Putin signs law banning sex change surgeries in Russia

It's no secret that Russian President Vladimir Putin is not a supporter of the LGBTQ+ community. He has now signed an anti-LGBTQ bill into law, essentially preventing the transgender community from getting gender-affirming healthcare services.

The bill, which got the unanimous approval of both houses of parliament on Monday, criminalises voluntary gender-affirming surgeries for transgender adults.

It prohibits transgender people from becoming foster or adoptive parents. It also forbids the changing of names and pronouns. However, medical procedures aimed at treating congenital anomalies will continue to happen without a child's consent.

The Russian lawmakers claim that the law is to protect against "Western anti-family ideology." They described gender transition as "pure Satanism." They defended the bill, saying that gender-affirming surgeries are a "path to the degeneration of the nation."

"Do we want to have here, in our country, in Russia, a parent number one, number two, number three instead of mum and dad?... Do we want perversions that lead to degradation and extinction to be imposed on children in our schools? To be drummed into them that besides women and men, there are supposedly some other genders? To be offered to undergo sex change surgery? We have a different future, our future," said Putin.

Putin had previously said that Russia would not legalise same-sex marriage for as long as he was in power. He is an avid follower of the Orthodox Church and strongly opposes liberal Western values. He has made several other such statements about homosexuality and gender fluidity during his two decades in power.

He once called it "monstrous" that Western children are taught they can change their gender by choice.

"It is terrible when children in the West are taught the idea that a boy can become a girl, a simply monstrous moment when children are pushed to believe from early on that a boy can easily become a girl, and vice versa," he said, adding that the idea risks ruining the lives of a generation of children.

The legislation is the latest step in Russia's crackdown on LGBTQ+ community rights. Russia first introduced a "gay propaganda" law in 2013 that bans anything deemed to promote homosexuality to under-18s. Former US President Barack Obama refused to attend the Sochi Olympics in Russia in 2013 after Russia passed a law targeting homosexuals.

The authorities in Russia noted that "gay propaganda" defines any content that shares homosexual relationships in the media, including magazines, books, films, and advertisements.

The European Court of Human Rights ruled that the law violates the European Convention on Human Rights. Putin had then said that the law was intended to "provide children with the opportunity to grow up without impacting their consciousness."

Tanya Lokshina, HRW Russia director, told IBTimes UK at the time of the ECHR ruling that anti-LGBT vigilante groups were starting to emerge in the country. These groups lure gay men on the pretext of a fake date and then hold them against their will, beating and humiliating them by videotaping their meeting and sharing it online.

According to Human Rights Watch, the violence against the LGBT community has intensified in Russia since 2013. The situation is only worsening as Putin refuses to bow down.

Transgender rights advocates believe that the latest legislation will only lead to an increase in attempted suicides among people unable to access healthcare. "For children and teenagers this situation looks like absolute hopelessness. They will not be able to get any help," a Russian transgender woman told The Guardian.

Putin has been slowly taking Russia back to the dark ages. He has been at war not just with Ukraine, but with his own countrymen as well. Human rights activists, journalists, freedom of speech proponents and people who do not share the same world view as Putin's have no place in his Russia.