Shot from the movie “Call Me By Your Name”

A meeting was held in the State Duma today where a law banning the propaganda of LGBT relations and the denial of traditional values ​​was discussed. The bill was introduced in July by a group of deputies of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Just Russia – Truth and the Fatherland. At the end of last week, it was learned that he received a positive response from the government. State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin explained at the meeting that the purpose of the adoption of the law was “to protect citizens, protect rights, protect against propaganda”:

The need for the law to be passed was supported by Leonid Slutsky, head of the Liberal Democratic Party:

Recall that in 2018, a major scandal broke out on behalf of Slutsky: several journalists simultaneously accused his deputy of sexual harassment. He denied the accusations, although he admitted that he could act frivolously towards the girls. Slutsky managed to avoid punishment – the State Duma ethics commission did not find any violations in his actions.

Alexander Khinshtein, head of the information policy of the State Duma, compared the activities towards the adoption of the law with the special military operation of the Russian Federation in Ukraine:

As examples of LGBT propaganda, he called the movie “Call Me By Your Name”, which tells the “love story of a boy and a man”, and the animated series “South Park”, in which one of the characters is “one”. pedophile school cook” and even the cartoon “Peppa Pig”. “: in one of the episodes, according to him, “a polar bear paints a portrait of a family with two mothers.” At the same time, Khinshtein does not consider Vladimir Nabokov’s novel Lolita as propaganda, because “no reasonable person who has read the book would like to repeat the fate of his heroes.”

Federation Council Member Margarita Pavlova also condemned the creators of Western cartoons:

It also revealed that the new version of Spider-Man in the Western comics features a lesbian woman in a wheelchair. Indeed, this summer, Marvel announced the next issue of the Edge of Spider-Verse comic, chronicling the adventures of the most extraordinary Spider-Man from across the multiverse. Characters include the wheelchair-based lesbian superhero Sun Spider, who appeared in the comics two years ago.

– Vyacheslav Volodin reacted to the news, possibly referring to the spread of information about LGBT individuals on the Internet.

The law banning the propaganda of same-sex relations was supported by Pavel Gusev, head of the Moscow Journalists’ Union:

Konstantin Malofeev, businessman and founder of the Tsargrad TV channel, said: “There is an ideological war going on in the world, and sodomy has become the core of American influence.” And Children’s Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova criticized, among other things, video games where you can “play as gay characters”.

In the meeting, Volodin claimed that there would be no objection to the enactment of the law, mentioning that Russia had to “forcefully” send LGBT community parliamentarians to join the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe:

– said the spokesman of the State Duma.

To finalize the law, a working group will be formed, chaired by Petr Tolstoy. Vyacheslav Volodin said that the law will be signed in November. The bill addresses the prohibition of LGBT propaganda among all citizens regardless of age. Now in the Russian Federation there is a law prohibiting “LGBT propaganda” among minors.

Violation of the new law will be subject to administrative liability. Individuals will face a fine of up to 100 thousand rubles, legal entities – up to 1 million rubles. The law is expected to apply to movies and books as well if they create a “positive image” of LGBT individuals and their relationships. Russian publishers have already expressed their concerns about this: they suspect that many works of classical literature for Russians could be banned in this way.