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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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  Catholics Will Convert to Orthodoxy Over Pope’s LGBT Support, Russian Church Predicts

  Pope Francis' recent endorsement of same-sex civil partnerships has led Roman Silantyev, the leader of the Orthodox Church’s World Russian People’s Council, to predict that a large number of Catholics will convert to Orthodox Christianity or Protestantism. He accounts this to the fact that the Orthodox Church "doesn't compromise" on its conservative values. It seems unlikely that large scale conversion will occur, but it also seems equally unlikely that the Pope's support of the LGBT community will lead to any change in the Orthodox Church's stance on same-sex partnerships, which they currently strongly condemn.
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  Film festival director fined for violating Russia’s ‘gay propaganda law’

  The former director of the “Dukh Ognya” (Spirit of Fire) film festival was fined approximately $634 for screening the film "Outlaw" in March, despite the fact that she was not in charge of choosing the films. A court ruled that this film violated the "gay propaganda" law because one of the main characters was a gay teenager. Interestingly, state prosecutors were first made aware of this situation because there was public outrage over the screening. Now, many venues are refusing to show the film, and the festival organizers even faced threats on social media. This article demonstrates that those who are a part of or support the LGBTQ community face adversity not only from the government, but also from the public due to the prevalence of homophobia in society.
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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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  Pussy Riot activists arrested in Moscow for hanging rainbow flags on government buildings to mark Putin’s birthday

  Two members of the Russian feminist music group Pussy Riot were arrested this week for participating in a protest in demand of LGBTQ rights. The activists hung rainbow flags around Moscow on government buildings including the Presidential Executive Office and the Supreme Court. A journalist covering the event, Artyom Radygin, was arrested and later released, although his cell phone was never returned to him. These arrests point to the Russian government's censorship of any form of speech that criticizes or opposes them.
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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.