St Petersburg Against Gays

From Moscow Times:
"St. Pete May Fine Gays Who Are Open"

In a throwback to Soviet times, St. Petersburg legislators have tentatively approved a bill that would impose fines on gays or lesbians who openly profess their sexual orientation. The bill achieves this by outlawing gay pride parades and any other public display or discussion of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender, or LGBT, lifestyle that might be observed by minors — curiously equating such acts to promotion of pedophilia, which is a criminal offense. Gay activists denounced the bill as "medieval" and called it a pre-election stunt, while legal experts doubted the bill's legality. But a senior local lawmaker said the main flaw of the bill was that it was not harsh enough. The bill proposes fines of 3,000 to 5,000 rubles ($100 to $160) for individuals and up to 50,000 rubles for organizations engaged in "public activities to promote sodomy, lesbianism, bisexualism and transsexuality" that might be observed by children, local news agency Fontanka.ru said. The St. Petersburg bill appeared to be modeled on near-identical legislation passed in the Arkhangelsk region in September. Lawmakers introduced a similar ban in the Ryazan region in 2006. Even if the legislation is half-baked, the issue remains controversial in Russia, where male homosexual relationships were a criminal offense until 1993. In 1999, the Health and Social Development Ministry dropped homosexuality from the federal list of officially recognized illnesses. But most of the populace remains vehemently anti-gay, and politicians and rights groups remain reluctant to stand up for LGBT rights for fear of their own reputations.

^ Russia has numerous problems that need to be addressed yet it's 2nd largest city and former capital decides to go after homosexuals like it is an old Soviet witch-hunt. Why don't they focus on making things easier and better for their citizens instead of discriminating against a group of people. Homosexuality was illegal in the Soviet Union and then in Russia until 1993 - I guess the Communists were afraid of "catching" it. Russia needs to decide once and for all if they want to join the ranks of the civilized world or go back to the isolation of the USSR. ^

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/st-pete-may-fine-gays-who-are-open/447995.html