Russian Lawmakers Approve Bill That Bans Transgender Procedures
Russian lawmakers on Thursday approved a toughened version of a bill that outlaws medical procedures that purport to change a person’s gender.
Added to the bill were clauses that annul marriages in which one person has “changed gender” and prohibit men or women claiming to be the opposite sex from becoming foster or adoptive parents.
The bill received swift, unanimous approval from Russia’s lower house of parliament, the State Duma, in its key second reading, and lawmakers scheduled the third and final reading for Friday.
There is little doubt that the bill will be adopted amid the Kremlin’s crusade to protect what it views as the country’s traditional values.
The bill bans any “medical interventions aimed at changing the sex of a person,” as well as changing one’s gender in official documents and public records.
New clauses added to the bill also amend Russia’s Family Code by listing gender change as a reason to annul a marriage and adding those “who had changed gender” to a list of people who can’t become foster or adoptive parents.
Lawmakers portray the measure as protecting Russia from “the Western anti-family ideology,” with some describing gender transitioning as “pure satanism.”
Russia seeks to prohibit child adoption for trans persons
“Why are we doing this? By hindering Western anti-family ideology, we are saving Russia for future generations — with its family and cultural values and traditions,” said lawmaker Pyotr Tolstoy.https://t.co/gxLv1e61EL
— Novaya Gazeta Europe (@novayagazeta_en) July 11, 2023
It has rattled the country’s transgender community and has drawn criticism not only from LGBT rights advocates but from some in the medical community.
Lyubov Vinogradova, executive director of Russia’s Independent Psychiatric Association, called the bill “misanthropic” in an interview with The Associated Press.
Vinogradova said transgender procedures “shouldn’t be banned entirely, because there are people for whom it is the only way to … to exist normally and find peace with themselves.”
The pushback against LGBT advances started a decade ago, when President Vladimir Putin first proclaimed a focus on “traditional family values,” a move ardently supported — and fueled, to a certain extent — by the Russian Orthodox Church.
In 2013, the Kremlin adopted legislation banning any public endorsement of “nontraditional sexual relations” among minors.
In 2020, Putin pushed through a constitutional reform that outlawed same-sex marriage.
But the authorities ramped up their rhetoric about protecting the country from the West’s “degrading” influence after sending troops into Ukraine last year.
Lawmakers moved last year to ban “propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations” among adults, and by December, positive depictions of LGBT people in movies, literature or media were outlawed.
The Western Journal has reviewed this Associated Press story and may have altered it prior to publication to ensure that it meets our editorial standards.
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