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Petersburg penalize gay propaganda

10:53, Thursday, 17 November, 2011
Petersburg penalize gay propaganda
     The Saint Petersburg assembly approved, in the first reading, a project of amendments to the Saint Petersburg administrative code. Under these amendments, any 'propaganda of non-traditional sexual relationships between minors' will be an offense. Those who propagate 'pederasty, lesbianism, bisexuality and transgenderism' will be punished by a fine. Citizens will have to pay up to 3,000 rubles ($100), officials will pay up to 5,000, and organizations have to pay 10,000 – 50,000. The same punishments apply to 'public actions aimed at the propaganda of pedophilia'.
The gay propaganda will be defined as "a call for, or positive response or statement advocationg non-traditional sexual or family relationship to minors".
The law was initiated by United Russia, and the vote was anonymous. The author of this project, deputy Vitaly Milonov, said that he is not 'invading the sphere of civil freedoms'.
"We aren't trying to enforce limitations on gender identity", he said. "We are only talking about propaganda, because the wave of popularity of sexual deviations harms our children".
The deputy also assured that this is a necessary law in the country where family values have always been important.
The Right-wing, Liberal Democratic Party criticized the law project before voting in favor. LDPR deputies considered the punishment far too mild.
Deputy Gennady Ozerov said that offenders must receive a 20-year prison term instead of a $100 fine.
Leader of the LDPR faction in the Saint Petersburg assembly, Yelena Babich, recited an entire speech, calling for criminal prosecution of gay advocates. "During the Day of the City we have Peter the Great portraits everywhere in front of bright rainbows. What rainbow? That's an international gay symbol. And we have rainbows everywhere: kindergartens called rainbow, drugstores. We will celebrate until we just die out".
Vitaly Milonov reminded city deputies that the criminal code is not in the city Duma sphere of responsibility and offered them initiate amendments in criminal code in the State Duma.
After the first reading, voting city Duma speaker told journalists that the fines will probably increase drastically, for organizations the fine will probably be as large as 500,000 rubles ($16,000).
LGBT activists started protests against this law even before it was voted in. The series of solitary picketing (the only legal form of protest that doesn't need authorization in Russia) started on November 15.
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