Russia steps up attacks on LGBTQ+ people amid a climate of fear

Russian President Vladimir Putin
Photo: Wikimedia Commons

In an address to Russia’s Duma last month, Deputy Speaker Pyotr Tolstoy summed up his government’s rationale for a recent onslaught of discriminatory legislation and government action targeting the LGBTQ+ community in the country.

The occasion was the introduction of a bill to outlaw gender-affirming care and surgery and gender ID changes in the country.

“This is another step in protecting national interests,” Tolstoy told the Duma on June 14.

Referring to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine starting in February last year, Tolstoy said, “We are implementing this because Russia has changed since the beginning of the special military operation. And those guys who today defend our country with weapons in their hands, they must return to another country, not to the one that was before.”

For Vladimir Putin and his rubber-stamp parliament, the war in Ukraine is an effort not only to remake Russia geographically but an opportunity to transform…

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