MOSCOW — The Russian government published on Monday a decree empowering state media regulator Roskomnadzor to block websites containing LGBT “propaganda,” meaning any expression of LGBTQ+ identity, including all gay, lesbian and trans adult content.
The decree grants Roskomnadzor sweeping powers to censor all “information propagating non-traditional sexual relations and (or) preferences.” All depictions of LGBTQ+ sexuality are now officially included under this rubric, as is information about trans people — categories apparently deemed morally equivalent to CSAM, based upon the decree’s enumeration of forbidden content such as “propaganda of pedophilia and sex change.”
The decree “now serves as grounds for blacklisting any website in Russia, alongside those containing child pornography, information about suicide methods and illegal narcotic production,” the English-language Moscow Times reported yesterday.
The decree was signed by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, following the social agenda of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has hardened state censorship to Soviet-era levels during his ongoing war in Ukraine.
As XBIZ reported, earlier this month Putin signed explicitly homophobic legislation banning public expression of LGBTQ identity. The new law outlawed the distribution of what it termed “propaganda” in all media, advertising, movies or on social media. The legislation passed Russia’s Parliament, the Duma, by a vote of 397 to 0 on Nov. 24.
Although all pornography is already technically illegal in Russia, adult content is overtly produced in the country, including the depiction of LGBTQ+ sexual acts. The new law added another layer of prohibition for the latter, likely to be selectively enforced by authorities. Russian authorities have routinely used anti-sex laws to target specific political dissidents for non-sex-related reasons.
Russia had already banned “propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations” for minors in 2013, but the new law extended that ban to all adults.
Versions of Putin’s anti-LGBTQ laws are currently being promoted by members of the Republican Party in several U.S. states, including Texas.
Main Image: Russian President (then Prime Minister) Vladimir Putin riding a horse during his vacation outside the town of Kyzyl in Southern Siberia, in 2009 (Photo: Russian Federation)