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  St. Petersburg Authorities Disrupt LGBT Film Fest Opening

  The Side By Side film festival, Russia’s only annual LGBT film festival, was interrupted by police and officials from Russia’s ministry for consumer safety (Rospotrebnadzor) on opening night in St. Petersburg. These officials demanded that festival participants leave the space immediately, using “force and rude language,” which caused the organizers to cancel the screening because of safety concerns. According to Alina Pchelintseva, the festival spokesperson, the police did not offer a reason for why they showed up, and Rospotrebnadzor only had permission to “check for coronavirus prevention measures.” Seemingly, their goal was to intimidate festival organizers into shutting the festival down because they lacked legal justification to do so otherwise.
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  Putin Proposes Closing Gay Marriage Loophole – Vedomosti

  A current legal loophole allows same-sex marriages to be recognized by Russian authorities if the marriage was registered abroad. According to the Vedomosti daily newspaper, Putin has proposed draft amendments to Russia’s Family Code that forbid “immoral interpretations” of international treaties governing family affairs in order to close this loophole. A partner at a reputable law firm in Russia described the use of morality to determine what gets banned as legally “strange” to Vedomosti, yet this is wording is not at all surprising based on the government's past usage of rhetoric such as the preservation of "traditional values" when defending its actions. This wording also gives the government flexibility and power because morality is subjective, which means that any international ruling they claim to be immoral could be overruled in Russia.
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  ‘A flagrant rights violation’ State investigators in Russia reportedly plan to arrest single gay fathers on child trafficking charges

  Russia’s Investigative Committee is planning to arrest a number of single, gay men on child trafficking charges and threatening to place their children in foster care for the duration of the investigation. These men became fathers through in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedures and surrogate mothers, which is against Russian law because only married couples and single women are allowed to act as donors. This law demonstrates the pervasive homophobia present in Russian society and how it is reflected in policy.
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  St. Petersburg Schoolchildren Screened for LGBT ‘Propaganda’

  Teachers in St. Petersburg were instructed to search their students' social media pages for LGBT symbols and to report any student who posted an LGBT symbol to the police. This order was defended as a way of protecting children's rights, consistent with Russia's law banning "gay propaganda" from being shown to minors. However, this is an example of how LGBT youth are being denied access to crucial resources and support in a country where they are already discriminated against.