Russia: Lower house gives assent to bill limiting LGBTQ expression

Russia’s lower house of parliament has unanimously approved a bill that does away with any expression of LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer) life.

What the newly accepted law effectively does is to widen the scope of the ban on what Russian legislators dub “LGBTQ propaganda” and limits the expression of what they call “LGBTQ behaviour.” In other words, any awareness deemed to promote homosexuality – whether in public, online or in films, books or advertising – subject to a hefty fine.

The legislation still needs the approval of the upper house of parliament and President Vladimir Putin, but it has been argued those steps are a matter of formality.

“Any propaganda of non-traditional relationships will have consequences,” the speaker of the lower house, or State Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin, said on social media.

The bill “will protect our children and the future of our country from the darkness spread by the US and European states”, he added while speaking to Al Jazeera.