Russian Justice Ministry asks Supreme Court to ban ‘international LGBT public movement’

The Russian Ministry of Justice is asking the nation’s Supreme Court to ban the “international LGBT public movement.” 

The ministry announced the lawsuit on Friday, calling global LGBT movements “signs and manifestations of extremist nature” that create “incitement of social and religious discord.” 

This is the latest and most comprehensive legal move against LGBT pride campaigns from overseas by the Russian government, which has firmly opposed liberalizing sexual norms. 

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The Supreme Court of Russia will hold a hearing on the lawsuit on Nov. 30, the Justice Ministry said.

It is not immediately clear how a successful ban on the “public movement” would manifest, nor how such a prohibition would be enforced.

Laws against the propagation of LGBT material began in 2013 with a ban on “LGBT propaganda” for children, which was later expanded to include the entire public regardless of age.

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Earlier this year, Russia banned “medical interventions aimed at changing the sex of a person,” and added transgender people to the list of demographics not allowed to adopt children.

Russian social policy has trended conservative on LGBT issues for many years while Putin’s government characterizes the rise of same-sex couples and transgenderism as undesirable social contagions from the West.

“Do we really want to have here, in our country, in Russia, ‘Parent No. 1, No. 2, No. 3’ instead of ‘mom’ and ‘dad?’” asked during a ceremony in 2022.

He continued, “Do we really want perversions that lead to degradation and extinction to be imposed in our schools from the primary grades?”

However, Putin acknowledged that LGBT people are “part of the society, too” at an event in St. Petersburg on Friday.