Statement by the Gender Faction of the Yabloko Party, 10.11.2022

Photo by Emin Dzafarof, Kommersant

The State Duma unanimously adopted in the first reading the Draft Law No. 217471-8 On Amending the Federal Law “On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection” and certain legislative acts of the Russian Federation (regarding the prohibition of propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations and (or) preferences). The authors of the draft were almost 400 deputies, headed by the Chairman of the State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin and the leaders of all the factions; 405 deputies voted for the bill.

In 2013, the State Duma adopted a law establishing administrative responsibility for promoting such relations among minors. The Gender Faction of the Yabloko party opposed this law then. On 28 March, 2019, the Bureau of the Yabloko Party adopted a statement “On the position of the YABLOKO Party against LGBT discrimination”, which stated: the Yabloko Party takes a clear stance on the inadmissibility of any discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. We are categorically against the persecution and stigmatisation of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. An integral part of democracy is the protection of minorities. This position is fixed in the programme documents and statements of the party.

In June 2017, the European Court of Human Rights recognised the law as discriminatory, pointing out that the provisions of the law violated the articles of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights regarding the protection of freedom of speech and the prohibition of discrimination.

We believe that this bill sows enmity in society, stigmatising LGBT people (lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender people), and outlaws some of our fellow citizens, in fact, accusing them of inferiority. The adoption of such a law represents virtually a return of the Soviet sodomy law, which provided for criminal punishment for LGBT people, as well as discriminatory practices in a number of authoritarian and totalitarian regimes, including Nazi Germany, fascist Italy and Spain, and a number of modern African autocracies. The law will make impossible human rights activities regarding this group.

Over its history of more than 40 thousand years, the world has become more humane, more tolerant of racial, national, religious, sociocultural and psychophysiological differences between people. The proposed bill ignores the realities of the current stage of world development, denies LGBT representatives the right to choose their personal preferences, criminalises their psychophysiological needs, infringes on individual rights, reflecting the desire to solve complex social problems using archaic and inhumane methods.

The Gender Faction of the Yabloko Party demands that the adoption of this shameful law be abandoned, as it contradicts the provision of the Constitution that the Russian Federation “recognises and guarantees the rights and freedoms of man and citizen.”

Galina Mikhaleva,

Chairwoman of the Yabloko Gender Faction