Petrelis Files

Russian Anti-Gay Laws: Full Texts in English

In April 2012, I couldn't locate the texts of two key horrible Russian anti-LGBT laws online so I contacted the good folks at Coming Out St. Petersburg and requested the full texts in English. Coming Out first sent their local law's language and I shared it here, and they soon shared the federal law's text and was made available here.

Below are both laws, which should be of interest to all gays and human rights advocates concerns about LGBT Russians and their plight. Many thanks to Coming Out for their brave activism and for sharing the texts.

St. Petersburg's law:

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.

Here's the Russian federal law's text:

On Introducing Amendments to the Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Offences: The Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Offences (Collection of Laws of the Russian Federation, 2002, No. 1, Article 1, No. 30 et al.) shall be amended as follows:
 
1) add Article 6.13.1 reading as follows:
"Article 6.13.1. Propaganda of homosexualism among minors
Propaganda of homosexualism among minors - is punishable by an administrative fine for citizens in the amount of four thousand to five thousand rubles; for officials –forty thousand to fifty thousand rubles; for legal entities – four hundred thousand to five hundred thousand rubles";

2) in Article 28.3, Section2, Clause 1 figures “6.13” shall be changed to “6.13.1”.
 
EXPLANATORY NOTE to the Draft Federal Law “On Amendments to the Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Offences”
 
Propaganda of homosexualism in Russia took a wide sweep. This propaganda is delivered both through the media and through active social actions that promote homosexualism as a behavioral norm. It is especially dangerous for children and youth who are not yet capable of a critical attitude to the avalanche of information that falls upon them every day. In this regard, it is necessary to primarily protect the younger generation from the effects of homosexual propaganda, and the present bill pursues this goal.

Family, motherhood and childhood in the traditional, adopted from the ancestors understanding are the values ​​that provide a continuous change of generations and serve as a condition for the preservation and development of the multinational people of the Russian Federation, and therefore they require special protection from the state.
 
Legitimate interests of minors are an important social value, with the goal of the public policy toward children being to protect them from the factors that negatively affect their physical, intellectual, mental, spiritual,and moral development. Paragraph 1 of Article 14 of the Federal Law № 124-FZ of24.07.1998 “On Basic Guarantees of Child Rights in the Russian Federation” directly states the obligation of public authorities of the Russian Federation to take measures to protect children from information, propaganda and campaigning that harm their health and moral and spiritual development.

In this connection it is necessary to establish measures to ensure intellectual, moral and mental security of children, including the prohibition onto perform any act aimed at the promotion of homosexuality. By itself, the prohibition of such propaganda as an activity of purposeful and uncontrolled dissemination of the information that could harm the health and moral and spiritual development, as well as form misperceptions about the social equivalence of conventional and unconventional sexual relationships, among individuals who, due to their age, are not capable to independently and critically assess such information cannot be regarded as violating the constitutional rights of citizens.
 
Given the above, a bill suggesting amendments to the Code of Administrative Offences was prepared to introduce administrative responsibility for propaganda of homosexuality among minors. In this case, administrative responsibility is established not for the sheer fact of the person’s homosexuality, but only for propaganda of homosexualism among minors.

This bill imposes the right to make records of administrative offences for public actions aimed at propaganda of homosexualism among minors on the law enforcement officials (the Police), and trial of cases of administrative offences– on the judges.