Russia rejects bill to ban gay men from coming out

The Russia Duma has rejected a bill that would have seen gay men fined or thrown into prison for publicly coming out or making public displays of affection.

It has emerged the State Duma Committee on Constitutional Legislation and State Building unanimously decided against endorsing the draft legislation, not because of its anti-gay sentiments, but rather for it being a poorly-written document, The Moscow Times reports.

Deputy chairman Dmitry Vyatkin said “from a formal legal perspective, the bill was illiterate,” the RBC news agency reported.

The politicians behind the bill were senior Russian MPs Ivan Nikitchuk and Nikolai Arefyev, who sought to ban gay men from publicly coming out, or engaging in public displays of “unconventional sexual relationships”.

If caught doing so, the bill proposed fines of 5,000 rubles (£58) or up to 15 days in jail.

Nikitchuk defended the legislation during a meeting of the committee, calling homosexuality a “contagious disease” and a “threat to society,” Radio Free Europe reports.

“There is a group of people who, in our opinion, have a damaged psyche, and as a result have deviated from their sexual orientation,” he said.

“This is an illness on a level with drugs and alcoholism and other illnesses. What’s more, this illness is contagious. For a young man with an unformed psyche, it represents a serious threat.”

A change.org petition opposing the draft legislation had gathered 41,900 signatures as of Monday, reports The Times.

It was back in June 2013 when Russia passed laws banning the promotion of “non-traditional sexual relations”. Ever since there has been an increasingly hostile atmosphere towards the country’s LGBT community.

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