russia is about to ban legal and medical transition btw. happy pride
On May 30, a bill was introduced in Russia’s State Duma, which puts a full ban on any “medical treatment” related to gender transition, as well as a ban on “state registration of sex change without surgery,” i.e. changing the gender marker in legal documents. The bill was widely discussed by members of the government for over a month. Now, 400 members of the Russian parliament from all political fractions are listed as its authors. They think that the law will protect Russian society “from destructive informational and psychological influence” and strengthen traditional values.
<…> Their logic is as follows. First: ban any changes in documents without surgery. Second: ban medical treatment. This equals to the impossibility to change documents.
This bill is now very much in line with the Western trend of anti-trans laws, which are actively adopted in a number of countries, for example, in many US states.
They also decriminalized domestic abuse a few years back. They're also talking about officially labeling all feminists as extremists. They're also blaring anti-Ukrainian propaganda on state TV 24/7, talking about how our national identity is made up and our mere existence is a threat to Russia, how we need to be subdued. As Russia's government needs its people to be more and more dogmatically nationalist, they are going to reject and demonize more and more of what they perceive as "western," which in practice will mean persecuting minorities more and more.
If you're living in Russia, get out now, if you can. Do whatever it takes. If you're queer, you can apply for asylum in European countries, if you can get to them. If not, try going to Kazakhstan. It should be easier to cross into as it is ostensibly an ally of Russia, but it isn't taking the same course that Russia is on, or at least not as quickly.
It's very strange, looking through the notes on this post and seeing that most of them are from Russian trans people. I'm sorry you're going through this. I hope that every single one of you gets to live, and be yourselves, and outlive this regime. I'm sorry that the west ignores your struggle. I'm sorry that people in the west try to pretend they have it worse than you, or call you liars when you talk about this. It's exhausting, having to see the people who ought to be our allies spend their time defending the people killing us. I say this as someone who lived in Russia for most of my life, and came home to Ukraine just a few years before the war started.
We're going to make it through this, please don't give up hope. All of us. The victims of Russia's war, the victims of Russia's transphobia, homophobia, Islamophobia, racism, sexism, everyone who's hurting right now.
And if you're not Russian or Ukrainian and you're seeing this, please spread it. Please send money to people suffering from this who need help, if they have a way to receive that money. Please push back against pro-Russia narratives whenever you can. We can't be the only ones talking about this.
