There are those who still are afraid of gay adoptions

by Letizia Orlandi - 2013.02.08

Not even the time to pass the law on gay marriage that London and Paris must already face Putin’s niet. After the first important legislative measures adopted a few days ago, the Russian Government threats that it will drop the number of adoptions of Russian children in France and in the UK, should these two countries finally recognize homosexual unions. The alert was sent via Twitter from Konstantin Dolgov, the Russian Foreign Ministry's human rights envoy. A yellow card which followed the declaration of the delegate for Infancy Rights, Pavel Astakhov: ‘Federation’s orphans will never finish in the hands of homosexual couples.’ The fact that France ranks four worldwide for number of adoptions of Eastern children doesn’t matter. The Kremlin recently showed that the distance between words and facts is definitely short, by launching the debated ‘anti-Magnitsky rule’ last December. The norm bans adoptions from US couples, in retaliation to recent measures taken from the US government against officials implicated in affairs of human rights violation.



The Crusade against the West arrives after first-instance approval of the law bill banning the ‘propaganda’ related to sexual orientation among minors, already in force at local level in several regions. The document proposes amendments to the Administrative Code, according to which citizens can be mutilated or even imprisoned for a few days. The legislative path involves two more readings at the low chamber, presumingly in spring and autumn, the approval by the Federal Council and finally the President’s signature. The first point to clear out is what they mean by ‘propaganda’. As there is no clear juridical definition, too much room is given to arbitrariness.



Russia has been under the European Council lens for a long time, due to its homophobe nature. Homosexuality remained a crime until 1993 and was considered a mental illness until 1999. And, last June the Municipality of Moscow banned gay pride parades for the next 100 years. Who knows if measures to follow will also concern the ‘Russian Kiss’, given this population’s habit to say hi to each others with a lip kiss, even between men.