Russia to consider reclassifying gay love films as hardcore pornography
Jake Gyllenhaal starred in Brokeback Mountain with the late Heath Ledger. (Focus Features)
Russia’s parliament is set to consider a bill which would ban films containing gay love, only allowing “special access” like “with pornography”.
Speaking to state-owned news agency RIA Novosti, viciously anti-LGBT+ Russian MP Vitaly Milonov said there was public demand for the banning of queer content in films, adding: “The legal solution to this situation is just around the corner.”
Milonov, who was recently reprimanded by the Russia’s Human Rights Council after he called for gay people to be “sterilised” and kept in shelters like cats, explained: “Whoever wants can have special access to such videos, as well as with pornography.”
According to RT, the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VTsIOM) released a survey this week which showed that 80 per cent of people in Russia think it is “unacceptable” to show gay sex scenes in films, even if they have 18+ ratings.
It also found that 57 per cent of respondents that any content containing what they see as “sexual deviance” should also be banned.
A TV channel was charged with ‘gay propaganda’ in Russia after showing a man in a dress
Russia has a long history of censoring LGBT+ content in media.
In 2013, the country passed its infamous “gay propaganda law”, although regions in Russia had been creating similar statutes for around a decade.
The law has been used to legitimise harassment and discrimination against the LGBT+ community, and has been condemned around the world.
In 2017, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that it was “discriminatory and, over all, serves no legitimate public interest”.
This month, a Russian TV channel was fined for violating the “gay propaganda law”, and fined over £10,000 for broadcasting a man wearing a dress at the Muz-TV awards, as well as two men arriving at the awards together.
Russian telecommunications watchdog, the Roskomnadzor, said that the channel should be fined as the show should have been marked as 18+.
