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When Irma Veller, a 44-year-old transgender woman, found out about a new Russian law that would bar transgender people from changing their gender on their birth certificates, she decided it was finally time to leave the country.
“I understood that my life is of no value here anymore,” Veller told The Moscow Times last week prior to her departure to seek political asylum in a destination she asked not to be named.
In a country that classifies them as mentally ill, Russian transgender people, who are not even allowed to drive , have long faced discrimination. But proposed amendments to Russia’s Family Code on “strengthening the institution of the family” will make their lives even more difficult, activists and rights groups say.
Commonly referred to as “Mizulina’s law” after Yelena Mizulina, the conservative lawmaker who spearheaded its development, the legislation will be considered by the State Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, later this month.
In recent years, Mizulina has also successfully lobbied for the notorious 2013 law banning “gay propaganda,” as well as efforts to decriminalize domestic violence. Her latest push to enshrine a traditional understanding of family, which primarily seeks to ban same-sex marriage and adoption, came in July, just days after Russians approved a set of amendments to the Constitution that include a clause defining marriage as a heterosexual union.
But in explicitly banning same-sex marriage and adoption, the amendments go the extra mile by barring transgender people from officially changing their gender. In this way, rights group say, lawmakers will prevent even heterosexual trans people from getting married, because their original birth-assigned gender would make their marriage same-sex on paper.
“I can’t think of any other explanation,” Tatiana Glushkova, a lawyer with the Transgender Legal Defense Project, said of the decision to ban gender changes. “They have a fantasy in their heads that people change their documents in order to enter into a same-sex marriage.”
Critics say the move came as part of a package of sweeteners for traditionalists aimed at strengthening President Vladimir Putin’s support going into his third decade in power, building on a longer trend of preserving “traditional family values.”
“Trans people in Russia already occupied a precarious position vis-à-vis the law, and regressing legal standards further accomplishes nothing but to score cheap political points,” said Kyle Knight, senior LGBT rights researcher at Human Rights Watch.
But if for lawmakers the move was a neat trick, the amendments will open up a Pandora’s box of complications for the country’s transgender people. For one, besides barring future changes in gender, some transgender people who have already made the change may even have to return their new birth certificates.
That’s because for years in Russia, until the Health Ministry developed a standardized procedure in February 2018, gender changes were decided on a case-by-case basis.
After receiving the required psychiatric diagnosis, transgender people would visit their local civil registry offices. But while some offices would immediately make a change to the person’s birth certificate on that basis, others would first require the person to get court approval.
According to Glushkova, while most gender changes prior to February 2018 were made with court approval, Mizulina’s law would render the changes made without court approval void. If the bill is approved, those people will be required to change their birth certificates back to their originals by Jan. 1, 2022.
“It shows that the lawmakers don’t even understand the process involved for changing gender in Russia,” Glushkova said. “These amendments shouldn’t be accepted simply on technical grounds, not to mention the human rights violations.”
Rights groups say that the proposed legislation is riddled with similar legal flaws that would leave transgender people on uncertain ground in other areas too.
Eva Shteiner, a 40-year-old transgender woman who for years has consulted transgender people on Russia’s Family Code, said the amendments, for instance, are not clear on whether they will retroactively annul marriages like hers. Shteiner, who was assigned male at birth and changed her documents in 2013, married her wife in 2001, with whom she is raising four children.
Even before Mizulina’s law, Russia did not formally recognize gay marriage. But some couples who married abroad were able to register their marriages back home through a legal loophole. If the law is passed, that loophole would be closed.
There was also previously no law explicitly banning same-sex couples from adopting children, though those couples were exposed to criminal negligence charges under the “gay propaganda” law. That possibility will now be officially barred, too, including for families like Shteiner’s.
Yekaterina Messorosh, a trans activist at the St. Petersburg-based T-Action transgender rights group, said that the group has seen a significant increase in calls to their counseling hotline since the law was introduced.
What is ultimately at stake, Messorosh said, is not even so much the legal complications that will follow but the signal that the Russian state will send with the legislation.
“It is primarily aimed at declaring LGBT people — and in this case, trans people separately and especially — second-class citizens,” she said.
While there is no guarantee that the law will pass in its current form — it has to go through three readings in the State Duma before it can be voted on in the Federation Council and signed by Putin — transgender people like Alan Leongard, a 25-year-old Muscovite, are bracing for the worst-case scenario.
“If the state limits transgender people’s rights, many people will see a reason to treat them accordingly,” he said.
Which is precisely why Veller felt it was finally time to leave.
“What angers me the most is I pay taxes just like everyone else,” she said. “But I’m not treated as an equal citizen.”

