Russian politicians actually debated a bill to jail gays who come out
Russian politicians on Friday debate a bill which would allow authorities to jail people for publicly coming out as gay.
The bill proposed 15 day jail sentences, and fines, for people who express their sexual orientations publicly.
Despite being rejected for not being legally valid, the bill did find support in the Russian Duma.
Those found guilty of “public expression of non-traditional sexual relationships,” could be fined up to 5,000 rubles, the equivalent of £65.
In addition, it hoped to introduce the 15-day incarceration in jail for being openly gay in educational institutions, or those related to young people.
According to the authors of the bill, Russia’s existing anti-gay bill, which bans the “promotion of non-traditional sexual relations” to minors, wasn’t “effective enough”.
One of the authors, Communist MP Ivan Nikitchuk said he had “received hundreds of messages of support for the bill.”
Going on, Nikitchuk said he despised the “aggressive propaganda of Western culture and non-traditional values.”
During the session he also called homosexuality “a huge threat for society… a deadly threat.”
The 71-year-old last year said the bill would only apply to gay men, not lesbians.
In his own definition, Nikitchuk said non-traditional sexual relationships are “between adult men”.
Another MP used the debate to attack the West, saying: “Let the West rot.”
“They will destroy themselves from within and we will survive, we must survive, so I back this bill,” he went on.
