Russian deputies hardened this Thursday a bill that prohibits gender transitions and suppressed the right of transgender people to adopt children, in full multiplication of conservative measures since the offensive in Ukraine. In mid-June, the lower house of the Russian Parliament, the Duma, approved the bill at first reading which prohibits medical interventions and changes in marital status for transitions.
The only exception is “congenital anomalies” in children, by decision of a medical commission at the federal level. Deputies approved a new version of the bill in second reading on Thursday.
The Duma specifies in a statement that the text will clearly prohibit hormonal treatments for transitions. Besides, people who have transitioned will be prohibited from adopting or having custody of children in Russia, according to the new wording of the text, indicated the Duma.
A gender transition will also be a “reason” to break a marriage, according to the new wording of the project. The text must be examined on Friday in the third and final reading, according to the Duma.
Since the offensive in Ukraine, launched in February 2022, the Russian authorities have multiplied conservative measures, particularly against LGBTs, claiming to want to eliminate behaviors they consider deviant and coming from the West. Hours before the study of the bill, the Russian security services (FSB) They claimed to have arrested a transgender militant accused of “high treason” for the benefit of Ukraine.
In a video of the arrest filmed by the FSB and broadcast by Russian state media, hooded and armed men in body armor and camouflage uniforms get out of a van and brutally beat the suspect against a wall in the street.
According to the FSB, the detainee is a transgender LGBT activist who works as a volunteer for the OVD-Info NGO, which documents political repressions in Russia. The suspect is, according to the same source, the administrator of a project that organized money transfers to organizations in Ukraine “in order to finance” the Ukrainian army.
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