Russian State Duma passes bill banning ‘sex change’

The Russian State Duma has adopted a bill that bans “sex change” in the third reading, as per the lower house’s website.

“This decision protects our citizens and children. Think of it: the number of sex change surgeries increased 50-fold in the US in the past 10 years. That’s a disastrous trend!” Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of the State Duma, wrote on Telegram.

The bill is now to be adopted by the Federation Council, the upper house. Its session is scheduled for 19 July.

The bill bans doctors from performing “sex change” surgeries, except for cases involving “inbred physiological anomalies”. This will also pertain to gland therapy.

From now on, civil registration offices will also be banned from making changes into people’s IDs based on health certificates on “sex change”.

Additionally, a Duma committee backed two amendments to the bill. One of those makes “sex change” performed by one or both spouses a reason to declare their marriage null and void. This change can be applied retroactively.

The other amendment will ban couples with one of the partners having their “sex changed” from adopting children. Additionally, should an individual “change their sex” abroad, they will not be able to be issued a Russian ID with a new gender marker.

The State Duma backed the bill unanimously in yesterday’s second reading.

A total of almost 400 MPs are listed as the bill’s authors. One of them, Pyotr Tolstoy, says a major contribution to the bill was made by the inter-factional group for the protection of Christian values, vice-speakers Irina Yarovaya and Vladislav Davankov, and State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin.

“Why do we do this? For our future generations, we’re saving with its family and cultural values, traditional customs, we put a barrier in the way of the Western anti-family ideology,” Tolstoy says.