Russia Doubles Down on Anti-LGBTQ Rhetoric

Russia is doubling down on its anti-LGBTQ rhetoric. The Moscow Times reported that the country's "LGBT, radical feminist and child-free groups should be recognized as 'extremist,' the chairman of an influential government commission said on Wednesday" (September 29).

"LGBT ideology, radical feminism and child-free movements should be recognized as extremism – an extremist ideology," the state-run TASS news agency�cited�Andrei Tsyganov, chairman of a commission for the protection of children at the Roskomnadzor communications regulator, as saying Wednesday.

"Of course, we need to expand the rights of law enforcers, we have repeatedly proposed this – all sorts of these LGBT ideology, radical feminism, all these furries [movement of fans of images of anthropomorphic animals with human features], child-free – they, of course, should be recognized at least as extremism, extremist ideology in order to untie the hands of our law enforcement officers – Roskomnadzor and so on," Tsyganov said.

"In his opinion, this will help protect Russian children and adolescents from the influence of destructive content on social networks and the Internet," Tass adds.

Also on Wednesday, the Moscow Times reports, "Russia's Justice Ministry slapped the Ivanovo Center for Gender Studies, a research and education non-profit, with the 'foreign agent' label."

The move is seen as another in President Vladimir Putin's socially conservative government crackdown on liberal and progressive movements in an attempt to reassert old values.

"Russia's sweeping 2013 gay propaganda ban has drawn widespread criticism from human rights organizations in Russia and abroad," writes the Moscow Times.