ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA—A group of 50 people bravely held rainbow flags at a park Saturday afternoon. Only a simple police fence kept them from the violence and hostility of a much larger crowd, and most of their country.
Participants of St. Petersburg’s fourth Pride parade dodged stones, smoke bombs, plastic bottles and eggs. Steps away, an angry crowd of nationalists about three times as large yelled insults and demanded police arrest the group.
The activists illegally demanded equal rights for LGBT people, and by publicly doing so, they broke a city bylaw that is about to become national law.
Eight anti-gay protesters crawled over a police barrier, punching activists to the point of bleeding before being arrested.
After half an hour, riot police linked arms and ran the Pride participants into a police bus. Nationalists hurled stones at the bus, which sped off when two windows were shattered.
Homosexuality was decriminalized in Russia in 1993. Two decades later, the country is about to follow St. Petersburg by banning Pride parades and outreach programs for LGBT teenagers.
Russian President Vladimir Putin will soon sign into law a bill that bans “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations.”
Aimed at protecting children, the new law will introduce fines for demonstrations and literature that publicly promote gay rights.
“This law is about to create a very, very hostile atmosphere,” said Rachel Denber, a deputy director with Human Rights Watch. “It’s discriminatory, repressive and regressive.”
Earlier this month, Russia’s parliament approved the law by a 436 to 0 vote. The senate passed the law last Wednesday, just as the U.S. Supreme Court struck down state laws that discriminate against same-sex couples.
Under Russia’s new law, people who promote homosexuality through any media, including online, can be charged up to $3,200. The fines are tenfold for organizations, which can also be shuttered for 90 days.
According to state-owned pollster Vtsiom, 88 per cent of Russians support the ban. A survey by independent pollster Levada last year found that half of Russians believe homosexuals should be forcibly given medical or psychological treatment.
“The situation is quite difficult,” said Olga Lenkova, a spokeswoman for the St. Petersburg organization Coming Out. “There are no laws to prohibit discrimination.”
Groups like Coming Out have documented LGBT people being fired, thrown out of apartments and harassed by police. Lawmakers often equate gay people with pedophiles and chide them for not contributing to the country’s dismal birth rate.
“Many activists who came to protect children from the sodomites were beaten by police,” tweeted a St. Petersburg councillor after Saturday’s protest. “Whom are they protecting?”
Putin said the new law doesn’t discriminate against LGBT people, and also claims it will protect children from pedophilia. While visiting Finland on Wednesday, he asked Western nations to “please do not interfere with our laws.”
The federal ban is based on a St. Petersburg bylaw passed a year ago. Although only one person had been charged prior to Saturday, activists said the ban breeds hostility.
“There’s a psychological effect, an insult when you’re (said to be) not safe to be around children,” said Lenkova, adding that officials have denied event permits under the bylaw. When events are approved, anti-gay protesters cry foul.
“It really gives carte blanche to homophobes who refer directly to this law at street events,” she said. “When they attack people they justify it with that law.”
Scores of people have been injured in clashes this month at anti-homophobia rallies in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Protesters threw glass bottles and condoms filled with excrement.
Meanwhile, a 23-year-old man was beaten to death in May after coming out to his friends in the city of Volgograd. Police said two men shoved a bottle into his anus and threw a large stone on his head.
Denber said she has never seen such violent homophobia in Russia in her two decades of monitoring the country. Attacks persist in Moldova and Ukraine, where similar bans have been proposed.
“The hateful rhetoric creates an atmosphere where it is hard for LGBT people to protect themselves,” she said.
Russia’s senate approved another law Wednesday that will forbid Russian orphans from being sent to countries like Canada where same-sex couples can adopt children.
Since large-scale protests against his re-election last May, Putin has painted his opponents as Western liberals. He has since vocally supported socially conservative values and the Russian Orthodox Church.
“It’s part of a broader crackdown on civil rights,” Denber said. “It’s using this ideological context to repress civil freedoms.”
Russia’s parliament passed another law this month that will forbid offending religious sensibilities. Proposed during the Pussy Riot trial, the law will allow up to three years of jail time.
As of November, all non-governmental organizations who receive funding from abroad must register as “foreign agents.”
Election-monitoring and environmental groups have resisted the stigmatizing label. Coming Out was charged $16,000 this month for failing to register.
“The mentality of Soviet times is very much still in place,” Lenkova said. “It seems to be getting worse.”