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December 13, 2019 / 9:50 AM
/ CBS News

Moscow — A Russian transgender woman has been sentenced to three years in prison on child pornography charges for posting several Japanese manga cartoons online. Human Rights Watch calls the charges "bogus," and friends and activists fear that being sent to a men's prison could effectively make her short prison sentence a "death sentence."
The 53-year-old woman, known among friends as Michelle, was convicted last month of "distributing pornography depicting minors" for sharing three erotic Japanese manga-style drawings featuring nude cartoon characters on her personal VK page, a popular Russian equivalent of Facebook.
While Michelle has been undergoing hormone therapy for a couple years, she is still legally male, so would be sent to a men's prison unless her sentence is overthrown.
Investigators concluded that the images Michelle posted were used to "meet persons of non-traditional sexual orientation," according to the charges seen by CBS News.
The images were posted in 2013 and 2014, but went unnoticed by authorities until last year. Investigators ordered an expert evaluation, which concluded that some of the cartoon characters were under 14 years old.
Lada Preobrazhenskaya, a trans blogger and friend of Michelle's who is helping fight the charges, calls the allegations absurd.
"They are cartoon characters, how can one really establish how old they are?" she told CBS News.
Preobrazhenskaya said her friend didn't initially take the investigation too seriously. When she suggested raising money for a good defense lawyer, Michelle sided with her wife, who strongly opposed the idea, fearing publicity.
Michelle was assigned a court-appointed public defender, who convinced her to plead guilty and get an expedited trial. Preobrazhenskaya has since raised money and hired a Moscow lawyer to help appeal the sentence. She has asked for the court's permission to help represent Michelle along with the lawyers.
Michelle is currently in custody in her hometown of Bryansk, a provincial city located about 200 miles southwest of Moscow, awaiting an appeal hearing.
Before her conviction she worked as an epidemiologist at a local clinic. If her appeal is rejected, she will be sent to a penal colony full of male convicts.
"She will be either killed or heavily beaten there," Preobrazhenskaya predicted, citing the poor human rights record of Russia's prison system and low tolerance towards LGBTQ individuals among inmates, and Russians in general.
"Michelle was sentenced to 3 years!!! For a trans woman it is a death sentence," said LGBTQ advocacy group, the Moscow Community Center, in a Facebook statement on the case.
Maria Chaschilova, a lawyer at the Community Center, told the Novaya Gazeta newspaper that if Michelle "will be able to readjust and will use her male name and will behave like a man, she will have at least a small chance (to survive) for some time."
The New York-based rights group Human Rights Watch called the charges against Michelle "bogus" in an article posted last week , and said "such a blatant disregard for her gender identity leaves Michelle extremely vulnerable to abuse by both male detainees and guards."
Chaschilova noted also that Michelle needs access to hormone therapy to continue her transition, and it's not clear whether prison officials would allow that. The World Professional Association for Transgender Health warns that for trans people in detention the "consequences of abrupt withdrawal of hormones… include a high likelihood of negative outcomes such as surgical self-treatment by autocastration, depressed mood, dysphoria, and/or suicidality."
A CBS News request for comment from the local prosecutor's office was not answered by the time of this story's publication.
As the charges include child pornography, the case was heard behind closed doors and most of the related documents have remained unreleased under Russian laws meant to protect underage victims. That, despite the fact that the "minors" in question in this case are cartoon characters.
The LGBTQ community is often marginalized in Russian society, where laws ban so-called "gay propaganda." Social media users can be prosecuted for posting information about LGBTQ issues.

First published on December 13, 2019 / 9:50 AM

© 2019 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Copyright ©2022 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  Ban on the promotion of homosexuality, bisexuality and transgenderism
  Ban on the promotion of homosexuality and bisexuality
  Ban on the promotion of homosexuality

^ De facto illegal in Chechnya ; [2] [3] death, life in prison, torture, vigilante execution, vigilante attacks, and internment as potential punishments [2] [3]

^ Jump up to: a b c The Federal Law On Acts of Civil Status (1997) provides for the possibility to rectify acts of civil status based on the document confirming sex transformation issued by a health institution (art.70). Also, transgender people can change their passport on the grounds of sex transformation. See the Administrative Legislation section of the Russian LGBT Network 2009 Report .

^ Jump up to: a b Adoption is regulated by the Civil Procedure Code of Russia ( Chapter 29 ); Family Code of Russia ( Chapter 19 ); Federal Law On Acts of Civil Status ( Chapter V ). None of these documents contain any direct restriction or ban for homosexual people to adopt, though unmarried couples are not allowed to adopt children (Article 127.2 of the Family Code of Russia ), and since same-sex marriage is not officially recognized, gay couples cannot adopt children together; nevertheless, single individuals can adopt (see also the Parent Relations section of the Russian LGBT Network 2009 Report ). The Court makes the decision to allow or deny adoption considering many documents and testimonies, so it is unclear whether LGBT affiliation of the candidate adopter can be in fact an issue for a judge to make a negative decision.

