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'Jail All Males Making Love!' |
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Compiled By GayToday
Moscow, Russia--A group of Russian parliamentarians are asking the State Duma (the lower chamber of the Russian parliament) to accept a draft law criminalizing same-sex relations between consenting adult males.
"The unnatural satisfaction of sexual desire of one male with another male", as they defined the proposed crime, shall be punishable with 1 to 5 years in jail. Authors of the draft law claim that their purpose is to protect the public morale, the institution of marriage and the health of Russian citizens. They allege that this law will help to combat venereal diseases and the spread of AIDS, as well as protect minors from being forced into prostitution and pornography. Homosexuality was decriminalized in Russia nine years ago, April 27, 2002, under pressure from the Council of Europe. Decriminalization was a condition precent for the accession of Russia to the organization. The draft law, if passed, will grossly violate the rights of Russian gay men by criminalizing any kind of affection between them and giving a license for a witchhunt for anyone suspected of gender non-conformity.
Alarmed Russian gay activists ask : "Please URGE your connections in the Council of Europe, representatives of your national delegations who will attend the hearings, your parliamentarians in the PACE to raise this issue with the Russian delegation. While we are working inside the country to raise the public awareness of this issue, the Russian delegation should also clearly understand that this situation has been already brought to the attention of the CoE and will be closely monitored by human rights groups. "Please forward this letter to anyone who might be of any help. Please support us with your messages of protest (in free format) addressed to: Dmitry Rogozin Russian Delegation to the Council of Europe F-67075 Strasbourg France Vadim Bulavinov, Guennady Raikov, Dmitry Rogozin 103265, Moscow, Russia, Okhotny ryad 1 Gosudarstvennaya Duma RF faxes: +7 (095) 292 6085, 292 3315, 292 8843, 292 1081 Pavel Krasheninnikov Head of the Legislation Committee 103265, Moscow, Russia, Okhotny ryad 1 Gosudarstvennaya Duma RF fax +7 (095) 292 9782 Dmitry Kozak Head of the Legal Directorate in the Presidential Administration 103132, Moscow, Russia |
