Saturday, October 19, 2013

Russian bill to take children from gay parents with­drawn for revision; LGBT activists suspicious of timing

From Buzzfeed:
     A spokesperson for Alexei Zhuravlyov, the far right MP who tabled the bill, later confirmed the move, but said it would be resubmitted after some changes were made.
     ...Support for the bill in question was always less clear cut. Elena Mizulina, the sponsor of the federal propaganda law and the public face of Russia’s anti-LGBT campaign, repeatedly said she believed it would not pass.
     The decision to withdraw the bill comes one month after it cleared a bureaucratic hurdle that put it on the agenda to be considered as soon as February 2014. That is the month that Russia is set to host the Winter Olympics in Sochi — something that has already pointed global attention to the country’s abysmal record on LGBT rights.
      Activists welcomed the move cautiously, with some predicting that it would be brought for consideration again once the global spotlight on Russia fades after the Olympics conclude. “Are they putting on a good face before a bad game?” one asked. “Let’s not relax.”

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