Russian parliament to consider federal anti-gay law
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Nine regions have already passed legislation prohibiting promotion of 'homosexual propaganda' among minors
A man is detained at an unauthorised gay pride parade in Moscow in May.
Miriam Elder in Moscow
guardian.co.uk, Friday 30 November 2012 06.13 ESTRussia's parliament is to consider a nationwide ban on "homosexual propaganda", in a move activists likened to a Soviet-era crackdown.
Nine regions including St Petersburg have already passed legislation prohibiting the promotion of "homosexual propaganda" among minors. The Duma, Russia's parliament, will consider the nationwide ban on 19 December.
"This is an illegal policy of repression," said Igor Kochetkov, head of the LGBT Network, a Russian gay rights group. "It's a strange coincidence that this law will be looked at on 19 December, and on 17 December 1933, the Soviet authorities made sexual relations between men illegal. They argued that gays were alien to Soviet society. Now and then, we hear the same rhetoric."
Russia lifted its Soviet-era ban on homosexuality in 1993. Recent moves clamping down on gay rights have come amid a wider government push to promote traditional values and conservatism, often in concert with the Russian Orthodox church.
Last week Milan tore up a 45-year agreement to hold "sister city" status with St Petersburg, in protest at its law. All Out, a global gay rights group, has called on tourists to boycott the Russian city.
Kochetkov said the federal law followed "fascist logic". "It divides people into fully valued and half-valued people," he said. The LGBT Network had recorded a rise in the number of attacks against gay people and gay clubs in Russia since the regional laws had been passed, he said.
Proponents of the law argue that it is aimed at protecting children and promoting family values.
Last week a court in St Petersburg threw out a lawsuit against Madonna after a group of conservative activists tried to sue the pop star for $10.7m (£6.7m), arguing that she had broken the city's homosexual propaganda laws during a summer concert.
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