^ Bashkortostan is the only region where the law does not include any kind of administrative sanctions or fines.

^ Kaliningrad Oblast 's measure bans "propaganda of homosexualism" not only among minors, but among the population in general.

^ With life in prison, torture, vigilante execution, vigilante attacks, and forced labor camp internment are also being enforced in Chechnya.

^ The age of consent for homosexual acts was never specifically mentioned in the old Criminal Code of RSFSR , which was replaced with the new Criminal Code of Russia in 1996, and this new Code mentions the age of consent regardless of sexual orientation (although harsher penalties applies in case of an illicit same-sexual intercourse with a person younger than 16) in Article 134. [147]

^ Jump up to: a b c "Russia: Update to RUS13194 of 16 February 1993 on the treatment of homosexuals" . Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada. 29 February 2000 . Retrieved 21 May 2009 .

^ Jump up to: a b c d Milashina, Elena (1 April 2017). "Murder of honor: the ambitions of a well-known LGBT activist awake a terrible ancient custom in Chechnya" . Retrieved 14 April 2017 . "Novaya Gazeta" became aware of mass detentions of residents of Chechnya in connection with their unconventional sexual orientation - or suspicion of such. At the moment, more than a hundred men have been informed of the detention. "Novaya Gazeta" knows the names of the three dead, but our sources say that there are many more victims.

^ Jump up to: a b c Kramer, Andrew E. (1 April 2017). "Chechen Authorities Arresting and Killing Gay Men, Russian Paper Says" . The New York Times . Retrieved 15 April 2017 .

^ Jump up to: a b "Gays are not Willingly Accepted in the Russian Army" . english.pravda.ru . 1 December 2003 . Retrieved 26 January 2014 .

^ Jump up to: a b "New Soldiers Face Gay Tattoo Check" . The Moscow Times . Retrieved 26 January 2014 .

^ "Trans Rights Europe Map 2018" (PDF) . Transgender Europe . May 2018 . Retrieved 23 May 2022 .

^ "Gay in Putin's Moscow: why the city is pinker than you think" . The Guardian . 13 June 2015.

^ "Inside the gay club scene in St Petersburg, Russia" . Daily Xtra . 31 May 2014.

^ Jump up to: a b Paul Gallagher; Vanessa Thorpe (2 February 2014). "Shocking footage of anti-gay groups" . Irish Independent . Retrieved 12 February 2014 .

^ Jump up to: a b c d e f Elder, Miriam (11 June 2013). "Russia passes law banning gay 'propaganda' " . The Guardian .

^ "Dismantling LGBT+ rights as a means of control in Russia" . Freedom House . Retrieved 13 August 2021 .

^ Sewell Chan, U.N. Experts Condemn Killing and Torture of Gay Men in Chechnya , New York Times (13 April 2017).

^ End abuse and detention of gay men in Chechnya, UN human rights experts tell Russia , Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (April 13, 2017).

^ Jump up to: a b "Russia's Putin signs law limiting adoption by gays" . USA Today . The Associated Press. 3 July 2013.

^ Kseniya A.Kirichenko , p. 4. sfn error: no target: CITEREFKseniya_A.Kirichenko ( help )

^ Московская Хельсинкская группа, Российская ЛГБТ-сеть 2009 , p. 77. sfn error: no target: CITEREFМосковская_Хельсинкская_группа,_Российская_ЛГБТ-сеть2009 ( help )

^ Российская ЛГБТ-сеть 2012 , p. 4. sfn error: no target: CITEREFРоссийская_ЛГБТ-сеть2012 ( help )

^ Global Rights, ILGA-Europe, Российская ЛГБТ-сеть, Группа «FtM-Феникс», Российский Фонд «Трансгендер» 2009 , p. 2. sfn error: no target: CITEREFGlobal_Rights,_ILGA-Europe,_Российская_ЛГБТ-сеть,_Группа_«FtM-Феникс»,_Российский_Фонд_«Трансгендер»2009 ( help )

^ Global Rights, ILGA-Europe, Российская ЛГБТ-сеть, Группа «FtM-Феникс», Российский Фонд «Трансгендер» 2009 , p. 18. sfn error: no target: CITEREFGlobal_Rights,_ILGA-Europe,_Российская_ЛГБТ-сеть,_Группа_«FtM-Феникс»,_Российский_Фонд_«Трансгендер»2009 ( help )

^ Кочетков 2011 , p. 191. sfn error: no target: CITEREFКочетков2011 ( help )

^ Совет Европы 2011 , p. 98. sfn error: no target: CITEREFСовет_Европы2011 ( help )

^ Morello, Carol (4 June 2013). "Acceptance of gays in society varies widely" . Washington Post .

^ "The global divide on homosexuality: greater acceptance in more secular and affluent countries" . Pew Research Global Attitudes Project. 4 June 2013.

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