On March 7, 2012, a law was passed in St. Petersburg prohibiting the promotion of homosexuality and pedophilia among minors. This project caused a lot of questions, disputes and discontent with its appearance.
The author of the bill is deputy Vitaly Milonov, a representative of United Russia. According to the author, the project is aimed at protecting children, protecting their physical, intellectual, spiritual and moral development. According to the text of this bill, any actions aimed at promoting sodomy, lesbianism, bisexuality and transgenderness among minors are prohibited. The law also contains a lengthy description of the term "propaganda" - any activity aimed at disseminating information in publicly available ways that can harm minors, including forming their idea of the equivalence of traditional and non-traditional relations.
Meanwhile, the very legislation of the Russian Federation lacks definitions of the words “homosexuality” and propaganda”. It is for this reason that Article 282 of the Criminal Code "Incitement to national, racial or religious hatred" was previously amended. At the moment, propaganda is a subjective term, and everyone is free to interpret it in their own way, from kissing same-sex couples in public places to depicting a rainbow.
The law on the promotion of homosexuality adopted in St. Petersburg is not the first project devoted to this topic. In the past, Deputy Alexander Chuev has repeatedly submitted to the Duma a law aimed at establishing responsibility (unlike the current law, not administrative, but criminal) for the promotion of homosexuality. This bill offered a more detailed interpretation of the term. According to him, propaganda is understood as public speeches, films and books on homosexual topics, mention of homosexuality in the media, as well as demonstration of homosexual orientation. This project was repeatedly rejected for consideration as contrary to the constitution.
Many prominent figures, including the head of the Yabloko faction, Grigory Yavlinsky, have sharply criticized after the adoption of the current law. The faction deputy was embarrassed by the lack of a definition of the term "propaganda", the contradiction to federal legislation, as well as international documents on human rights."
In the meantime, the law came into force. So far, in St. Petersburg, only one LGBT activist, Nikolai Alekseev, has come under his influence. The young man was at Smolny with a poster on which Faina Ranevskaya was depicted and her famous statement was printed: “Homosexuality is not a perversion. Perversion is field hockey and ice ballet. The judge motivated his decision by the fact that this poster could be seen by minors.
