LGBT Movement Banned, Activists Designated “Extremists” by Russia’s Supreme Court

Russia’s Supreme Court on Thursday announced that LGBT activists should be designated as “extremists”.

The presiding judge of the Supreme Court endorsed a request from the Russian justice ministry to ban what it called “the international LGBT social movement”.

Russia is increasing restrictions on expressions of sexual orientation and gender identity, the promotion of “non-traditional” sexual relations and banning legal or medical changes of gender.

UN human rights chief Volker Turk urged Russian authorities to “repeal, immediately, laws that place improper restrictions on the work of human rights defenders or that discriminate against LGBT people”.

President Putin is also opposed to LGBT community. In a speech in 2022, Putin said, the West was welcome to adopt “rather strange, in my view, new-fangled trends like dozens of genders, and gay parades” but had no right to impose them on other countries.