Russia’s newly proposed anti-transgender legislation is drawing comparisons to Republican efforts to restrict LGBTQ+ rights in the United States. On Thursday, the Russian State Duma passed a bill that would ban gender-affirming health care regardless of age, ban transgender people from becoming foster or adoptive parents, and annul marriages involving transgender people. The bill, widely expected to be approved by the Federation Council and Russian President Vladimir Putin, comes as LGBTQ+ advocates warn of new global attacks on rights for the community, specifically those who are transgender. Lawmakers in Russia, the government of which has long been viewed as hostile toward LGBTQ+ rights, tout the legislation as protection from the Western anti-family ideology. However, critics say the bill will cause undue harm to Russia’s transgender community. Maria Sjödin, the executive director of the international LGBTQ+ advocacy organization Outright International, told Newsweek on Saturday afternoon that Russia’s new law takes matters even further for a community already under enormous pressure by existing anti-gay and anti-transgender laws. Russia is viewed as having among the world’s most restrictive laws regarding LGBTQ+ rights. Equaldex’s LGBTQ+ rights index places Russia as the 23rd worst country to live in for the LGBTQ+ community. There have been reports for years that authorities in Russia’s Chechnya region have violently persecuted LGBTQ+ people.
