Putin’s Anti-LGBT Law Turns One [View all]

[William769]

In advance of the one-year anniversary of Russia’s notorious anti-LGBT law, today the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation released a new report highlighting deeply disturbing trends of harassment, investigations, arrests, and acts of violence against LGBT Russians that have followed in its wake.

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the internationally condemned and draconian anti-LGBT propaganda law on June 29, 2013, and it entered into force the following day. This law––and the homophobic and transphobic cultural debate that swirled around it––has fueled an appalling backlash against members of Russia’s LGBT community. HRC Foundation’s full Russia: Year in Reviewreport, which documents this backlash, is available here.

“Witch hunts, arrests, poisonous gas attacks, and murders. Not only do these terms evoke powerful memories of brutal regimes that fill the pages of history books, they also represent the very real dangers that LGBT people face each and every day in Vladimir Putin’s Russia,” said Ty Cobb, HRC Foundation’s Global Engagement Director. “The evidence is clear: state-sponsored homophobia and transphobia in Russia poses a direct threat to the safety and welfare of LGBT Russians, and that threat is growing.”

“The consequences of this law for all Russian society are difficult to overestimate,” said Maria Kozlovskaya, Program Manager for the advocacy group Russian LGBT Network. “Our public polls suggest that the level of violence against LGBT people has increased significantly, and that members of the community feel vulnerable and targeted.”

http://www.hrc.org/blog/entry/putins-anti-lgbt-law-turns-one