Russia is considering restricting gay love scenes “like pornography”

The Russian parliament will consider restrictions on movies and TV shows with same-sex love scenes only exposing them through “special access … like pornography,” a lawmaker said this week.

A corresponding law is currently being drawn up, said Vitaly Milanov, Member of Parliament, on Monday RT, a Russian state news site. He made the statements directly to RIA Novosti, the state-controlled news agency.

Milanov, vice chairman of the Committee on Family, Women and Children, said Russian citizens do not want such content to be widely disseminated. “The legal solution to this situation is just around the corner,” he said, adding, “Anyone who wants can have special access to both such videos and pornography.”

In a recent poll by the Russian Center for Public Opinion Research, 80 percent of respondents said same-sex relationships shouldn’t even be featured in films and TV shows that are restricted to adult viewers, and 57 percent said scenes of “sexual deviance” are forbidden should be. RT reported.

Russia has already passed its infamous “Gay Propaganda” law in 2013, which bans LGBTQ + content in all places accessible to minors. As a result, Pride parades and other gatherings, as well as various types of media, have been banned. As a city official in St. Petersburg, Milanov was an advocate of the local law on which the national law is based.

He has made a lot of anti-LGBTQ + statements. In August, he said that gays represent the “lowest evolutionary stage of the animal kingdom” and should be “sterilized” like stray cats. The Russian Human Rights Council condemned the statements.

Another Russian official recently said he had created a catalog of “toxic content” on the Internet. “The resource would highlight issues such as radical feminism, ‘child-free’ lifestyles, and the promotion of homosexuality and sodomy.” RT reported. The website identified the officer as a member of the Russian Presidential Council on Civil Society and Human Rights, but did not name him.

Earlier this month, Russian authorities temporarily blocked the website hosting the St. Petersburg-based side-by-side LGBT film festival, which is only online due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The page went back up briefly, just to be clogged again.

“This is a politically motivated attack and again an attempt to restrict the rights of LGBTQ + people in Russia,” said Manny de Guerre, founder of the Side by Side LGBT Film Festival, in an email statement The lawyer.

The Russian government too fined a TV station for showing an award show that included the appearance of a man in a dress.