Russian Federation: PEN International joins PEN Moscow and St Petersburg PEN in condemning anti-LGBTI bill

12 December 2022: On 24 November 2022, the Russian Federation’s State Duma, parliament’s lower house, approved a new draft legislation that extends the existing ban on so-called ‘propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations’ to all age groups. PEN International joins PEN Moscow and St Petersburg PEN in condemning the bill as yet another violation of the right of freedom of expression, which further reinforces stigma and encourages discrimination, and calls on the Russian authorities to scrap it.

On 6 December 2022, PEN Moscow and St Petersburg PEN published a joint statement in Russian condemning the bill, as follows:

We, members of St. Petersburg PEN Club and PEN Moscow, deem it unacceptable for the state to censor the creative process. The set of laws adopted by the State Duma of the Russian Federation on the “prohibition of LGBT propaganda, propaganda of paedophilia, and demonstration of LGBT information and information encouraging gender modifications among adolescents” is not just absurd as sexual orientation cannot be “propagandised”, but dangerous as it creates the framework for large-scale censorship in Russian culture and literature.

These laws are formulated so vaguely that even the Great Russian Encyclopaedia can be banned because it explains the medical and social foundations of homosexuality in a neutral tone. Publishers can face problems with scientific literature, masterpieces of ancient and oriental poetry, texts by Oscar Wilde, Mikhail Kuzmin, Nikolai Klyuev, Thomas Mann, Marina Tsvetaeva, James Baldwin, and other well-known writers, as well as biographies of Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Andrey Kolmogorov, Faina Ranevskaya and more. The ban may affect even Shakespeare’s sonnets and Pushkin’s stylisations (“Sweet boy, gentle boy…”).

In the hysterical atmosphere raised by legislators, state censorship is reinforced by public censorship, and the most innocent works fall under this ban. For example, a stage performance based on children’s poetry by Genrikh Sapgir has already been banned in Novosibirsk, as an actor dresses up as a princess from the poem “The Princess and the Ogre.” More theatrical performances and movies could be banned such as “Some like it hot” beloved by so many people, due to its crossdressing scenes. In the sick imagination of hypocrites, this and other innocent motives are absurdly sexualized. There is only one way to stop this policy detrimental to culture and literature: repeal laws prohibiting so-called “LGBT propaganda.”

Additional information

The new draft legislation expanding Federal Law No. 135-FZ, also known as the ‘gay propaganda’ ban, would see individuals fined up to 400,000 rubles (approximately US$ 6,520) and organisations up to five million roubles (approximately US$81,500) for “propagandising non-traditional sexual relations”, while non-Russian nationals could face up to 15 days’ arrest and expulsion from the Russian Federation. The draft bill must be approved by the upper house of parliament and signed into law by President Putin before it can come into force.

Federal Law No. 135-FZ, also known as the ‘gay propaganda’ ban, was introduced in July 2013 with the stated aim of protecting children through the prohibition of ‘propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations’. It enables censorship of materials about lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) issues.

PEN International, PEN Moscow and St Petersburg PEN previously urged the Russian authorities to repeal the law, which is in clear violation of international human rights law. In 2017, in the case of Bayev and Others v. Russia, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ruled that the ‘gay propaganda’ ban violates Article 10 (freedom of expression) and Article 14 (prohibition of discrimination) of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), to which the Russian Federation is a party. In its judgement, the Court found that the law reinforces stigma, encourages homophobia and discriminates against an at risk minority, harming children in the process. In 2015, the UN Human Rights Committee similarly concluded that the law ‘exacerbates the negative stereotypes against LGBT individuals and represents a disproportionate restriction of their rights under the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which the Russian Federation is also a party, and called on the Russian authorities to repeal it. In 2018, the Committee condemned the law as ‘ambiguous, disproportionate and discriminatory’.

For further details contact Aurélia Dondo at PEN International, Koops Mill, 162-164 Abbey Street, London, SE1 2AN, UK Tel: +44 (0) 20 7405 0338 Fax +44 (0) 20 7405 0339 e-mail: Aurelia.dondo@pen-international.org