The Russian State Duma, the lower house of Parliament, has unanimously adopted in the second reading a bill that bans “sex change”, as per the Duma Telegram channel.
The third and final reading is planned for tomorrow, 14 July.
The bill seeks to ban gender reassignment surgery and hormonal treatment except in cases of “congenital physiological deviations”. It will also prohibit changes to official documents on the basis of medical “sex change” certificates.
The proposed amendments, announced on 11 July, will allow to annul marriages in cases when one or both spouses undergoes a “sex change”. The amendment will be retroactive, rendering invalid those marriages where one or both spouses had transitioned before the law’s introduction.
A further amendment will prohibit couples, where one of the partners has undergone a “sex change”, from adopting children. Moreover, persons who have undergone a transition abroad will be unable to receive Russian documents listing the correct gender identity.
In June, Russian lawmakers voted unanimously to adopt the bill in the first reading. Nearly 400 MPs are listed as the bill’s authors. “Why are we doing this? By hindering Western anti-family ideology, we are saving Russia for future generations — with its family and cultural values and traditions,” said Pyotr Tolstoy, one of the authors.
