Institutional prejudice
What the full text of the Russian Supreme Court judgement labelling the LGBT movement ‘extremist’ tells us
In November, Russia’s Supreme Court ruled the “international LGBT movement” to be an extremist organisation, effectively outlawing LGBT activism in the country and placing anyone the authorities deem to be part of the movement at risk of prosecution.
That ruling didn’t come out of nowhere, however. A decade-old law banning the dissemination of so-called “gay propaganda” to children was amended in 2022 to make it a criminal offence to present queer-positive narratives to anybody of any age, and Russian government rhetoric has become increasingly homophobic since the country launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The publication last week of the full 19-page text of the Supreme Court’s November ruling offered little in the way of concrete information, but did offer some clues as to why the Russian government sees queer people as such an existential threat.
‘Population control policy’
The “international movement of LGBT individuals … has been operating in Russia since 1984,” Supreme Court Justice Oleg Nefyodov writes in the opening pages of his ruling, adding that LGBT activism originated in the United States in the 1960s as part of a “population control policy”, alongside other initiatives promoting “non-traditional” relationships and family structures.
No details are provided as to how exactly the LGBT movement spread to Russia, or why 1984 in particular is considered such a key date, but the inherently anti-Russian nature of the contemporary LGBT rights movement, as well its “direction from abroad”, are both points made repeatedly in the ruling. It repeatedly mentions LGBT organisations and individuals in Russia having received funding from Western governments and NGOs, as well as, predictably, from billionaire financier and liberal philanthropist George Soros.
Predictably, the ruling also mentions the threat supposedly posed by the LGBT movement to children, accusing LGBT organisations of actively and intentionally targeting minors with “propaganda”, causing them psychological harm.
Enemies of “traditional values” who hold radical views based on “hatred towards traditions, religion, millennia-old culture, and their adherents”, members of Russia’s LGBT community believe themselves to be superior to other segments of society, the ruling argues, and consider those who don’t support “non-traditional sexual relationships” to be their enemies.
The ruling also conflates LGBT people with the wider opposition movement and implicates them in inciting “hatred and hostility” towards the authorities, spreading materials from “foreign agents and extremists” and encouraging Russians to join mass protests.
Marginalised and vulnerable
While going to great lengths to discredit the LGBT movement, the Supreme Court judgement provides few clues to what legal consequences might follow the ruling in practical terms, other than a vaguely worded “ban on the movement’s activities in Russia”.
The Supreme Court’s identification of the rainbow flag as the symbol of the LGBT movement makes its display illegal — displaying “extremist” symbols can land you in custody for up to 15 days, while repeat offences can be punished by up to four years behind bars — but the potential legal consequences for LGBT people, organisations and venues go unaddressed in the ruling.
The release of the court’s full judgement serves primarily to reinforce the most egregious homophobic prejudices and conspiracy theories at the official level in Russia, while its deliberately vague terms leave plenty of scope for the law to be applied indiscriminately.
