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Russian Legislature Approves $100 Fine for Being ‘Openly Gay’

Posted by on Nov 17, 2011 in This Day In Gay | 5 comments

That's an awful lot of pastel for a city that hates gays.

It’s not a good day to be gay in St. Petersburg. In fact, admitting you are gay at all just got a whole lot more expensive in the Russian city after lawmakers passed a bill that will impose fines upon LGBT citizens who “profess their sexuality.”

Think of it as a Don’t Ask Don’t Tell Don’t Have to Pay.

The bill proposes fines of 3,000 to 5,000 rubles ($100 to $160) for individuals and up to 50,000 rubles for organizations engaged in “public activities to promote sodomy, lesbianism, bisexualism and transsexuality” that might be observed by children, local news agency Fontanka.ru said.

The United Russia-dominated St. Petersburg legislature passed the bill in a first reading Tuesday with a vote of 37-1, with one abstention. The bill needs to pass two more readings, the dates for which have not been set.

“The rising popularity of sexual deviations influences our children in a negative way,” said the bill’s author, Vitaly Milonov, a United Russia deputy, Fontanka.ru reported.

Critics of the bill are already questioning its dubious legality, but why should that stop a law from being passed in a country that made male homosexuality a crime up until 1993.

Yikes.

We’re anxious to see how passage of this bill will affect Russia’s relationship with the UK, which has publicly announced a refusal to offer aid to developing countries that ban homosexuality, or even Russia’s standing in the United Nations, who recently chastised Iran for gay human rights violations.

(via Moscow Times)