St Petersburg passes 'anti-gay' law despite outrage
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The local parliament in Russia's second city of Saint Petersburg on Wednesday passed a controversial law banning "homosexual propaganda", in defiance of protests by gay rights groups.
The law – passed in a third and final reading with 29 parliamentarians in favour and five against -- makes it illegal to spread "propaganda" among minors aged under 18 in favour of homosexuality and paedophilia.
But gay rights groups have said the law is dangerous as it will be left up to the whim of the authorities to decide what constitutes propaganda, meaning gays could risk being punished simply for their lifestyle.
"This law is shameful for the Saint Petersburg parliament," said Olga Galkina of the Yabloko (Apple) liberal party, whose deputies with one exception voted against the law.
"The authorities cannot make up divisions between people. How will citizens protect their rights? The authorities will hardly be competent to determine whether this is propaganda or lifestyle," she told Agence France-Presse.
But the law was strongly supported by Saint Petersburg's governor Georgy Poltavchenko and its authors have also vowed to bring a similar initiative to the federal State Duma Parliament for adoption nationwide.
"I have not heard a single word in this law that is not in line with Russian laws," one of the initiators of the new law, Vitaly Milonov of the ruling United Russia party, told AFP.
"Homophobia is a term thought up by people of untraditional sexual orientation about people who do not understand the way in which they live," he added.
Offenders risk being punished with a fine of up to 50 000 rubles ($1 700) if found guilty of promoting homosexuality.
The fines for promoting paedophilia -- whose distinction from homosexuality is not made explicitly clear in the law -- rise to one million rubles ($35 000).
The law forbids "making propaganda through public acts for homosexuality, lesbianism, bisexuality and trans-genderism among minors".
According to the law, this would mean spreading information "harmful to the health and moral and spiritual development of minors, including the formation within them of a distorted idea of the social balance between traditional and untraditional married relationships". -- AFP
(Mail & Guardian online Feb 29 2012 20:33)
It’s Official: “Gay Propaganda” To Be Illegal in Russia’s Second Biggest City
Saint Petersburg, long considered Russia’s most beautiful, artistic, and Western-leaning city, took a giant leap backward toward the Stone Age today with the passage of a bill that imposes fines of up to 500,000 rubles (about $17,200) for the “promotion of homosexuality.”
Russia’s second biggest city follow three others in the passage of the outrageously archaic legislation, which effectively makes it illegal to write books, publish articles, or speak in public about being gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender.
The Saint Petersburg City Council voted overwhelmingly in favor of the bill in its third and final reading, with 29 yays, five nays, and one abstention.
Before becoming law in the city, the bill must now be signed by regional governor Georgy Poltavchenko — but since Poltavchenko has previously expressed his view that the legislation would “serve for the good of public morals,” his signature is all but a given.
Proponents of the bill have already said that if they were successful in Saint Petersburg, their next step will be to take it to the national stage.
Flash mobs took to the streets outside Russian embassies across the world earlier this week in efforts to stop the bill’s passage.Two AllOut.org petitions—one directed to world leaders, the other to Poltavchenko himself and promising a global travel boycott of the city—have also sought to stop the legislation.
(Queerty, Dan Allen, 29.02.2012)
St. Petersburg bans gay propaganda and promises to punish Rammstein
As St. Petersburg city legislature approved the bill banning the promotion of homosexuality and pedophilia, its initiator promised that when the bill comes to force he will personally seek to have the German rock group Rammstein penalized.
The bill was approved at its third reading on Wednesday by 29 votes to five with one abstention. Those who voted against the bill said it was poorly written and that the penalties were too light. When the bill is signed into force, promotion of homosexuality will be punished by a fine of 5,000 roubles ($166) for private individuals.However if a person found guilty occupies a public post the fine would be increased to 50,000 roubles ($1,600), and legal entities must pay from 250-500,000 rubles ($8,300 to $16,600). The promotion of pedophilia will cost legal entities even more, with fines between 500,000 and 1.5 million roubles ($16,600 to $50,000).
The bill was initiated and promoted by United Russia deputy Vitaliy Milonov who is also the chairman of the lawmaking committee of the legislative assembly.He has said that once the law comes into force he would immediately address the city prosecutor concerning the recent concert of the German industrial metal group Rammstein. Milonov claimed that during the show the rockers performed “insulting scenes of sexual character” and described the whole show as “undisguised and rude pornography “. The lawmaker promised to find the ways to bring both the organizers of the concert and the group itself to responsibility.
The bill has already drawn criticism from the LGBT community in Russia and from Russian and international rights groups. The head of the Vykhod (Way Out) gay rights organization said it would lodge a request with the city governor to veto the bill. Under Russian law the governor can issue a veto up to 10 days after a bill is approved by the legislature.
Milonov said, however, that the bill had been discussed at public hearings and there were no well-founded objections to it. The lawmaker once again stressed that the bill was not aimed at limiting the rights of citizens, but rather at improving of the moral image of St. Petersburg which, according to Milonov, must become “the moral face of Europe”.
Russia decriminalized homosexuality in 1993, and removed it from a list of mental illnesses in 1999. However, Russian LGBT activists claim that the public’s attitude to homosexuality remains negative, with gay marriages and the adoption of children by same-sex couples outlawed in the country.
Sex with persons under the age of consent (16 years) is a criminal offence in Russia and can carry a prison sentence of up to four years. “Corruption of minors” – sexual activities without the actual sex act – is punishable by up to three years in prison.
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