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“It felt as if we are putting together a guard of underground ninjas”: LGBT-friendly psychologists about working in a new reality
Sphere Foundation’s psychological assistance program held a scientific and practical conference for psychologists of Russian schools working with LGBT+ teenagers. More than 100 specialists from 90 schools from different regions of Russia took part in it. During the sessions, the participants discussed the most up-to-date scientific positions on sexual orientation and gender identity and eventually…
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“There is nothing wrong about who we are, nothing that is deserving of being muzzled.” The statement of the Sphere Foundation on the adoption of a total ban on “LGBT+ propaganda”
For the second year, the Sphere Foundation has been campaigning against state homophobia, biphobia and transphobia. Initially, we fought only against Article 6.21 of the Code of Administrative Offenses — punishment for “LGBT+ propaganda” among minors. During this time, a total of 122,000 people have signed our petitions. Throughout the summer of 2022, the deputies…
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How Do MPs Want to Punish for “LGBT+ Propaganda” Among All Ages in Russia?
On October 20, 2 new bills concerning “LGBT+ propaganda” were registered in the State Duma for consideration.
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“We’ll not be silent and give up”: The Sphere Foundation Urges Deputies Not to Support the Bill on Tougher Penalties for LGBT+ Propaganda
Yesterday, on October 17th, public hearings were held on bills on a complete ban on LGBT+ propaganda.
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Report for the OSCE On the Situation With LGBT+ Rights in Russia
At the end of August, 10 human rights organizations from Russia sent to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe a report on the human rights situation in Russia for 2022 and earlier. We are sharing with you our part of the report on LGBT+ rights. The Legal and Social Support Charitable Foundation Sphere…
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Petersburg City Court Rejects the Appeal Against the Liquidation of the Sphere Foundation
On September 7, a court considered an appeal against the liquidation of the Charitable Foundation Sphere. The board of the City Court, chaired by Judge Igor Chufistov, left unchanged the decision of the Kuibyshev District Court to close the organization and exclude it from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities. Thus, legally, the foundation…
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Russian Deputies Propose a Third Bill Discriminating Against LGBT+
The third bill was announced by the head of the Infopolitics committee, Alexander Khinshtein, in his Telegram channel. The project has been sent to the Russian Government for official review (the first bill was rejected due to lack of such review). In the new bill, the deputies actually equate “propaganda of homosexuality” with propaganda of pedophilia. In…
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How We Are Fighting for the Russian LGBT Network Website
For several months now, it’s not been possible to login to the domains lgbtnet.org/en/ and old.lgbtnet.org/en — either within the territory of the Russian Federation or abroad. Roskomnadzor has entered them into the unified register of prohibited sites, which is mandatory for all internet service providers. The LGBT Network site does not have a mirror or other…
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The Sphere Team Has Filed an Appeal Against the Liquidation of the Foundation
On July 21, the City Court of St. Petersburg appointed a hearing on the grounds of the appeal for liquidation. The trial will take place on September 7 at 14:45. Vyacheslav Samonov, lawyer of the Sphere team, commented on the appeal: “There were no sufficient legal grounds for the termination of the organization’s activities. Therefore,…
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“Don’t Call Me By My Name”: Russian Authorities’ Plan to Cancel LGBT+ People
On July 18, a group of deputies introduced a bill banning “propaganda of non-traditional relationships.” Instead of the previous attempt to correct the Administrative Code (fortunately rejected), it is proposed to limit the information. Sphere figured out what they’ll want to ban this time. In the explanatory note, the deputies equated information about LGBT+ with…
