Vladimir Putin signs controversial law that is a huge blow to the LGBTQ+ community in Russia

If the ‘opportunistic 90s’ in Russia saw relative freedom when it comes to gender issues and same-sex love, Vladimir Putin’s rise to power brought a much more ‘machist’ agenda.

Despite the President’s divorce from wife Lyudmila after three decades of marriage, rumours of his multiple lovers and children, and lack of Michelle Obama-like First Lady’s input in Kremlin policies, Putin insisted ‘traditional family values' were what his country stood for.

His era witnessed the biggest repression of the LGBTQ+ community Russia has ever seen.

Therefore people were upset but not surprised when just yesterday he signed a controversial law that bans legal and surgical sex changes.

The move means that transgender Russians won’t be able to access gender-affirming services. No support will be available unless they conform to what Mr President believes is the right way.

Here is what the new law means for the local LGBTQ+ minorities.

Vladimir Putin’s Russia bans gender change

The image of topless Vladimir Putin on a horseback became a symbol of his era while anything too different to his view on gender roles was pushed towards the other side of the law.

Russia’s President has always been known for his mildly anti-gay rhetoric, but the devastating and not-as-easy-to-win war in Ukraine made him search for extra reasons why the bloodshed had to continue.

Vladimir Putin’s inability to accept the LGBTQ+ came in handy: his ‘existential’ war now aimed to keep 'Western liberalism' away from the Russian borders and protect the so-called ‘traditional family values’.

This week saw the Kremlin leader send yet another blow to the gay community as he signed a new controversial law that bans legal and surgical sex changes.

The new rules were swiftly passed by both houses of the Russian parliament earlier this month and made ‘medical interventions aimed at changing the sex of a person and ‘the state registration of a change of gender without an operation’ illegal.

The law - which enters into force immediately - also forbids those who have undergone gender reassignment to adopt children.

What’s more, it annuls marriages in which one of the partners is transgender.

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LGBTQ+ suicides in Russia are on the rise

LGBT activists fear that the new law will lead to further increase in the already high transgender suicide rate.

It can also put people’s health at risk by encouraging an underground market for surgeries and medications.

Yan Dvorkin, the head of Center-T, a group that helps transgender and non-binary people in Russia, said:

The way how these people see their future is collapsing.

Late last year, Russia banned any references to LGBT relationships and lifestyles in media for all ages labelling it ‘propaganda’.

The Kremlin also used a negative image of gay people in its widely circulated anti-Western ads.

Sadly for the Russian LGBTQ+, their future is unclear unless the current political regime changes.

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Sources used:

- The Moscow Times: 'Putin Signs Gender Reassignment Ban Into Law'