Petrelis Files

Full Text of St. Petersburg's
Anti-Gay Propaganda Statute in English

The horribly discriminatory and stigmatizing new anti-LGBT statute of St. Petersburg is a shameful blot against Russia's commitment to international human rights norms, and has been receiving proper attention from gay and straight Western news media outlets and bloggers. One thing I couldn't locate in the stories was the actual text of the statute in English or a link to it, so I contacted leaders at the Coming Out group in St. Petersburg.

Those leaders have spent months organizing against the new statute, and now that it's in effect, street protests are taking place and activists are engaging in civil disobedience. However, Olga Lenkova, communications director for Coming Out, took the time to send me the text in English. Thanks, Olga!

To better educate Westerners about the law, Coming Out has posted the English version here on their web site. Lenkova also said the Russian language version is posted here on the web site of the city's administration. Here's the complete text of the statute:

Adopted by the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg on February 29, 2012

Article 1

To introduce into the Law of St. Petersburg on March 12, 2012, No. 273-70 "On administrative offenses in St. Petersburg" the following changes:

1. Add Articles 7_1 and 7_2 reading as follows:

Article 7_1. Public actions aimed at propaganda of sodomy, lesbianism, bisexualism, transgenderism amongst minors

Public actions aimed at propaganda of sodomy, lesbianism, bisexualism, transgenderism amongst minors incur an administrative fine for citizens in the amount of five thousand rubles; for officials -- fifty thousand rubles; for legal entities -- from two thousand fifty to five hundred thousand rubles.

Note. As public actions at propaganda of sodomy, lesbianism, bisexualism, transgenderism amongst minors in this article should be understood activities on purposeful and uncontrolled dissemination of information in a publicly accessible way that can be harmful to the health, moral and spiritual development of minors, including forming in their mind a distorted perception of social equality of traditional and nontraditional marital relationships.

Article 7_2. Public actions aimed at propaganda of pedophilia

Public actions aimed propaganda of pedophilia amongst minors incur an administrative fine for citizens in the amount of five thousand rubles; for officials -- fifty thousand rubles; for legal entities -- from five hundred thousand to one million rubles.

Note: As public actions aimed at propaganda of pedophilia amongst minors in this article should be understood activities on purposeful and uncontrolled dissemination of information in a publicly accessible way aimed at forming in the society a distorted perception of the consistency with the social norms of intimate relationships between adults and minors.

Article 2

The law of St. Petersburg takes effect 10 days after the day of its official publication.

Georgy Sergeyevich Poltavchenko
Governor of St. Petersburg
Saint Petersburg, Russia
March 7, 2012