Russia escalates war on LGBT agenda, outlaws top advocacy network
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(LifeSiteNews) — A Russian court has declared the nation’s leading LGBTQ propaganda organization “extremist,” effectively banning the group and enabling the prosecution of its supporters.
While Russia has long cracked down on LGBTQ groups, its efforts escalated following the initiation of its “special military operation” against Ukraine in 2022, even amid questions the movement’s promotion of sexual deviance served as a means of Western ideological and anti-Christian aggression.
The Saint Petersburg court sided with the Russian Justice Ministry’s request to classify the Russian LGBT Network — the country’s foremost LGBTQ nonprofit — as an “extremist” organization, as reported by The Moscow Times.
“The public movement has been designated as an extremist organisation, and its activities are banned in Russia,” the court’s press service stated on Telegram.
Proceedings were conducted in a closed hearing.
According to Russian media outlet Meduza, “the ruling is the sixth against an LGBTQ+ initiative in Russia in the past several weeks,” with five other groups being classified as “extremist” as well.
Due to these rulings, individuals linked to these organizations could face lengthy prison sentences for supporting an extremist entity, penalties comparable to those for terrorism-related offenses in Russia’s criminal code.
‘Moral self-defense’ of society
In November 2023, Russia’s Supreme Court declared the “international LGBT public movement” an extremist organization, officially banning it. The court stated that the ruling also applies to the movement’s subsidiaries and affiliates, though it did not name any specific organizations.
At the time, authorities from the Russian Orthodox Church declared that the designating of LGBT advocacy as extremist to be a form of “moral self-defense” of society.
“We know from the testimony of many Western Christians who adhere to traditional beliefs regarding marriage and family that the activities of LGBT movements are aimed at displacing the Christian idea of marriage and family from the public and the legal sphere,” commented Vakhtang Kipshidzea, a spokesman for the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church.