Russia: New Law Bans Sex Change Surgery
Vladimir Putin Signs Law Banning Gender Reassignment Surgery and Hormonal Therapy.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on 24th July 2023 signed a law that bans people from officially or medically changing their gender. This is a major blow to the LGBTQIA+ community. The bill was approved unanimously by both houses of parliament. The law bans any “medical interventions aimed at changing the sex of a person, as well as changing one's gender in official documents and public records.” This also includes taking hormonal therapy or surgery. The law further bans transgender people from adopting children. The law also annuls marriages in which one person has changed gender. Such treatment will now be allowed only in the case of "congenital physiological anomalies of sex formation in children." The law will be in effect immediately. Lawmakers defended the law saying that it aimed to protect Russia against “Western anti-family ideology”, and described gender transitioning as “pure satanism”
Upset at the news, LGBTQIA+ activists warned that already there are high rates of high rates of suicide and suicide attempts among transgender people. This law will increase the suicide rates. The law will lead to an underground market for surgeries and medications. Russia’s crackdown on LGBTQIA + people started a decade ago. In 2013, Russia adopted law that banned any public display of “nontraditional sexual relations” among minors. In 2020, Same-sex marriage was banned in Russia. In 2021, Russia passed a law banning public displays and media portrayals of non-heterosexual identities among adults. Earlier, the health ministry had ordered Russian clinics to be staffed with sexologists to help patients "overcome" homosexuality and various sexual "mental disorders". And now they have passed a stringent law.
