The military of the Russian Federation saw “gender-neutral toilets” in Ukraine

The governor of St. Petersburg, Alexander Beglov, stated that the Russian military, taking part in the invasion of Ukraine, well understand what they are fighting for, as they have seen toilets for “gender-neutral” people in Ukrainian schools. He wrote about this in his Telegram channel in a post dedicated to visiting wounded soldiers in the hospital.

According to Beglov, “it is easiest to talk to the soldiers on political topics” because, according to the governor, they understand the meaning of the war well.

“These guys who have seen toilets in schools, where instead of two rooms – for girls and boys, there are three rooms – for girls, boys and gender neutral, do not need to explain what values ​​we stand for,” writes Beglov. It follows from his words that the Russian military saw such toilets in the schools of the Ukrainian Donbass, that is, in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

Representatives of the Russian authorities often turn to homophobic and transphobic rhetoric while declaring their adherence to so-called traditional values, claiming, in particular, that in the West “dozens of genders” are allegedly cultivated in opposition to the two biological sexes, male and female. The head of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Sergey Lavrov, previously spoke negatively about gender-neutral toilets, claiming that he encountered such a toilet in Sweden. According to him, it is “not human”. At the same time, it follows from Lavrov’s words that he was talking about a toilet that could be used by both men and women (which is not uncommon in Russia, for example, in a cafe where there is only one toilet room), while Beglov, apparently, meant that Ukrainian schools supposedly have toilets for children who consider themselves non-binary persons.

• Russia launched a full-scale invasion of the territory of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, during the hostilities, according to estimates, at least tens of thousands of military personnel from both sides and more than 10 thousand civilians died. President Vladimir Putin named the goals of the so-called special military operation to support the separatist republics of Donbass, de-Nazification and demilitarization of Ukraine. Many Russian officials and pro-Kremlin figures interpret these goals in different ways – from taking Kiev to the struggle with the USA for influence in the world. At the same time, the topic of defending the so-called traditional values, which are allegedly trampled in Ukraine, is often heard. These values, as a rule, mean the fight against the rights of LGBT people and minorities in general, at the same time statements are used that children in the West are allegedly forced to change their gender or impose a “non-traditional” sexual orientation on them.