Week-ending 7 August 2020
Graeme Reid, LGBT rights director at Human Rights Watch: “The proposed amendments to the family code are intentionally regressive and harmful. Deliberately creating more barriers for legal gender recognition and parenting rights for transgender people only further marginalizes an already-embattled community. These proposed amendments amount to a cruel solution in search of a problem. Further restricting the rights of transgender people in the name of ‘traditional values’ in Russia does nothing but harm a group of vulnerable people.”
On Thursday, 6 August 2020, Human Rights Watch urged that a draft bill before Russia’s parliament would significantly affect the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. Among the proposed amendments to the family code are changes to the legal gender recognition rights for transgender people that will negatively affect their ability to marry and raise children. The bill also contains a superfluous ban on same-sex marriage. The words by Grame Reid quoted above come from this statement put out by Human Rights Watch.
