Russia is considering doubling fines for exposing children to what it calls ‘LGBT propaganda’ and making any event or act seen as promoting homosexuality an administrative offence, the text of proposed new legislation made public on Wednesday, August 31 showed.
Russia’s existing ‘gay propaganda’ law, passed in 2013, bans any person or entity from promoting homosexual relationships to children, though lawmakers argued in July the law should be extended to include adults as well.
Under proposed legislation, the penalty for promoting “non-traditional sexual relations” to children would be doubled to 2 million roubles (£28,000) for entities, with the fine increasing to up to 5 million roubles if the offence took place online or in the media.
Individuals could be fined up to 400,000 roubles, while foreigners found to spread ‘LGBT propaganda’ would face deportation from Russia.
Lawmaker Alexander Khinshtein said: “Currently, liability only applies to LGBT propaganda among children. My colleagues on the committee and I would like to extend it to any propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations, regardless of age.”
The draft law is expected to be debated following the start of the State Duma‘s autumn session, Khinshtein added.
In a ranking of Europe’s most LGBTQ-friendly nations in this year’s Rainbow Europe index compiled by ILGA-Europe, Russia was fourth from last.
