In wartime, focus on ‘traditional values’ imperils Russia’s LGBTQ community
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Russia is not only waging war on Ukraine but also on what it sees as enemies within. The persecution of LGBTQ individuals, organisations and communities has intensified in the past few years as the Kremlin seeks to uphold “traditional values”.
The monitoring programme coordinator of the Russian LGBTQ organisation Sphere, who asked to remain anonymous, told Al Jazeera that prior to 2022, the majority of abuses targeted at LGBTQ individuals, “concerned everyday and institutional discrimination, rather than direct repression”.
Since amendments to the ban on “gay propaganda” in 2022, followed by the ban on gender transition and designation of the “international LGBT movement” as an “extremist organisation” in 2023, now at least two-thirds of abuses take place at the hands of the authorities.
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System shared this topic on
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Russia is not only waging war on Ukraine but also on what it sees as enemies within. The persecution of LGBTQ individuals, organisations and communities has intensified in the past few years as the Kremlin seeks to uphold “traditional values”.
The monitoring programme coordinator of the Russian LGBTQ organisation Sphere, who asked to remain anonymous, told Al Jazeera that prior to 2022, the majority of abuses targeted at LGBTQ individuals, “concerned everyday and institutional discrimination, rather than direct repression”.
Since amendments to the ban on “gay propaganda” in 2022, followed by the ban on gender transition and designation of the “international LGBT movement” as an “extremist organisation” in 2023, now at least two-thirds of abuses take place at the hands of the authorities.
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[...] A Moscow court reviewed a case involving fake dates and subsequent blackmail. The lawyer handling the case recalls the defendant saying in court: "I am the forest ranger. I don’t know why you are judging me. Putin personally allowed me to hunt these people."
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