Russian lawmakers have moved to outlaw adoption by people from countries where gender-affirming care is legal.
Russian language outlet Zona Media reports that the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian Federal Assembly, has unanimously approved a bill that would prohibit the adoption of Russian children by citizens of foreign countries where gender transition is allowed.
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Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin said the bill was aimed at protecting children who can’t protect themselves, characterizing “the West’s policy towards children” as “destructive.”
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“It is necessary to do everything so that new generations of our citizens grow up oriented toward traditional family values,” Volodin wrote in a Telegram post.
Last year, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law banning transgender individuals from receiving gender-affirming care, changing their gender in official documents and public records, fostering or adopting children, and legally marrying.
But the new bill’s authors warned that while the Russian state can prevent transgender people from adopting Russian children at the time of adoption and on Russian soil, it cannot stop foreign parents from transitioning or receiving gender-affirming care in their home countries following adoption. Worse, according to the bill’s authors, adoptive parents can “change the gender of the adopted child” once safely back in their home country.
State Duma deputies noted that the bill is aimed at preventing members of the LGBTQ+ community from adopting Russian children and that it also effectively bans adoption by citizens of NATO member states.
The bill, which will have to be signed into law by Putin, is just the latest in Russia’s ongoing crackdown on LGBTQ+ rights. In 2013, the Russian president signed a law banning so-called LGBTQ+ “propaganda” in the presence of minors. That same year, Putin signed a law prohibiting adoption of Russian children by same-sex foreign couples whose homeland recognizes their union as marriage, as well as by single people or unmarried couples from those countries.
In late 2022, Putin signed a new law expanding the country’s definition of what constitutes LGBTQ+ “propaganda” to include any “promotion” of homosexuality in public, online, or in media. The law also bans the “demonstration” of homosexuality to children. The 2022 law effectively outlaws any public expression of LGBTQ+ life in Russia.
Last November, the Russian Supreme Court declared the “international LGBT social movement” an “extremist organization,” effectively giving authorities wide latitude to arrest and prosecute members of the LGBTQ+ community. In the year since the court’s decree, there have been multiple raids on LGBTQ+ bars and other establishments in cities across Russia, and multiple people have been arrested and charged under the country’s anti-LGBTQ+ laws.
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