Russia may jail gays

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What a horrible state of affairs Russia is dont they obviously dont believe in a free and democratic country :(

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Russia may pass legislation re-criminalising homosexuality, and possibly impose a five-year prison sentence for anyone found convicted of gay sex.

The new bill, introduced into Russia’s lower house on Monday, is nearly identical to the 1933 criminal code, until Stalin, which made homosexuality punishable by five years of hard labour.

Deputy Nikolay Kuryanovich ‘s new legislation would revive Soviet law that would also essentiall ban gay pride parades or meetings.

Gay sex was decriminalised in 1993 as a result of Communism’s fall, but up until the 1980s gays and lesbians were routinely committed to hospitals for reparative therapy, which involved taking psychotropic drugs.

It is unclear how far Kuryanovich’s bill will get, as he doesn’t have any official party backing. The bill, however, has gained support from Communist supporters and the Russian Orthodox Church.

The bill marks another attempt from the government to suppress Russia's gay community.

Last month Russian president blamed homosexuality for the country’s declining birth-rate while Moscow mayor Lushkov banned banned the city’s gay pride parade in May, branding it “satanic”.

In January gay activists filed a civil rights lawsuit against the city of Moscow for banning last year’s pride parade at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France.

The lawsuit accuses Moscow of violating the right to freedom of peaceful assembly, the right to effective court protection and of violating prohibitions against discrimination under the European Convention on Human Rights, to which Russia is a participant.

Despite Lushkov’s comment saying that pride parades “may be acceptable for some, in some sense, progressive countries in the West, but not for Russia”, he still maintains that he banned the pride parade because of security restrictions.

Lushkov has also threatened to ban this year’s Mowscow pride, scheduled for May 2007. Gay rights groups said they will defy any ban, as they did last year.



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