Activists created “International LGBT Movement”

A group of LGBT activists decided to create the “International LGBT Public Movement” to defend their interests in the Supreme Court of Russia. They announce that they have held a founding meeting and are writing a statute, after which they will register a legal entity.

Activists intend to defend their interests in the Supreme Court of Russia, which on November 30 must consider the Ministry of Justice’s claim to recognize the “international public LGBT movement” as extremist and ban its activities in the country. At the time the lawsuit was filed by the Ministry of Justice, such a movement did not exist, the wording in the lawsuit probably meant any initiatives related to LGBT people.

The founders included human rights activist Igor Kochetkov, former director of the Moscow Community Center Olga Baranova, founder of the Equal PostOst project Evelina Chaika, journalist Renat Davletgildeev and editor of the Parny Plus portal Yaroslav Rasputin. Igor Kochetkov and the Moscow Community Center have already demanded from the Supreme Court to allow them to participate in the process from the side of the defendant, but they were refused.

On Wednesday, Russian human rights organizations appealed to the Supreme Court with a request to reject the Ministry of Justice’s claim to recognize the “international LGBT public movement” as extremist. They point to the illegal nature of the claim, since the “international public LGBT movement” does not exist as a legally recognized organization.

“It is impossible to call a group of people a “social movement” only on the basis that they belong to some social group or because they are united by some personal characteristics. This would be as absurd as, for example, calling everyone a “social movement” pensioners or people of a certain ethnicity”, – quotes human rights defenders from the publication “Meduza”.

They also indicate that adding the non-existent “LGBT movement” to the list of extremists “may lead to the criminalization of human rights and activist activities and the risk of persecution for human rights defenders, activists, journalists, and simply openly expressing their LGBT views.” If the Ministry of Justice’s claim is satisfied, the LGBT community will have even fewer opportunities to conduct a public discussion about their problems and defend their rights, the document says. This will lead to discrimination prohibited by both Russian and international laws.

The appeal was signed by the human rights center “Memorial”, the organization of assistance to refugees and migrants “Grazhdanskoe assiminie”, the human rights organization “Grazhdansky kontrol”, the media project “OVD-Info” and others.

• Representatives of the LGBT community and their numerous organizations in the world are fighting for equal rights of representatives of sexual minorities with other citizens, the abolition of their persecution in many countries, the provision of equal rights with other citizens – for example, the right to marry, have joint parental rights for children, access for transgender people people to the necessary medical care, – and against discrimination of LGBT+ people in any sphere of life.
• In 2013, the Russian State Duma passed a law prohibiting so-called “LGBT propaganda” among minors. Then they could be held responsible for spreading information about “non-traditional sexual relations”. In 2022, the deputies adopted a new law. According to it, the publication and dissemination of any information that, according to the authorities, “promotes non-traditional sexual relations, pedophilia or gender reassignment” among people of all ages.