All “medical interventions aimed at changing the sex of a person” are prohibited by the measure, which was unanimously approved by both houses of parliament.
A debilitating blow to Russia’s already persecuted LGBTQ minority, the new legislation that Russian President Vladimir Putin signed on Monday marks the last step in prohibiting gender-affirming practices.
A bill outlawing gender-affirming operations
The bill, which was approved by both chambers, bans the mention of sex- and gender-related medical treatments in official documents and public records. The sole exception will be when treating congenital abnormalities using the medicine.
Additionally, it voids unions when one partner has “changed gender” and prohibits transgender people from becoming foster or adoptive parents.
- Measure prohibits medical interventions changing sex, approved unanimously.
- Bill prohibits sex-related medical treatments in official documents, except for congenital abnormalities.
- Putin seeks 2020 constitutional amendments banning same-sex unions and nontraditional sexual relations.
According to reports, the Kremlin’s campaign to defend what it sees as the nation’s “traditional values” is what led to the ban. The measure, according to lawmakers, is intended to protect Russia from “Western anti-family ideology,” with some calling gender-changing “pure satanism.”
When Putin first advocated an emphasis on “traditional family values,” endorsed by the Russian Orthodox Church, the persecution of LGBTQ individuals in Russia began ten years ago.
The Kremlin passed legislation outlawing any public support of “nontraditional sexual relations” between adolescents in 2013.
Putin pushed for constitutional change in 2020 that forbade same-sex unions, and he approved legislation last year outlawing “propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations” among adults as well.
