The Moscow police are looking for transgender sex workers and bringing them to court

The Moscow police search for transgender sex workers on the Internet and draw up reports on them based on the article on LGBT propaganda. Foreigners are deported from Russia. “Mediazona” tells about it.

According to Mediazona’s calculations, in 2023 Moscow courts already received seven reports on the article on LGBT+ propaganda, drawn up against transfeminine sex workers. Decisions have already been made on four of them.

All four girls do not have Russian citizenship, it was decided to deport all of them. Three protocols were drawn up in office No. 14, reviewed in one court and contain similar wording. Based on this, Mediazona assumed that they were composed by one policeman.

In the protocols, the policeman describes the appearance and clothing of the girls, especially noting that they have a “male penis”, and one has “signs of a female breast”. All this, according to the police, the girls publicly express “interest in the attractiveness of non-traditional relationships.”

Transgender sex workers often have the citizenship of the states of Central Asia, where transgender transition is difficult, says lawyer Maksym Olenichev, who defends the rights of trans people in Russia. In order to make a transfeminine transition, they have to move to other countries.

In Russia, they are often found illegally, they are stigmatized – because of this, transwomen are not hired, so they decide to work as prostitutes, Olenichev explains. In his opinion, by pursuing transgender sex workers, the police are solving two tasks at once: fighting the so-called LGBT propaganda and illegal migration.

“Deportation entails a five-year ban on entering Russia, and transwomen’s families may be in danger,” Olenichev notes.

• In Russia, since December 5, 2022, the dissemination of positive information about homosexuality, bisexuality, and transgenderism has been prohibited. Fines of up to 400,000 rubles for citizens and up to five million rubles for organizations are provided for this.
• The LGBT+ community unites people based on their diverse sexual orientation and gender identity. In Russia, LGBT+ regularly become objects of aggression, which is actually incited by the authorities.