Russia: Duma Committee Rejects Bill That Would Prohibit Gay Men From Coming Out, But...

A Russian State Duma committee has rejected a bill that sought to make it illegal for gay men to come out publicly

According to Radio Free Europe, the Committee on Constitutional Legislation and State Building rejected the bill on January 18.

State Duma lawmakers Ivan Nikitchuk and Nikolay Arefyev's proposal sought to amend the Russian Administrative code to ban any public demonstration of “non-traditional” sexual orientation.

Violators would have been subject to fines of up to 5,000 rubles (roughly $80) or up to 15 days of arrest.

“I think that the problem is acute and urgent because it concerns the social diseases of our society and the moral upbringing of the younger generation,” Nikitchuk told Izvestia.

He added that homosexuality is a “grave danger to humanity” because “failure to reproduce is the same as death and this makes homosexuality a deadly danger for humanity.”

The lawmakers explained that their bill only targeted men because women are more capable of “managing their emotions.”

Human Rights Watch criticized the bill as a “new and absurd low in discriminatory legislative proposals.”

New legislation however suggests punishments for same-sex couples who are caught kissing or holding hands in public, or those who come out to young people, from 5000 ruble fines to two-week prison sentences.
Polina Andrianova, of the St Petersburg LGBT rights organisation Coming Out told BuzzFeed News: “When this draft bill was initiated, it was so incredibly absurd that we were hoping it was going to be one of those initiatives that didn’t get any attention.
“But the fact that it’s scheduled for the first reading is a pretty bad sign.”
Going on, she said the bill, and its debate, could encourage anti-gay violence further.

She said: “It will give more of a green light to people who are willing to discriminate [and] to beat people up.”