It is becoming increasingly dangerous to be a gender or sexual minority in Russia. The country’s Supreme Court on Thursday banned the “international LGBT movement”, in the midst of a conservative shift in the country, for extremism, opening the way to legal proceedings against any group defending LGBT+ rights.
Judge Oleg Nefedov ordered to “recognize the international LGBT movement and its subsidiaries as extremists, to ban their activities on the territory of the Russian Federation”, according to AFP correspondents on site. Oleg Nefedov specified that this ban came into force “immediately”.
No organization clearly targeted
The hearing took place without a lawyer, as no organization bearing the name “international LGBT movement” existed in Russia, and behind closed doors because the case was classified “secret”. In mid-November, the Russian Ministry of Justice asked to qualify as an “extremist organization” and ban “the international LGBT movement”, without clearly saying which organization it was targeting.
Any public activity associated with what Russia considers “non-traditional” sexual preferences could now be punished for “extremism”, a crime punishable by heavy prison sentences. Until now, LGBT+ people risked heavy fines if they carried out “propaganda”, as the authorities call it, but not imprisonment.