President Vladimir Putin isn’t messing around when it comes to violators of the country’s anti-homosexual laws.
Putin’s police last year cracked down on folks for “looking too gay” in public, either with their outfits or by their behavior.
British-based newspapers discovered the punishment while researching documents related to Russia’s strict decorum laws.
Russia’s Supreme Court effectively outlawed any LGBT activism in a ruling that designated “the international LGBT movement” as extremist, CBS News reported.
The American news outlet further reported that Putin views the current ongoing war in Ukraine as a proxy battle with the West, which he says aims to destroy Russia and its “traditional family values” by pushing for LGBT rights.
The Daily Mail has a full explainer of Putin’s crackdown.
Russian officials have fined nightclub revellers for ‘looking too gay’ in their choice of outfits.
At least seven people received the penalties following a police raid on a nightclub in Tula in February, according to court documents now seen by independent Russian media outlet Verstka.
Video footage of the operation shows men in military-style uniforms and helmets detain at least eight people.
They were reportedly hit with charges of ‘trying to arouse interest in non-traditional sexual relations’, which has been outlawed in Russia for a decade.
Usually this charge is directed at those publishing pro-LGBT material – not at those wearing ‘unmanly’ clothing.
Another description of those detained in the raid said that there was a man who wore a crop top, black leather shorts and fishnet tights.
Judges ruled that the detainees’ clothing was promoting a ‘non-traditional’ sexual lifestyle and their appearance was ‘inconsistent with the image of a man with traditional sexual orientation’, Verstka reports.
While eight people were detained, only seven received a fine – the eight, a male bartender, avoided a fine after arguing that he was goth, saying that this was the reason he had eyebrow piercings, turquoise-dyed hair and wore a black T-shirt that was reportedly rolled up to his chest.
Not all of the court’s decisions have been made public, according to Verstka, but the outlet reported that two detainees received £350 (50,000 roubles) fines.
This is not the only time Russian authorities arrested partygoers. In November, police reportedly raided several bars and nightclubs in Moscow under the laws criminalising ‘LGBT propaganda’.
The decade-old legislation under which they were punished is often called Russia’s ‘anti-gay law’.
Initially, it only banned the spreading of ‘LGBT propaganda’ among minors, but was extended in 2022 to include the promotion of ‘non-traditional lifestyles’.