Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed the law banning gender reassignment in the country. The document was published on the official legal information portal.
The law officially enters into force on its publication.
The law bans gender reassignment surgery and hormonal treatment except in cases of “congenital physiological deviations”. It also prohibits changes to official documents on the basis of medical “sex change” certificates.
The law allows the authorities to annul marriages in cases when one or both spouses undergoes a “sex change”. The amendment is retroactive, rendering invalid those marriages where one or both spouses had transitioned before the law’s introduction.
A further amendment prohibits couples where one of the partners has undergone a “sex change” from adopting children. Moreover, persons who have undergone a transition abroad are now unable to receive Russian documents listing the correct gender identity. This amendment is not retroactive — there are no plans to take back the children adopted by transgender people.
The Federation Council, Russia’s upper house of parliament, approved the bill on 19 July.
“If we’re being vilified and criticised, it means we’re doing everything right,” the North Ossetia senator Taymuraz Mamsurov said during the session. He added, “let them have their gay parades over there while we celebrate Victory Day over here”.
