Not content with harassing queer adults, Putin is now targeting kids

Via Wikimedia Commons

More disturbing news from Russia: the Putin government has ordered teachers in St. Petersberg to monitor and identify queer students via social media accounts. The government has also demanded all the personal information of said students be turned over to the Ministry of Internal Affairs for punishment.

The Russian activist organization LGBT Network released a statement this week following the acquisition of emails to teachers from government agencies. In the emails, teachers are ordered to assess the social media accounts of their students and draw up dossiers, noting if any pro-queer language or symbols such as the Pride Flag appear on their pages. Instructors then must turn the personal details–including names, addresses, and descriptions of each student–over to the Ministry of Internal Affairs for processing.

The Putin administration justifies this kind of “monitoring” of students, aged 10-17, as a means of identifying “minors against whom illegal acts have been committed, or who have committed an offense or antisocial acts.”

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“It turns out that the administration considers only the fact of placing the rainbow flag by schoolchildren as an offense or antisocial act that should be punished. This is simply unacceptable,” said Svetlana Zakharova, a member of the Russian LGBT Network.

Besides being creepy and invasive, this kind of monitoring of children also violates Russian law.

“This is the….

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