The LGBTQ+ community is living in fear of what is going to happen to us in the next four years? Will trans people, gays, and lesbians be kicked out of the military? Will trans people be arrested for being out in public? Will bar again be busted for catering to us? Will my blog be busted for spreading LGBTQ+ propaganda? Will we become like Russia?AP NewsBy DASHA LITVINOVADecember 6, 2024Gela Gogishvili and Haoyang Xu led a happy life as a gay couple in Russia, even as President Vladimir Putin’s government took an increasingly anti-LGBTQ+ stance.Their social media posts and videos drew thousands of followers, and they were greeted by them sometimes on the streets in Kazan, in Russia’s Tatarstan region, where Gogishvili was a pharmacist and Xu, from China, studied international relations at a university.But the online threats began after the Kremlin in December 2022 expanded its ban of “propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations” from minors to adults, effectively outlawing any public endorsement of LGBTQ+ activities. Then came the complaints about them to authorities.They were detained in 2023 and accused of spreading “LGBT propaganda” among minors. Gogishvili was given a hefty fine, while Xu was put in a detention center for migrants to await deportation.They eventually fled abroad separately. Now reunited in France, where they’re seeking asylum, they look with concern at Russia, where new, even harsher anti-LGBTQ+ measures have been adopted.
Will I have to flee to Canada? Will my own country remain safe for me?
Any public representation of gay and transgender people is banned. Gender-affirming medical care and changing one’s gender in official documents are prohibited. With the Supreme Court’s ruling in November 2023, anyone involved with the LGBTQ+ community could be imprisoned for up to six years.As a result, many left the country. But others remain -– and find themselves in a community pushed into the shadows, marginalized even further and dogged by fear of repression.
Is this our future? Trump’s rhetoric is it all bluster or will it become reality?
Targeting nightclubs, rainbow flags and gay tourismJust days after the Supreme Court ruling, the LGBTQ+ community was rattled by news of police raiding gay bars, nightclubs and venues that hosted drag shows in Moscow, St. Petersburg and other cities.
Is it coming to city near us, maybe a city in Texas or Florida? With the judges that Trump will pick I wouldn’t put it past Trump to do so.
And anti-LGBTQ+ laws are spreading!
AP NewsBy YURAS KARMANAUDecember 5, 2024As police raided the home of a gay couple in the Belarusian capital of Minsk and brutally beat them, the officers didn’t hide that the crackdown was aligned to similar moves in neighboring Russia.The students, Andrei and Sasha, said security forces demanded that they unlock their smartphones and surrender the names of “gays in Minsk and Moscow.”“They slammed our heads against the door frame, threatened to report us to the university and said that this was just the beginning,” said Andrei, 20, who like other gay and transgender Belarusians interviewed by The Associated Press insisted on being identified only by his first name because of safety concerns.“They wanted to expose an ‘underground network’ of gay people in Belarus, following the example of Russia,” he said of the autumn raid. “They openly told us that if it is banned in Russia, then it should be banned in Belarus too.”
And it has spread the strongman Tamás Sulyok in Hungary…
Amnesty InternationalFebruary 27, 2024The 2021 Propaganda Law which curtails discussions and portrayals of LGBTI people in schools and in the media and has had a far-reaching impact on LGBTI individuals and groups in Hungary, entrenching negative stereotypes and discriminatory attitudes and restricting the right to freedom of expression, said Amnesty International in a report published today.From freedom to censorship: Consequences of the Hungarian Propaganda Law, reveals how, in the space of three years, the law has had a pervasive chilling effect within the media, advertising, and publishing industries, with effects felt widely among LGBTI+ groups and individuals.“The Propaganda Law has created a cloud of fear and limited access to information, particularly for young people. Fear from sanctions have resulted in a chilling effect that is preventing people from imparting, seeking and receiving information about sexual orientation and gender identity. The Propaganda Law has also contributed to negative stereotypes and discriminatory attitudes towards LGBTI people,” said Amnesty International Hungary’s LGBTI officer, Eszter Mihály.“Over the last decade, the Hungarian government and the state-backed media have conducted a campaign against LGBTI rights using stigmatizing rhetoric and targeting those in civil society who stand up for equality.”Since the adoption of the law essential information and other LGBTI-related content has become harder to access, particularly for children and young people.
Will Trump be embolden to do that here?
Will Trump ignore the First Amendment? Will he ban anything LGBTQ+ from the news or social media saying he is protecting the children?
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