Moskaus Feldzug gegen trans Menschen Duma-Abgeordnete wollen verhindern, dass Menschen sich mit einer Geschlechtsangleichung der Mobilmachung entziehen. Absurder geht es nicht. // Moscow's campaign against trans people Duma deputies want to prevent people from evading mobilization through gender reassignment. It couldn't be more absurd.

Moscow's campaign against trans people Duma deputies want to prevent people from evading mobilization through gender reassignment. It couldn't be more absurd. Russia declares the “international LGBT movement” extremist. The Russian judiciary is not interested in the fact that these do not exist. From now on, reason for job loss or prison sentence in Russia: It looks like something out of a surreal play. Appearing: Justice Department officials in masks and a Supreme Court justice. The dock remains empty, the doors closed. What is being negotiated is something that doesn't even exist. Nobody can explain what a non-existent movement is accused of and how the verdict is to be implemented in practice. The Justice Department itself filed the lawsuit almost two weeks ago. An “international LGBT movement,” which no one in Russia or anywhere else in the world had ever heard of, exhibited “various manifestations of extremist orientation,” the letter said. The “movement” incites religious and social hatred. The accusation was not more specific. And it remained so unclear on the day of the verdict itself. With a guilty verdict that criminalizes practically everyone in Russia who does not live according to “traditional values” as the Russian regime imagines them. All those who support the rights of sexual minorities and have previously supported them are therefore potential “extremists” who could now face years of prison sentences.

Homosexuals are now inherently illegal It is not a Dada piece that will be performed for more than five hours in central Moscow this Thursday. It is a demonstration of how Russia is outlawing the very existence of an entire group of people. It is impossible to say what the new ruling means for each individual, but it changes the atmosphere in the country. Counseling centers will probably go underground, some people will lose their jobs and others their freedom because of their “non-traditional sexual orientation,” as it is called in Russian. The daily humiliation of queer people is now the law in the country. "I'm afraid. Fear of sending my child to school, fear of being attacked on the street, fear of letting a repairman into the house who might report that we live together as a family of two women and one child. Nobody will stand up for us,” the Russian exile media Meduza quoted a woman anonymously. Peak of repression of sexual minorities The verdict is the current climax of the repression of sexual minorities in Russia. The Russian region of Ryazan passed the first law against so-called homosexual propaganda against minors in 2006. It was rarely used, but was often used as an excuse to ban demonstrations for the rights of sexual minorities. Corresponding laws followed in other regions – and nationwide in 2013. The “dissemination of information that equates traditional and non-traditional sexual relationships” and “showing the attractiveness of non-traditional sexual relationships” was punished as an administrative offense with fines. In doing so, the state normalized violence against sexual minorities.

Advice centers now mark their information brochures with the addition “18+”, and LGBT film festivals are regularly disrupted by police or openly homophobic groups. The next blow followed in 2022. Now the law was directed not only against “propaganda against minors”, but also against all other people. The amount of the fine for promoting “non-traditional relationships or gender reassignment” was the equivalent of up to almost 85,000 euros. Films were changed accordingly and advice centers' work was made more difficult. Prohibition of gender reassignment surgery Four months ago the State Duma finally banned medical procedures and gender reassignment drugs. The Duma also bans trans people from adopting and fostering children. So the regime persecutes people simply for who they are.

Russian President Vladimir Putin publicly makes fun of “transformers,” as he contemptuously calls queer people. Some activists are wondering whether the verdict would bring back Soviet Article 121 through the back door. Until 1993, he threatened men with up to eight years in prison or psychiatric hospitalization for homosexual acts. Because they considered the lawsuit absurd, some LGBT activists actually registered as an “international LGBT movement” in Russia a few days ago. But even their lawyer was not admitted to the court. So the state no longer even needs defendants to make its grotesque decisions.