CONTROVERSIAL GAY BILL PASSED IN 3RD AND FINAL HEARING
Despite international outcry from quarters ranging from Amnesty International to British author Stephen Fry, a controversial anti-gay bill was passed during a third and final reading at St. Petersburg's Legislative Assembly on Wednesday.
Twenty-nine deputies voted for the bill, five voted against and one abstained. The bill now needs to be signed by Governor Georgy Poltavchenko to become law.
The bill's passing was not unexpected, after gay rights activists reported that a hearing at the Legislative Assembly on Friday degraded into a farce. But the passing of the bill, which will outlaw “the promotion of sodomy, lesbianism, bisexuality and transgenderism” might have surprise negative effects for the authorities, they warn.
According to a press release issued by LGBT rights organization Coming Out, United Russia deputy Vitaly Milonov, the author of the bill, brought a group of aggressive supporters to Friday's hearing, who insulted and threatened gay rights activists and the experts they had brought with them.
Milonov himself sat next to a man who was wearing a T-shirt reading “Orthodoxy or Death,” while the crowd chanted “You are not people,” Coming Out said, describing the hearing as a “triumph of militant ignorance.”
Speaking on Tuesday, Coming Out chair Igor Kochetkov said that Milonov and his supporters showed no interest in any compromise.
“We share the view that young people’s minds should be protected, we just don’t understand why they should be protected from gays and lesbians,” Kochetkov said.
“The problem is that their goals are different from those that they declare; they say they are concerned about the morals of young people, but in reality they are trying to arouse homophobic sentiment and draw voters ahead of the elections.”
The bill was introduced and passed in a first reading in November, ahead of the Dec. 4 State Duma elections. It was examined again earlier this month, amid protests against electoral fraud, when it passed in a second reading on Feb. 8.
Kochetkov believes that the bill’s actual goal has been to draw conservatives first to Vladimir Putin’s party United Russia and then to Putin himself as a presidential candidate.
“It’s clear that it’s pure populism and an attempt to get votes from the most conservative voters,” he said.
“But it’s not just about the elections, it’s about the general situation in this country; it’s very important to distract the attention of this part of the population from the real issues, from the real protests that are happening now.
“Just look how much coverage this bill is getting in the media. Earlier we couldn’t get anything at all reported in the media. There was a policy of total suppression concerning the issue on television and via state-affiliated news agencies. Now every word said about the issue is published and broadly discussed. I don’t think this is by accident. It’s being used to distract attention from the complicated current political situation.”
Kochetkov said the bill had had an effect that the lawmakers did not expect by politicizing the previously politically indifferent LGBT community.
“I can see this from comments on gay web resources, from what people write to us; people, their friends and relatives are getting political,” he said. “I don’t think that it’s to the benefit of the ruling party.”
Another surprise effect if the law is adopted might be a blow to St. Petersburg’s tourist industry.
In yet another international online campaign launched last week, foreign tourists were being urged to boycott St. Petersburg in the event of the bill being signed into law.
As of Tuesday evening, more than 65,500 people had signed a petition on All Out, a leading LGBT rights petition web site, appealing to St. Petersburg Governor Georgy Poltavchenko, claiming that they will not visit the city as tourists if the bill becomes law.
“It’s legitimate and quite expectable,” Kochetkov said.
“It always happens in any country where human rights are clearly violated. It’s natural that it affects tourism, because people don’t want to go to a city or a country where they might face some outrageous charges.”
