Russian group 'relocating' activists to Europe after court bans LGBT movement
EXCLUSIVE: Nonprofit staff are temporarily moving to Europe after the Supreme Court dubbed the gay rights movement "extremist."
A leading Russian gay rights organization is relocating some of its employees after the country's Supreme Court moved to ban the LGBT community.
The Moscow Community Center for LGBT+ Initiatives says it's working to get about 10 of its employee into Europe.
"Just to understand how it’s gonna be. Because we don’t know," MCC executive director Olga Baranova tells Daily Express US. "We're confused. They didn't show anything. It's like a government secret."
Thursday's closed-door ruling dubbed the international gay rights movement as "extremist". It intimated that anyone found promoting the cause could be subject to up to 10 years in prison.
"We will have a team meeting about how we can work," Baranova says. "First, we have to understand how this law will work."
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In Russia, Putin has sought to portray homosexuality as another Western perversion aimed at destroying Russia, and popular attitudes toward gay people remain mostly negative.
In 2022, the country expanded a previous bill targeting gay "propaganda" aimed at children to include any kind of gay content. That has led to widespread media censorship, with one Russian TV channel even discoloring a rainbow flag in a K-pop video.
The latest ruling has garnered international attention. However, it's unclear how punishments will be meted out.
"All that remains is to observe how and what they will try to enforce. And that’s when we’ll react," he said.
He added: "On the one hand, as strange as it may seem, I would advise people not to panic or freak out. That’s what those who started this case are trying to achieve. In a state of sudden fear, it’s difficult to make rational decisions."
Both activists stress that the law is aimed primarily at organizations and not at individual people.
That presents problems for people like Baranova and her team at MCC.
"Our team should be safe, that is most important. We are asking everyone," Baranova said. "Now everybody should decide whether to work in this direction or not. Then we will see what kind of team we have."
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https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1840772/russia-bans-lgbt-community-supreme-court-ruling-extremist
