazan, those regions already having criminalised what is termed “gay propaganda”.
It would be easy to be unaware any of this was happening — considering the complete lack of coverage it has gained from mainstream British media. The Bill is now said to be stalling — though as a result of “technical difficulties” in applying the law, rather than foreign pressure. When referring to a law that seeks to bind the mouths of minorities, there’s a bleak irony in our own press falling silent — particularly since they are doing so willingly. This is not Russia, where the murders of outspoken journalists go unsolved and independent media outlets are shut down. The British press has the freedom to report this news but simply chooses not to. As his ruling party sought to continue on its path to wipe out “unapproved” voices, the story that filled the news was Putin being jeered at a sporting event. Nothing else appeared to matter, the Russian-reporting quota filled by the image of the PM posturing his way into a martial arts ring.
Slowly but surely — and without much notice — regions of Russia are hoping to pull off their most brazen attempt yet, taking a national crisis in freedom of speech and aiming to fully silence a specific group. What they are seeking to criminalise is not even active dissent, but simply a divergence from the “norm” that the authorities are desperate to protect.
It’s apparent with the quickest glance at what is being proposed. The exact wording of the law prohibits the so-called propaganda of “sodomy, lesbianism, bisexualism and transgenderism, and pedophilia to minors.” In comparing consensual adult acts to child abuse, it is in fact the Regional Assemblies that are attempting propaganda, exacerbating the general public’s fear of “homosexual perversion“.
It was only in 1993 that homosexuality was de-criminalised in Russia. Eighteen years isn’t much time to overcome a culturally engrained history of arrest and torture. The first gay pride parade in Moscow was banned and same-sex relationships were deemed “satanic” by its Major. Gay rights activists are making huge strides, though, and it cannot be underestimated how detrimental laws like this are to the fight for progress.
The proposal waiting to be passed in St. Petersburg contradicts every law, convention and decree Russia has signed up to — from their own Federal Law to the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It also contradicts basic logic, demanding (as it does in practice) the ability to exclude under-18s from events running in open public places. This is, of course, all part of the tactic: the authorities are making it impossible for anyone to promote ideas of tolerance to any sort of audience.
If they can’t come for you for the relationship you’re in, they come for you for the words that you write and the things that you say. As another Russian region votes on whether to bring out the gag, the British press should look at the silence falling from their own lips.
Frances Ryan is a freelance writer and political researcher at the University of Nottingham. She blogs at Different Principles and tweets@frances_ryan
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