MOSCOW TO BAN ‘PROMOTION OF HOMOSEXUALITY’

The authorities in Moscow are proposing to introduce a bill that will outlaw the “promotion of homosexuality”, it emerged on Thursday.

The move comes less than 48 hours after the legislature in Russia’s ‘second city’, St. Petersburg, passed the first of three readings by a 27-1 (with one abstention) margin of their similar measure; ‘The Promotion of Homosexuality, Lesbianism, and Transgenderism to Minors’.

The Moscow authorities are preparing their own ban on the promotion of homosexuality, the newspaper Gazeta is reporting.

“Yes, we plan the adoption of this law in Moscow and now [are] just working on its development,” chairman of the Moscow City Council Committee
on Health Care and Public Health, Lyudmila Stebenkova told the newspaper, adding that the committee “commends the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg”.

Anton Paleeva, who chairs the committee for public associations and religious organisations in the Moscow City Duma, said that the proposed law in Moscow “will help everyone”.

“Such propaganda should be stopped,” he told Gazeta.

According to Ekho Moskvy, the Speaker of the Moscow City Duma, Vladimir Platonov, the capital is ready to follow the example of St. Petersburg.

Speaking last night about the proposed legislation in St. Petersburg, LGBT activist Elena Kostyuchenko, who is a journalist at Novaya Gazeta, a separate and more liberal publication, said it “could cripple the LGBT movement” in St. Petersburg.

In Brussels, ILGA-Europe has condemned the bill passing through the St. Peterburg legislature. The NGO said in a statement that it was “deeply concerned” about the proposal.

“Such legislation would constitute a clear violation of the country’s international obligations to uphold freedom of expression and fight discrimination,” the statement said.

“ILGA-Europe is also disturbed by the fact that the draft legislation puts homosexuality, bisexuality and transgender identities on the same footing as paedophilia which is criminally punishable”.